Samuel Felsted

Title page of Jonah by Samuel Felsted. Engraving by F. Bartolozzi, drawing by Benjamin West. Samuel Felsted (1743 – 29 March 1802) was Jamaica's first documented composer.

He was born in Jamaica, and his father was an ironmonger, merchant, and organist who started Samuel's music education. 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.

Career He held a range of interests beyond music, including science, poetry, and painting, and sent specimens of native Jamaican butterflies to the American Philosophical Society. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1771. That same year, he invented a windmill intended for the sugar factories of Jamaica.

Felsted's only other surviving work 'Six Voluntarys for the Organ or Harpsichord' was written during the time as organist at the Kingston Parish Church, a post he held until his death on March 29, 1802.