When Jessamie Thomas was a young girl she loved to listen to her talented father playing with other musicians.

Jessamie, who lives in South East Cornwall, recalls putting on her best dress for concerts when her dad John Simpson accompanied other brilliant musicians – even though she usually went off to bed during the interval as she was only six or seven!

John, a country parson, owned and played a harpsichord which was crafted in 1779 in London by one of the finest makers of the time, Kirckman.

At nearly eight feet long, the harpsichord produced music which resounded through Jessamie’s early childhood in Cornwall.

However, a busy life as a clergyman with a young family allowed John less and less time for the treasured harpsichord. In 1983, he reluctantly sold it at auction.

However, he did write a note, which went with the instrument, inviting the purchaser to contact him for details of its wonderful musical pedigree.

More than 30 years on, the note has at last produced a response. Jessamie and her father have discovered that the harpsichord is in New York.

The new owner is Professor Michael Musgrave of the Juilliard School of Music. Michael was so interested in the history of the harpsichord that he tracked John down from across the Atlantic. Meeting John and Jessamie, he told them that the Kirckman had lain dormant under dust sheets in a New York apartment but that it is now in the hands of experts excited at restoring such a rare instrument.

Jessamie said: ‘The meeting of these two innately musical men was brimful of enthusiasm, and a seemingly shared address book of friends and acquaintances in the musical world, and most importantly shared appreciation of an historic harpsichord.

‘As the professor’s wife Liza put it, “We don’t see ourselves as the owners, we are the custodians for the next generation”. This bodes well for the future of this beautiful instrument.’