BATTISHILL, JONATHAN

born May 1738, London, Eng. died Dec. 10, 1801, Islington, London English composer of church music and popular songs. Battishill was a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral (1747) and became conductor (directing from the harpischord) at Covent Garden about 1756. He composed songs and choruses for plays, notably, Almena (1764), an opera produced at Drury Lane as the work of Battishill and Michael Arne. In 1764 he became organist at St. Clement Danes and St. Martin-in-the-Fields and wrote psalm settings and hymns, catches, glees, and madrigals. He ceased composing after his wife's elopement in 1777, devoting himself to his book collection.