Civic Minstrels in Late Medieval England: New Light on Duties and Careers

Abstract The publications of the ongoing Records of Early English Drama project since 1979 have made available for the first time much early documentation about minstrels, including the civic minstrels or town waits. While this material leaves many questions unanswered, a more detailed picture of the early history of civic minstrels is emerging. This article focusses on three aspects of that history that have not previously been studied as such: the towns that employed civic minstrels by 1509, the minstrels’ possible special duties in ports, and their employment mobility.


Introduction
Study of the early history of civic minstrels in England (commonly known as town waits or town pipers) has long been held back by a lack of source material; 1 but with the publication of Records of Early English Drama (REED) since 1979, there has been a continuous increase in available information about minstrelsy in general and the civic minstrels in particular. These show that earlier publications of civic record material were very selective, suppressing duplicate items and rarely specifying what was omitted. The earlier publications sometimes imply that records are missing, or that they do not mention minstrels, when in fact relevant material has survived. The REED volumes are intended to be comprehensive and are now the standard source of information on early drama and minstrelsy in mainland Britain. Where REED does not yet cover a town's records, older publications have been consulted here, but in the knowledge that they may omit important information. 2 This article presents information on civic minstrels in England up to the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, a convenient if arbitrary cut-off point for the early period of wait activity. 3 It updates the list of towns employing civic minstrels by 1509, and I discuss new insights on the civic minstrels' work in certain ports, and on their migration between employments. 4 My main purpose has been to identify civic minstrels and those who, in certain towns, were responsible for passing information to the citizens.
Where records are plentiful it is possible to follow the payment of wages and rewards, the delivery of robes and scutcheons, and the towns' requirements for the minstrels to perform on specified occasions. I have not normally detailed these unless they are immediately relevant to the minstrels' identities, numbers or activities, so the absence of information here does not mean that it is not available; details will be found in the REED volumes and elsewhere, as footnoted. Short references in the notes are expanded in the Bibliography at the end.

Locations
Minstrels are recorded in some quite small communities as well as in major towns. As records survive in small communities even more patchily than in large commercial towns it is often difficult to decide whether civic minstrels are concerned or not. The distinction was not important at the time, however: a town would employ known and respected local minstrels to perform during the processions and feasts of major saints' days, and the transition to a retained band would depend on need and finances. Only with the award of annual fees and an annual swearing-in did minstrels become official civic employees, and only later was their status confirmed by the giving of livery (cloth liveries and then scutcheons that had to be examined and weighed each year to see that the minstrels had not sold, mislaid or clipped them). 5 In the records of these events the minstrels are not always named, and there may be several versions of a name, depending on the scribe. 6 Sometimes, one suspects, the scribes did not know the minstrels' names and used a general term (although this was usually quicker to write anyway): fistulator (i.e. piper), piparius, ministrallus, histrio or vigilis/vigilator in Latin; piper, wait or minstrel in English.
Civic minstrels are sometimes known only through rewards made elsewhere, often raising a problem of terminology, especially in Latin records. For instance, ministralli Coventrie can mean either '[some] minstrels of [i.e. from] Coventry' or 'the minstrels of Coventry' -that is, the official civic minstrels. The distinction may be made by the use of a phrase such as ministralli civitatis Coventrie, but this is rare. 7 The problem largely disappears when the records are in English and a definite or indefinite article (or no article) is used.
The section on towns below therefore includes places where the records do not clearly refer to minstrels in civic employment. In such cases I have quoted the wording concerned in the hope that other records will eventually clarify the situation. The size of the reward itself can sometimes give an indication of the minstrels' status as liveried or independent, but the reward also depends on the status and rank of a minstrel's employer and on the financial situation of the town making the payment. These variables are difficult to assess. Rewards given by the city of York, for example, fluctuate widely even between minstrels of apparently equal status. 8 When there is firm evidence of civic employment (robes, scutcheons, etc.) that evidence is noted. The civic minstrels' routine activities and conditions of employment do not generally concern us here.

