The music of John Alcock (1715-1806) is not familiar to most musicians. However, he did produce some attractive works and is a significant figure in English church music of the eighteenth century. His writings about his life in both parish church and cathedral music are also invaluable to research of the period. The two orchestral anthems, here appearing in critical editions, display some of the flair and attention to detail characteristic of Alcock as a composer of vocal music. The commentary examines the background to the compositions, describing the sources used, the editorial practice adopted and the place of the anthems within the music of eighteenth-century England.