John Thomas Schley

John Thomas Schley immigrated from Germany in 1739, and built the first home in Frederick Town in 1745. He was an educator and the choirmaster of Frederick’s German Reformed Church. Schley made it clear how he felt about the place of music in the world when he placed this quote from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice under his name on the frontspiece of one of his handwritten and hand illuminated music books:

The man that hath no music in himself
Nor is moved with concord of sweet sounds
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are as dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus;
Let no such man be trusted.

Quote from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice on the frontspiece of one of his handwritten and hand illuminated music books:

J. Thomas Scharf, author of the History of Western Maryland, mentions the sculpture Schley installed on top of the stone well built near his home on Lot #1 off East Patrick Street. Scharf describes the sculpture as “a statue of stone representing a man with a girdle around him looking to the rising sun.” This sculpture may have been Frederrick’s earliest work of public art. Music lover, calligrapher, folk artist, art lover, Schley shows how closely art was woven into the lives of the German founders.

Pages from Schley's music books are courtesy of the Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc.