William Daman

William Daman (or William Damon; died 1591) was a musician in England in the royal household of Elizabeth I. His few surviving compositions include an early setting of the Psalms to part-music. Life Daman is thought to have been born in Liège (modern-day Belgium) around 1540 and came to England as a servant of Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset on his return from Rome in 1566. In November of that year Daman married Anne Derifield at St James Garlickhythe in London, and the parish register of St Peter le Poer shows entries for baptisms or burials of eight of their children from 1572 to 1585. From 1576 until his death he was in the royal household of Elizabeth I, where he was one of six musicians in a recorder consort that played dance music. He died in 1591, and was buried at St Peter le Poer on 26 March. An adaptation of the tune for Psalm 45 from ‘The Psalmes in English Metre’ 1579 is set to the hymn ‘Lord Jesus, think on me’ by A W Chatfield translated from the Greek of Synesius of Cyrene 375-430 (New English Hymnal #70a). In 1591 another version of Daman’s Psalms appeared from Thomas East’s press. This work was published by William Swayne, and by him dedicated to Lord Burghley