Special duties in ports
During the fifteenth century some towns designated their civic minstrels vigiles or spiculatores, terms that suggest some sort of watching brief. The town of Lynn employed its waits in 1432 on condition that they play their instruments through the town on winter nights, and a similar arrangement obtained at Norwich in 1440. 9 Poole required a patrol morning and evening, though a little later than the period covered here. There are three reasons for paying the waits to patrol the streets at times when outdoor performance-conditions might not be pleasant: for the entertainment of the citizens, to call the time and weather, and to look out for fire and other dangers.
In certain ports the minstrels probably also announced the state of the wind (vital information if the right wind was needed for starting a voyage), although this is explicitly stated only in the case of Sandwich. The description of the Beverley and Exeter minstrels as spiculatores may hint at this extra responsibility (the term means much the same as vigiles or vigilatores). In some cases the minstrels may have been associated with the watchmen who fulfilled this function, rather than undertaking it themselves, but the evidence is unclear. There are some hints (see under Newcastle upon Tyne) that the minstrels were associated with a serjeant at arms, perhaps for security during this important night work. 10 In several towns a man was employed to blow a horn to call the citizens to a general assembly or to issue a proclamation. The horn-blower was usually separate from the minstrels, but in some cases there was apparently a working relationship between them. In Dover the minstrels were certainly responsible for blowing the horn(s) and for delivering proclamations, but if they called the time, weather and wind they did so as the fistulatores, pipers or waits, not as the horn-blowers who were paid separately for each sounding. 11 The town of Dover bought two horns in 1370, as did New Romney in 1486/7, probably to give warning of ensuing announcements. 12 New Romney had no civic minstrels then, so the hornblowers were not musicians.
Clearly there is circumstantial evidence to be explored here: but evidence of what? Horns were used for outdoor noise-making, such as raising the hue-and-cry 13 or calling the citizens together: they had nothing to do with music. At Dover the pipers were not paid separately for any daily updates on time and weather, although they may have used horns for this as part of their normal waits' duties; whereas at Sandwich in the 1460s (if Leo of Rozmital's secretary is to be trusted), fidicines and tubicines were used in announcing the state of the wind every night. The leggings provided for Walter Wayte at Grimsby in 1396/7 indicate a harsh environment for his nightly work.
There were two separate duties, then, which had a very variable relationship. One was the civic minstrels' work, making music, and the other was a non-musical duty concerned with giving information by day (for announcements and meetings) and by night (time and weather). Quite who did what and when varied from place to place: the issue must be followed up in individual towns through more evidence than is available in REED volumes.

Employment mobility
The limited records previously available seemed to show that a town minstrel worked in the same placeassumed to be his birthplace-throughout his career. We can now see that career moves were not unusual, and that town waits, like other liveried minstrels, sometimes changed their employers. There is little information on the process by which appointments were made, except that some minstrels appear to have applied for a post at Chester in 1484, and the London waits themselves nominated a colleague in 1517/18: it is not surprising that the waits themselves should have views on who, of those available, would make a good recruit. When the potential employee was already in post elsewhere no doubt the matter was settled by negotiation. This would be easier if the two towns concerned were close and linked by a good road, like Sandwich, Canterbury and London, or in easy communication by sea, like the ports of Hull, Lynn and Sandwich (and, by inland extension, Beverley, York and Norwich).
Towns sometimes enquired after, or positively head-hunted, prospective employees. Civic officers were occasionally paid for their expenses in travelling to find minstrels suitable and willing to be the town's waits, as happened at Shrewsbury in 1479/80 and Canterbury in 1505/06. 14 This strategy was not always successful, perhaps because a considerable financial inducement would be needed to offset the expenses and inconveniences of a move. Given an acceptable financial offer, such arrangements must usually have been made by mutual agreement: but this was not the case when Southampton apparently poached the civic minstrels of Winchester in 1434, paying them £1 6s 8d each per annum. This is more than some towns would have paid, and less than others, but it was presumably more than Winchester was willing to pay (records of the Winchester fees have not survived).
Tracing the movement of individuals depends on demonstrable identities, and for this caution is needed: similarity of names is not necessarily enough, even within the limited profession of the town piper. One can see probable minstrel-dynasties, like the Scarletts and the Wykeses, and some of these (such as the Halydays) may interact with families of royal minstrels. In most cases, especially over long chronological periods, it is difficult even to distinguish the generations: but there are certainly examples of brothers working together, and also fathers and sons (when the Christian names may be the same). Where dates of the two employments closely match, the name may relate to one man. This becomes nearcertainty if two or more named men seem to have relocated together. 15 The records show several cases of relocation, and more may come to light (see the discussions of individual towns, below). Three waits migrated from Winchester to Southampton in 1434, as just noted; Thomas Williamson moved from Lynn to Beverley in 1456/7, and it seems likely that John Wardlow left Beverley around 1447, becoming a wait of Hull by 1454; Robert Speke moved in the opposite direction, from Hull to Beverley, around 1460-4. The relocation of William Watson and John Watson from Beverley to Sandwich between 1467 and 1476 seems certain from the coincidence of names, despite the chronological gap concerned. William Scarlett apparently moved from Sandwich to Canterbury around 1476/7: he is considered further below.
Several waits moved between Canterbury and London. William Raumpayn, a London wait in 1442, apparently moved to Canterbury by 1446/7, and is last heard of there in 1461/2. Most moved in the opposite direction: William Palling and Nicholas Ryppes, London waits in 1501/2, had been waits of Canterbury until 1498/9. Their appointment at London means that the 'Ryppis' listed at Canterbury in 1504/5 was not Nicholas but presumably a relative: and this may be the John Ryppys who ended his career as a London wait in 1517/18, perhaps having followed his older relative (his father?) to London some time after 1505.
An undoubted father-and-son relationship is that of John and William Blewit of Coventry, one of whom may be the London wait who died in 1517/18. Another possible relocation concerns Brese, a wait of Coventry in 1481, who could be the William Breese who was a Shrewsbury wait in 1505/06. The chronological gap makes it just as likely that they were not the same man, although perhaps related. Another identity problem raised by a large chronological gap concerns two waits of York (q.v.), both with former lives at Beverley.
Another opening for a town wait was domestic employment: the Canterbury wait Richard Barton left the town's service in 1430 and was working for the archbishop by 1446. Some civic minstrels were temporarily employed at Court. William Scarlett of Canterbury may be one of the men of that name (the elder, the younger) listed among the 'taborets and trumpets' at Richard III's coronation in 1483; another on that occasion, John Bulson, was probably the Beverley wait of that name. 16 Permanent employment at Court was also possible: John Raffe, one of the king's still minstrels in 1503, was presumably the Canterbury wait of the late 1490s. 17 This mobility was not necessarily the norm, and towns sometimes rewarded their long-serving waits with housing, clothes or an annuity. Provision varied, but examples at Coventry, London and York suggest that it kept the recipient free from serious want for his lifetime.

