At Masses held in the Cathedral at the time of the Rising of the North (1569) John Brimley played the organ 'in the loft over the quier door' and was subsequently called to account, but afterwards he was reconciled and no action was taken against him. 

His gravestone in the Galilee Chapel says: 

John Brimleis body here doth li 
Who praysed God with hand and voice 
By musickes heavenlie harmonie 
Dull myndes he maid in God rejoice 
His soul into the heavens is lyft 
To prayse him stil that gave the Gyft 
Obiit Ao.Dni.1576 Octo.13. 

Wm Smythe repaired 'one paire of orgaynes wh. standeth above the Quere doore...' in Sept.1589. 
Not to be confused with another of the same name (1603-45), also a minor canon but not organist, who was the composer of the celebrated Preces & Responses by Smith of Durham.

The Chapter Minutes report that in April 1628 
'In regard of Richard Hutchinson frequent haunting of Aile houses and Divers other his evill demeaners, and especially for breaking of the head of Toby Broking one of the Singing men of this church with a Candlesticke in an Ailehouse wounding him verie dangerously ...' He was warned that time, but a month later was suspended [until November] to mend his ways!

The new organ by George Dallam was first played on by Mr.John Forster on St.Stephen's Day 1662.

The completion of Father Smith's new organ, with two extra 
notes per octave ("quarter tones"), required 'a person well acquainted with this peculiar keyboard to avail himself of its 
use'. Greggs was given leave for three months in 1686 'to goe 
to London to improve himself in the Skill of Musicke'. 

In January 1711 James Hesletine of London was appointed organist, aged 19, at £70 per annum from Lady Day, increased to £100 in 1750.

Appointed on a salary of £80 pa, increased to £100 in 1783, "[plus] 5/- per day when he attends the Cathedral service morning and evening" (1802].
NB. George Ashton and Wm. Evance were paid for deputising for Ebdon in
1805/6, and again Evance during Ebdon's final illness.

Appointed aged 15, on "the same salary as Mr. Ebdon".

William Henshaw 1814-62                            

Appointed aged 22 on "the same salary (without the daily  allowance) as Mr.Clarke"- who had moved to Worcester Cathedral.   In a report of the Parliamentary Commissioners at the time of the Cathedrals Act 1840, the Durham Organist's salary of £209 was noted as "the highest". 
[The Dean's income became £3000 as a result of the Act]. Henshaw lived at 13 Bow Lane, resigned on a pension for life of £260 pa, and died in 1878.

Appointed on a salary of £260 pa, increased to £300 pa in 1870. As a result of national pressure through a Statement from the Royal College of Organists concerning the position of Cathedral Organists Armes salary increased from £191 per quarter to £210 per quarter in 1898. Armes lived at 20 North Bailey from 1864 to 1872, then 17 North Bailey. He retired on a pension of £250 pa pre-arranged in 1905.

Arnold Culley 1907-32            

John Dykes Bower 1933-36  

Richard Lloyd 1974-85           

James Lancelot 1985-2017    

• Daniel Cook from 2017

Sub-Organists

A pupil of Sir Walter Parratt, he served under three Organists. In 1939, when Conrad Eden went to war Maude assumed full duties for the duration,, maintaining his other work as Organist of St.Margaret's Church, teacher at Neville's Cross and St.Hild's Colleges, and the Durham Girls' Grammar School, with private tuition and war-time duties with the choir men in the Royal Observer Corps. Choristers of that time remember him with great affection, his Yorkshire wit, often sarcastic but delivered with a twinckle in the eye, and his insistence on high standards at all times. [from the service sheet at the dedication of a music desk in his memory: 18th October 2008]