Career
He was organist of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford. Arthur Phillips, from Winchester, Hampshire, was admitted to New College, Oxford, aged 17 in 1622. He was appointed organist of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1639 (following an appointment as organist of Bristol Cathedral the previous year) and gained his Bachelor of Music degree in 1640.
He succeeded Richard Nicholson as organist of Magdalen and also as Heather Professor of Music at the university, a position established in 1626 following a donation from William Heather.
He then travelled to France to serve as organist to Queen Henrietta Maria, widow of King Charles I (who had been executed in 1649). After the monarchy was restored in 1660, he returned to England to live in Harting, Sussex, where he owned some land.
He died there on 27 March 1695.