Towns employing civic minstrels by 1509
This section lists in alphabetical order those towns and cities that employed their own civic minstrels before 1509/10; they are marked on the accompanying map. The list does not claim to be comprehensive, and indeed there are some surprising absences: one might expect important border towns like Berwick and Carlisle, for instance, to employ waits long before the first references in 1503 and 1602/3, respectively. 18 Even for towns appearing in this list, further investigations are needed. My purpose here is limited, however, and I have not generally noted items of routine payments to established bands (such as the king's rewards to the London waits from the 1490s onwards) unless they give relevant information on names or dates.
Civic minstrels were normally shawmists (fistulatores, pipers, waits)-at first one or two of them. When three became standard, the third probably played the tenor shawm, or bombard. The wealthiest towns might increase this provision by adding either a trumpeter or a fourth piper (London was exceptional in employing even more). It is unlikely that any competent professional minstrel was limited to one instrument, however, and there are some indications here that a minstrel played a second instrument, although the clues are not conclusive.
Civic records were entered by the accounting year, not the calendar year, and this often coincided with the mayoral year, starting on a feast day in the Church calendar. The accounting year is given here as, for instance, 1485/6, the year from some date in 1485 to the day before that date in 1486. Accounting years could start on a different date in different places, but I have given that information only where it is specifically needed. Regnal years start from the date on which a king began his reign.

Abingdon (Oxfordshire)
The 'waites of Abyndon' were rewarded by the king on 24 December 1500. The description and the reward (3s 4d) suggest that they were civic minstrels. ( William may have joined relatives in royal service; Edmund Scarlett was also among those taborers and trumpeters in 1483; John Scarlett was a trumpeter of the Duke of York, attending at his coronation as Henry VIII, in 1509. Richard III brought many supporters from the north, his main power-base, for his coronation. 17 'Still', as opposed to 'loud' minstrels (pipers, trumpeters, drummers), played the quiet instruments, mainly plucked and bowed strings. The possibility of waits becoming still minstrels has yet to be addressed; Richard Barton of Canterbury presumably played a 'still' instrument professionally. In general, though, a specialist still minstrel was employed: the Coventry guilds employed a separate harper even when the waits played for them, and the waits were associated with harpers at Beverley and Shrewsbury (see below). None of these still minstrels is known to have been in regular civic employment.
18 See below, under Berwick, and REED, Cumberland, 66. Perhaps strong military bases wanted military personnel, rather than civilians, to fulfill the musical and other functions covered by town pipers elsewhere.

Ash Priors (Somerset)
The Bridgwater accounts for 1448/9 include 16d paid to the pipers of 'Priouresaysshe' for performing at Corpus Christi. This may indicate civic minstrels.
(REED, Somerset, 41) Berwick on Tweed (Northumberland) James IV, King of Scots, made a gift of nine French crowns, valued at £6 6s 0d, to the three minstrels of Berwick during the celebrations following his wedding to Margaret Tudor on 8 August 1503. The size of this reward makes it virtually certain that these were civic minstrels. 19 Berwick, a major military border town, probably employed civic minstrels much earlier.

