Samuel Filsted (313)

Samuel Filsted (1743 – March 29, 1802) was a composer and member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1771. He was born in Jamaica to parents who lived in Boston, married in Philadelphia, and settled in Jamaica before his birth. His father, William, was an ironmonger, merchant, and amateur musician. It is likely Samuel attended Wolmer’s School in Kingston in his youth, and was educated in music by Daniel DeLuskie, the organist of the Kingston Parish Church. He held a range of interests beyond music, including science, poetry, and painting, and sent specimens of native Jamaican butterflies to the APS. He published his oratorio Jonah in 1775 in London, with illustrations by APS Member Benjamin West and Francesco Bartolozzi. He was held in high regard by his peers in Jamaica, as Jonah was financed ahead of time by 243 subscribers. The work was the first complete oratorio written in the Americas, and performed in Jamaica, New York, and Boston, including for Geroge Washington on his 1789 inaugural tour in Boston. Filsted’s only other surviving work is Six Voluntarys for the Organ or Harpsichord. He was the organist for the Kingston Parish Church until his death on March 29, 1802.