According to Gerard F. Cobb's history of the college's organs, the first instrument in the present chapel was the one that had already been in use in the old chapel of King's Hall (one of the former colleges absorbed into Henry VIII's new foundation of Trinity) and was removed to the new chapel in 1563. In 1596 Hugh Rose completed a new organ. In 1610 John Yorke repaired and improved this "ould orgaine" and added a new "chaire orgaine". In 1615 and again in 1621 Stephen Brittaine did further work on it, and in 1635 it was repaired by Robert Dallam, who was thereafter retained on an annual salary to tune and maintain it. This instrument was dismantled in 1643. After the Restoration a new organ was built by Thomas Thamar of Peterborough in 1663.
In 1694 Father Bernard Smith built a small organ for the chapel, but was asked to replace it by a larger instrument in 1706. After Smith's death, his son-in-law Christopher Schreider completed this work in 1708. It was improved by Parker of London in 1767, further work being done by John Avery in 1801, by Lincoln of London in 1808 and by Flight & Robson in 1819. New bellows were inserted in 1830 by Elliott & Hill, and extensive improvements carried out in 1836 by Messrs Gray. Hill & Son made further alterations and improvements several times between 1853 and 1890.
When in 1913 Arthur Harrison of Durham rebuilt and enlarged the organ, he extended Bernard Smith's casework on either side to accommodate the extra pipes, so that the instrument virtually filled the screen. This layout remained until 1975, when a further rebuild by Metzler of Zurich restored the case to Smith's original dimensions, as seen in
TL4458 : Trinity College Chapel, Organ.
The early history of the organs is taken from a leaflet published by Harrison to mark the rebuild in 1913.