Beverley (East Riding of Yorkshire)
The Beverley records first mention civic minstrels-entered as communes histriones ville Beuerlaci-in 1467: but these men were also entered that year under the name of spiculatores, the term for a group employed by the town at least as early as 1405/6 and on to the sixteenth century. As Table 1 shows, this is certainly the group referred to also as ministralli, communes histriones ville Beuerlaci, or simply as histriones. One of the spiculatores appears individually in the records for 1449/50, along with a known harper (see 1445); 20 and another, described as a piper, was released from gaol in York in November 1445.
Commentators identified the spiculatores, correctly, with the civic minstrels; they also assumed that spiculator meant a watchman, because they 'knew' that the town waits had originally been watchmen. The terminology therefore presented no reason for further investigation. Such an easy acceptance is no longer tenable. 21 The Beverley spiculatores were certainly civic minstrels from the start, but they may also have had responsibilities special to a port, calling the state of the wind as well as the time and weather generally.
The spiculatores were elected annually at the feast of St Mark (25 April), and their employment was reviewed each year. The records enable us to list the men named in those years for which information remains (Table 1). 22 Despite good continuity of personnel there was some fluctuation in numbers, and in some years there may have been no spiculatores in post. There is an obvious gap in 1459/60, but there may be others in those years for which records are lost. Most of the spiculatores held office for only a few years, but Wardlow, Hauson and Hesilhed all served for nine years or so. Two Beverley spiculatores received wages for the accounting year 1405/6, the first year in which they appear in the records. In 1438, when there were three waits, they had a boy as a servant, lodged with Symon Herforth. 24 The boy was still employed in 1440. 25 The spiculatores wore scutcheons from 1423. Shields and chains were repaired and remade several times, 26 so the surviving scutcheons and chains now in the Guildhall at Beverley are not in their fifteenthcentury state. Cloth liveries to the spiculatores were rather later, and not recorded until 1502/3, when the three histriones were given nine yards of tawney (light brown) cloth for their uniforms for the year. 27 Four of the five minstrels on the minstrels' pillar in St Mary's church wear tawney tunics, but it is unlikely that they are specifically the Beverley spiculatores. 28 Four spiculatores appear in other records, assuming that the identities can be considered established by the names. For Robert Shene and Robert Congilton, see under York, below; and John Bulson has already been mentioned. John Wardlow, spiculator from 1438 until 1446 or 1447, may be the 'pyper' of that name among 81 Beverley men released from prison in York castle by a warrant dated 12 November 1445. 29 Wardlow apparently moved to Hull within a year or two. 30 (REED, Yorkshire, East Riding)

Bodmin (Cornwall)
A payment to waits in the town accounts for 1503/4 may refer to Bodmin's own minstrels. The next reference to 'the waytes', in 1519/20, uses much the same wording but treats the reward as a regular annual event. It seems likely that the Bodmin waits existed at least as early as 1503/4, and almost certainly before 1519/20. (REED, Dorset and Cornwall, 470, 472)

Bridgwater (Somerset)
The Common Bailiffs' accounts for 1455/6 show a payment of 7s 10d for tunic(s) for the piper(s). The payment is generous for a single minstrel, perhaps on the low side for two. (REED, Somerset, 41) Bristol (Gloucestershire until 1373, then the County of Bristol) The four Minstrels del ville were among civic officials given annual liveries by an ordinance dated 14 December 1391: this is the earliest date we have for civic minstrels at Bristol. From the mid-fifteenth century, and periodically to 1518/19, there were regularly four un-named mayor's minstrels: and four 'Waites de Bristoll' were at the mid-day meals on 4, 5 and 6 January 1508 during the Duke of Buckingham's Epiphany celebrations. 31 In Bristol itself the term 'waytes'-perhaps the town minstrels, although this is not made explicit-is found first in the records of the St George's day celebrations of 1518/19. The 'mynstrellis of bristowe', probably that city's waits, were paid 20d by the town of Bridgwater in 1495/6. 32 (REED,Bristol,6,7,10

Calais (English possession in France)
An entry for a reward of 12d 'to a ministrall of Cales' in the Dover accounts for 1467/8 may be for a civic minstrel. The waits of Calais are otherwise not known until well into the sixteenth century, although Dover rewarded various entertainers from the town during the fifteenth century. Sandwich rewarded the histriones Galearum in 1465/6, 33 which REED translates as entertainers from Wales. (REED, Kent, Diocese of Canterbury)

