John Jenkins (1592 - 1678) was the most distinguished violist of his day. He was Court Composer to both Charles I and II, but spent most of his life in residence with the highly influential North family in Norfolk. His output was prodigious, consisting of the then popular fantasia for viols, written in the Italian style, plus songs, rounds, catches and rants.

The town of Newark served as one of the most important Royalist bases in the East Midlands and was, in consequence, besieged on a numbe...