John Baptist Grano (c. 1692 – c. 1748) was an English trumpeter, flutist and composer, who worked withGeorge Frederick Handel at the opera house in London'sHaymarket.^[1]

Grano is best known for having been imprisoned for a debt of £99 in the notoriousMarshalsea prison in Southwark from May 1728 until September 1729. He kept a diary of his time there, the manuscript of which is held in theBodleian Library, Oxford. It was published in 1998 asHandel's Trumpeter: The Diary of John Grano, edited by John Ginger, with a foreword byCrispian Steele-Perkins. The diary has become an important primary source of material about the Marshalsea. It details Grano's friendships, love affairs and adventures as he struggles to earn enough money to buy his freedom.^[2]

Grano's father, John Baptist Grano (also written Granom), and his mother Jane Villeneuve, originally from France, lived in London toward the end of the 17th century. An entry in thepoor rate returns in 1698 places them in Angel Court,Charing Cross. John Ginger writes that the father may have been a regimental trumpeter in the Dutch Guards who travelled to England during theGlorious Revolution of 1688, whenJames II was overthrown.^[3]

The couple later moved toPall Mall, where they ran ahaberdasher's. Their first son, John Baptist, died in 1691, and their second, the John Baptist of this article, was given the same name. There were three other children: Jane, born in 1697, Mary, and Lewis. The surviving brothers were given a musical education.^[3]

Grano married Mary Thurman at St James Piccadilly on 30 July 1713. Ginger writes that the application for the marriage licence states that bride and groom were both over 21, although Mary was in fact 15. The marriage produced one child and ended in or around 1719.^[3]

Marshalsea
South view of the north range of the Marshalsea in 1773: the original prison ('now called the common side') is on the far left, the Marshalsea courtroom is centre-right.
Notable prisoners Sir Francis Barrington Edmund Bonner Henry Chettle Richard Cox Robert Culliford Robert Daborne John Dickens Thomas Drury John Eliot John Gerard Hannah Glasse John Baptist Grano Nicholas Grimald Charlotte Hayes William Herle Denzil Holles Ben Jonson Thomas Malory Philip Massinger George Morland Nicholas Owen Sally Salisbury John Selden Richard Shelley Ralph Sherwin Nicholas Udall Robert Wingfield George Wither
Related prisons Borough Compter Clink Fleet King's Bench Tower of London
Prison reformers James Neild John Howard James Oglethorpe
Court Marshalsea Court
Category Category:Marshalsea
v t e

Ginger writes that, around 1709, Grano joined the orchestra in the Haymarket. He was paid 10 shillings per performance twice a week, playing the rest of the time in salons inLincoln's Inn Fields orSt James's Square, where he earned between two and four guineas an evening. The earliest record of him as a trumpeter is around 1711, when the Duchess of Shrewsbury hired him to play during a reception in the Lord Chamberlain's apartment atKensington Palace.^[3]

Grano joined the Horse Guards on a salary of 17s. 6d., but Ginger writes that in 1719 he left suddenly forThe Hague. A reward of three guineas was offered for his return. A notice of the reward in theDaily Courant described him as a "short black man in a light tye wig," a joke on the part of Grano's commander, theMarquess of Winchester, who intended to imply that Grano was a common runaway, according to Ginger.^[4]

Grano returned to England around March 1720, playing his trumpet and flute compositions in several salons, including inDrury Lane. During the same year, his name was added as a member of the orchestra of the proposedRoyal Academy of Music, withGeorge Frederick Handel as master of the orchestra andJohn James Heidegger as manager. He set up home with John Jones, a violinist, inOxford Street, between Holles Street and Cavendish Street. By 1728 there is a record of Jones's wife living with them.^[5]

According to Ginger, Grano's financial problems began with theSouth Sea bubble of 1720. Ginger writes that it was a bad time for anyone who relied for their living on the moneyed classes, as Grano did.^[6] As a result, Grano was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea from 30 May 1728 until 23 September 1729, owing 99 pounds to "Andrew Turner et al."^[7] He was held on the "Master's side" of the prison, which catered for wealthier prisoners able to pay both the prison fees and an additional amount that allowed them to leave the prison during the day. This was crucial, as it meant he could work to pay off the debt.^[8] These privileges existed in contrast to the squalid "Commons side," where prisoners were held indefinitely and routinely starved to death.^[9]

Grano kept a diary of his 480 days there. The 510-page manuscript is part of theBodleian Library's Rawlinson collection, as Rawlinson D. 34.^[10][11] It was published in 1998 asHandel's Trumpeter: The Diary of John Grano, edited by John Ginger.

Grano has an entry inThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. A book of his flute sonatas was published in 1728.^[12]

• 1690s births
• 1740s deaths
• 18th-century English composers
• 18th-century English diarists
• 18th-century flautists
• Inmates of the Marshalsea
• Composers from London
• People imprisoned for debt
• Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England
• English trumpeters
• English flautists
• English prisoners and detainees
• English people of French descent

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use British English from September 2014
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from September 2014
• Pages using infobox person with multiple parents
• Articles with hCards
• Year of birth uncertain
• Year of death uncertain