Cambridge
The Corpus Christi Guild records show that the pipers Robert, John and Thomas, together with Robert's wife Alice and Thomas's wife Imania, were admitted to the guild in 1349/50. There is no reason to think that they were employed by the town: but there was a shawm band in Cambridge then, and payments to fistulatores occur at intervals in the next few years. A payment by King's Hall 'to a (or the) common minstrel' (communi histrioni) is probably for a civic minstrel, and similarly a payment 'to minstrels of [the] town' (histrionibus ville) in 1388/9, a wording repeated in 1390/1 and on several occasions in later years. A payment 'to pipers of the town' (fistulatoribus ville) in 1402/3 also looks promising, but without the town's own records it is impossible to be sure that these items refer to civic minstrels. The Town Treasurer's accounts (1423/4 onwards) do not identify any civic minstrels: in fact, payments to various groups of minstrels suggest that the town relied on independent minstrels and those of visiting nobles for music that civic minstrels would normally provide. From 1445/6 onwards there are a few payments in the Peterhouse records 'to trumpeters of the town' (tubicinis ville). In 1451/2 there is the first mention (by King's College) of the 'four minstrels of Cambridge' (iiij or Mimis Cantebrigie), followed in 1455/6 by meal allowances made by the same college to '3 minstrels of the town of Cambridge' (iij histriones ville Cantabrigie) and in 1456/7 by a payment iij Mimis Cantebrigie.
Any of these could refer to civic minstrels, and such entries continue in the accounts, each institution having its own preferred wording. Civic minstrels were perhaps employed from c1450 or earlier, andless plausibly-they could have been in existence from the start of the fifteenth century. Their employment is certain only with payments for annual livery to the town's minstrels in 1483/4 (pro vestura Ministrallorum ville predicte hoc anno) and later. The number of minstrels is unspecified, but the money paid for cloth suggests three; this is confirmed in the accounts for 1498/9, when livery was made to three minstrels, and again in 1511, when the Trinity Guild at Bassingbourn presented a play of St George with the assistance of a minstrel and the three waits of Cambridge. 34 The Cambridge minstrels had 'Colers' by 1498/9, when the town paid 21d for their repair. (A 'coler' was usually a metal badge hung from the neck (col) by a chain.) The minstrels are here called 'waits' for the first time: 'pro Reparacione de lez Colers histrionium [sic] vocatorum waytes xxj d.' 35 (REED, Cambridge, passim.)

Canterbury (Kent)
The town accounts for 1366/7 include a reward 'given to [the] minstrels of the town' (datum ystrionibus de villa), probably not referring to civic minstrels. The first certain reference to them is in 1401/2, when three silver scutcheons were delivered to them. These records name the minstrels in most years, describing them variously as histrioni or mynstralli; they were known as 'waytes' from 1429/30 onwards and vigiles from 1476/7. In 1479/80 they were described as histriones seu vigiles ('minstrels or vigiles') and thereafter occasionally as histriones et vigiles ('minstrels and vigiles'). These terms may imply separate functions: as vigiles, fulfilling the night-time commitments seen elsewhere or perhaps summoning the citizens for general meetings (as at Dover, below), and as minstrels accompanying the mayor on formal civic occasions.
The men concerned are listed in Table 2. The number of minstrels fluctuated: three was the norm, but difficulties in certain years reduced the band. William Massyng returned his scutcheon on 5 November 1478, having presumably resigned his post, and William Scarlett's name was erased from the entry for 1480/1, when liveries and fees were paid to only two vigiles (John Chaldan and William Pawlyng). In 1488/9 the senior wait, Replacing a civic minstrel was not always easy. After William Cutting died during the year 1494/5 his replacement took office only for the last quarter of 1495/6. After 1504/5, when there were only two waits, there was evidently a major problem, with no waits at all being employed for several years. In 1505/6 Richard Warren was sent 'for to speke with the waytes att Camberege to brynge them to Canterbury'. This was probably not to bring them to Canterbury permanently, but to ensure the proper celebration of the feast of St Thomas, when music would accompany the procession with its various 'sights'. Warren was apparently unsuccessful at Cambridge, but the London waits came-presumably engaged on his way home from Cambridge-and were paid for 'goyng before the wacche' on St Thomas's night. This arrangement was repeated in 1506/7, and again in 1509/10. The king's minstrels, like the queen's, were rewarded every year at this time, and during what seems something of a crisis over the waits, rewards to the king's minstrels were recorded in a changed and possibly significant wording. In 1508/9, and again in 1509/10, the reward was made to them venientibus usque Cantuariam-coming 'as far as', or perhaps 'all the way to', Canterbury. Since the king's minstrels regularly visited Canterbury anyway, this may imply that they changed their arrangements to come at a different time from usual and for a specific purpose. This, like the visits of the London waits, was in the nature of a stopgap. The city was able to recruit a new band of three waits at the end of 1512/13, and to employ them in 1513/14.
Like most civic minstrels, the Canterbury waits performed elsewhere. Payments 'to the mynstrellis of Caunterbury' at Dover in 1491/2 and 1500/01 are probably to the waits; similarly the 16d given to 'mynstrellis of Canterbury' on Corpus Christi day at Dover in 1497/8 (although this is a small sum). 39 The 12d given to ministrell' Cantuar' at Hythe in 1503/4 is more doubtful, since it is a small reward if to more than one liveried minstrel.

Chester
City waits are first mentioned in the Chester records in an order of 1539/40 setting out the city's requirement that they play 'for the worship and pleasure of the Citie' at certain times. This duty had evidently been left to the waits themselves to decide, with unsatisfactory results. Now they were required to perform on specified days and at stated times 'as hath beyn accustomed in tymes past'. It is not known how far back this duty went, but the Chester waits were in existence by 1484 or 1485, when several minstrels applied for 'the Rowme and charge of the waitmen of the said city' following the death of the wait William Smethley. 40 There were three waits in 1509/10, when the town of Shrewsbury rewarded them. 41 (REED, Cheshire including Chester; REED, Shropshire, 168)

Chichester (Sussex)
The king rewarded 'the waites of Cecetr', probably civic minstrels, with 6s 8d (the usual royal gift to a group of liveried minstrels) on 25 August 1496. In 1366/7 a trumpeter named Alan was given a banner for his trumpet bearing the arms of the Cinque Ports. He was associated with another trumpeter, Boffet, and a piper, John Rustler. They may have served as the ceremonial minstrels of the Warden of the Cinque Ports, but Dover's civic accounts (q.v. below) name them as the town's servants. 39 Corpus Christi (celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and therefore falling between 21 May and 24 June), was a major festival: it included a civic procession and, in some places, dramatic performances. 40  In 1456/7 a minstrel of Romney, Robert Cocke, was also granted leave to wear the arms of the Cinque Ports. He was a luter, and perhaps acted as the Warden's 'still' minstrel.

Colchester (Essex)
When the Duke of Guelders passed through Colchester in 1390 en route to London he rewarded the 'stat pyperen' of the town. 44 While this designation may have been an assumption on the part of the accounting clerk, it is unlikely to have been a mistake; so until the REED volume on Essex appears, we may take it as likely that Colchester employed at least two civic pipers by 1390.

Coventry (Warwickshire)
The city of Coventry employed four minstrels in 1423, but they must have been in operation much earlier. The record of their employment refers to them having 'as oþer haue had afore them' and names them as Matthew Ellerton, Thomas Sendell, William Howton and John Trumper. Evidently this was a shawm-and-trumpet band, but the trumpeter may have been a fairly recent addition to a standard trio of shawms. Whoever had been the senior minstrel, the authorities ordained in 1439 that the trumpeter should 'haue the rule off the whaytes And off hem be cheffe', although it is not clear whether this went with the trumpeter's post or with that particular trumpeter. One of the first three waits named was the replacement for Richard Waite, who had recently retired with a pension after long service. 45 Evidently the town minstrels had then been in operation for a considerable time for Richard to have earned a generous annuity from the city, the Trinity Guild and the Corpus Christi Guild. Richard may have been a member of those guilds.
Other waits too became guild members. In 1481 all four waits and their wives were made members of the Smiths' guild, on condition that they 'serve the crafte on corpus christi day for viij s & theyr dener'. The waits were named as Thomas West, Adam West, John Blewet and 'Brese the wayt'. 46 Blewet was a member of the Corpus Christi Guild, 1490-6; in 1494 he held a tenement from the guild. Adam West was also a member of the guild, 1494-8. In 1494 'Wyll blewet Wayt', also known as the son of John Blewet, was a member of the Corpus Christi Guild, remaining so until 1501. William had apparently replaced his father as a wait, but John Blewet was not dead: in 1501, and again in 1505, John still held the tenement. If the Blewet who died as a London wait in 1517/18 was a Coventry wait who had moved to London, it was probably William.

Dartford (Kent)
The king gave 3s 4d to 'the waytes of the town' when he was in Dartford on 5 April 1494.

Dover (Kent)
The surviving records of Dover fall into two main periods, 1365-84 and 1423 onwards. Throughout these periods the town employed a common piper, designated fistulator or piperius in Latin, and 'piper', 'minstrel' or 'wayte' in English. At times this piper was joined by a second piper: both received an annual fee and robe. Their duties as minstrels are not specified, but they were sometimes rewarded at feasts, so a musical function can be assumed. Their names are listed in Table 3, where one can see an overlap with the records of the Cinque Ports in 1366/7 (but the reward to 'minstrels of the Cinque Ports' in 1383/4 shows that the Ports employed their own minstrels by then). The annual fee (wages, stipend) of the Dover fistulatores was 20s each throughout the period 1366-1509, usually paid in quarterly instalments of 5s but sometimes in part-payments of smaller sums. The surviving accounts are clearly incomplete, with some years showing no records of pipers being sworn in (which must have happened normally every year), fees being paid for less than a full year, and no payments for liveries. It is however fairly clear that in some years when two pipers were employed one of them did not work for the whole year; and sometimes the piper changed mid-year. This is not easy to work out: pipers are usually named in the records of their swearing-in, but scribes varied in whether or not they named recipients of fees and robes.
A horn was sounded at Dover when the authorities wanted to summon the citizens to a meeting, to hear a proclamation, or to warn of a danger. 49 The town custumal (1356-7), which prescribed the process of electing a mayor on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin (8 September, which was the start and finish of the mayoral and accounting year), required the horn to be sounded in 14 different parts of the town; the early-sixteenth-century custumal says only 'in certeyn places of the towne'. 50 On some occasions a single horn was sounded, and on others-perhaps more often than the records explicitly say-two horns were blown (but at the same fee, 2d): the town owned two horns. The men paid to do this are sometimes identified as the vigilatores: when they are named, which is by no means the norm, they can be identified as the town fistulatores. There are no separate stipends recorded for the horn-blowers, probably because the work required varied so much. Their payment was a fee for each occasion: 2d for blowing the horn, and 2d for making a proclamation. 51 Only a few occasions of horn-blowing were paid for each year: so if announcements of the time, wind and weather were regularly made it was not the responsibility of the horn-blowers per se but of the pipers, acting in their capacity as the town minstrels.
When only a single piper was employed Dover could not provide an adequate minstrelsy for the larger celebrations, and the town probably relied on visiting minstrels. In 1497/8 the town paid 16d 'to Mynstrelles of Canterbury at corpus Christi day', and in 1503/4 16d 'to the waytes of Caunterbury on Sant Georges daye'. Clearly there was no regular arrangement for providing minstrelsy on these important feast days (and one would expect the Canterbury minstrels to be employed at home then).

Durham
Two minstrels of Durham were rewarded at York in 1446: they were given only 8d, so were probably not civic minstrels. (REED, York) 49 Most information about horn-blowing is from the sixteenth century and later: for the Kentish ports, see REED, Kent, Diocese of Canterbury, I, lxxv. 50 REED, Kent, Diocese of Canterbury, II, 309. One would expect at least one horn-blowing to take place every year, therefore: but this does not show in the records, perhaps due to deficiencies or losses in the documentation. 51 It is not clear how information was imparted if the fistulator made no proclamation. Perhaps a written notice was nailed up, or perhaps important proclamations were entrusted to another civic servant, perhaps the common clerk (whose emoluments are not listed by REED). Table 3. The fistulatores of Dover. In most years there are payments for the stipend (fee, salary) of the fistulator (piper: sometimes two of them), the robes of officers, and for sounding the horn. Many of these do not name the recipient and are omitted here unless they help with identification. The fee for a horn-blowing was normally 2d, and 2d for making a proclamation. Where the horn-blower can be identified he is the piper: but it seems that a second person could be hired to blow the horn if two were needed. In Latin accounts, the abbreviations conceal the number of pipers, but the stipend (stable at 20s for each piper) shows that there was only one. The cost of a livery robe for the piper fluctuated between 5s and 8s 6d or more per annum. 53 REED, Kent, Diocese of Canterbury, III, 1096, translates this as two soundings of the horn, but both the payment of 2d and the singular sonacione argue against this.

1484/5 Robert Aleyn named (and presumably sworn) as fistulator
Payments on his fee to Robert Aleyn (3 x 6s 8d) 56 54 This and the preceding payment would make up a quarter's wages if they were both to Hochon, but the last quarter's fee, 3s 8d, is less than the regular payment of 5s. Perhaps Hochon/Hawkyn was employed temporarily in the latter part of the year to cover for Bucke. The term 'wayte' for the piper appears first in 1473/4. 55 It is curious that John Heire was apparently not sworn in this year, and that each quarter one of the two waits was given a higher fee (5s was the norm). 56 Unless a payment of fees to Aleyn is missing, the extra fee for the three quarters makes up the 5s for the fourth quarter: 3 x 6s 8d = 4 x 5s = 20s.

Exeter (Devon)
Exeter regularly employed a single 'wayte' from 1362/3 onwards: first John Beare; then, from 1364/5, Peter, identified in 1365/6 as Petrus Bylewyne Wayte Ciuitatis predicte (i.e. Exeter); and Thomas Wayte from 1366/7 until 1373/4. In this last year Thomas was paid for only half a year, so he must have retired or moved on mid-year. An increase to at least three of them-John Eget and his colleagues-from 1391/2 indicates no change of function, since they were paid the same annual fee as Thomas, 26s 8d (2 marks). Eget and his colleagues continued in office until at least 1398/9, when they were paid 'for being waits in the city' (essendi Waites in Ciuitate), still at 26s 8d per annum. In 1395/6 John Piper, and perhaps others (the manuscript is damaged), was paid 'for being a wait this year' (essendi Waite isto anno), which effectively tells us that the waits were indeed pipers.
The waits were given cloth liveries from 1401/2 onwards, sometimes with three waits specified. After 1406/7 the livery payments appear irregularly, although the entry for 1417/18 is for the livery 'of the three pipers of the city' (trium fustulatorum Ciuitatis). The records for 1429/30 show that silver scutcheons had been made for them: but scutcheons already existed then, pledges being taken when the waits were elected and sworn in 1427/8. They are named as John Lynde, Hugo Baret and John Dawe, as they are again in 1434/5. In 1439/40 a separate record of pledges names William Paynter, 'one of the minstrels of the city of Exeter'. 58 The waits' collars (scutcheons and chains) were repaired in 1493/4 at a cost suggesting extensive alteration. 59 These are probably the collars given to the serjeants-at-arms in 1895 and still part of the city's regalia. 60 Records of the taking of pledges show the names of the city waits to be as in Table 4. The records continue to specify three waits until 1500/1, after which no number is given: but as the payment for their fees and liveries remained constant to 1509/10 and beyond, we can assume that there were still three waits to the end of the period covered here. Presumably it was Beaumont, Browne and Merryett who were rewarded, as 'the mynystrelx of Excester', on 10 October 1497, during the king's visit to Exeter. 64 (REED, Devon, passim)

Grimsby (Lincolnshire)
Walter Wayte was provided with cloth livery in 1396/7, and given leggings, suggesting that his post involved being cold or wet, or both. 65 Possibly he was required to pipe the hours during the night, or to keep watch for fires while performing for citizens around the town. In 1424/5 the town paid for the gown of Walter Waite, histrio ville, so he was certainly considered primarily a musician. The last record of livery for Walter is in 1441/2. If this was the same Walter Wait throughout, he had a long career and must have been aged 60 or so when he retired or died. In 1421/2 the town allocated 8s for liveries to each of its minstrels, to a maximum of 24s, effectively setting three civic minstrels as the norm.

Launceston (Cornwall)
The borough accounts from 1445/6 until 1478/9 (after which there is a hiatus in the accounts) link the mayor, his colleagues (socii) and minstrels together in celebrations on the eve of St Mary Magdalene's day (that is, on 21 July); and a payment to a piper named Brown was made in 1450/1. The records do not mention civic minstrels, so these were perhaps from the confraternity attached to St Mary Magdalene's church.

Leicester
The Leicester waits were probably in existence by 1447, when 'iiij Ministrallis ville Laycestr" were given 2s 0d by the city of York. It is the word ville ('of the town [of Leicester]') that suggests official civic minstrels: a little further down the same list 'iij Ministrallis de Pokelynaton' received only 8d and 'iij ministrallis london" 12d, making them less likely to be town waits. 68 The Leicester minstrels evidently were official when the king gave them 13s 4d (a normal, if generous, royal gift) on 10 June 1497. 69 The town received four silver chains in 1503, probably those of the waits returned at the end of a term of office. The borough archives include an undated record of sureties for two waits' chains, which suggests the wearing of chains at a much earlier date, when Leicester employed only two waits. The Nottingham borough accounts for 1500 record that the waits of Leicester attended the Mayor and citizens of Nottingham at the feast of Pentecost. 71 It was unusual for the waits of one town to perform in another town which employed its own waits (see Dover). The Leicester waits were presumably invited to Nottingham for this occasion, and it would be interesting to know if the three Nottingham waits were also present.

Lincoln
Lincoln had enough resident minstrels in 1389 to warrant a minstrels' fraternity, 72 but there is no record of civic minstrels so early. Documentation for town waits starts with a record of 21 April 1422, when the three minstrels of the Mayor of Lincoln received an annual livery-allowance. 73 The annual cost was limited to 8s 0d per minstrel, with an overall limit of 24s. This is a more generous livery allowance than in many places, but it effectively limited the number of civic minstrels to three (see also under Grimsby, above).

London
In 1390 the Duke of Guelders rewarded the city musicians of London (see also Colchester, above), but the original wording of this has not been confirmed. 74 The London waits certainly existed in 1434/5, when the Merchant Tailors paid 'the waits of London' for their work on St John's day. 75 In 1442 lez waytes de Citie petitioned the mayor and aldermen for livery, with the city's arms, which would distinguish them as the city's servants. 76 Lincoln, Lynn and Norwich had all provided their waits with liveries by then, and Coventry did so that same year. 77 Nine waits are named: John Tassell, William Raumpayn, William Figge, Richard Kendale, John Wikes senior, John Wikes junior, Richard Wikes, Thomas Aleys and Richard Porter. 78 Nowhere else employed so many civic minstrels. The records of various city companies show that they regularly employed bands of six waits. These, unfortunately, are not identified in any way: they could have been civic minstrels, but there is no reason to think so. The nine minstrels employed in 1442 put London ahead of anywhere else for lavish musical display: smaller towns employed one or two civic minstrels, three was normal, and only a few, such as Coventry, employed four by the late fifteenth century. London, in fact, may have overreached itself by 1474/5, when an order was made in council limiting the number of city waits to six, specifying a financial limit on their liveries and fees. John Wykes retired in 1495/6, and provision was made for him on account of his 'good service to the city'. He was to be given clothing for life, and the next vacancy at 'Philpot's Alms'. 79 The margin heading for this entry reads 'Reward geuen to Mr wykes Mynstrell for his Age'. This must be John Wykes junior: even if he had become a city wait at the age of 15 in 1442/3 he would be 68 on retirement.
Another wait whose retirement was marked in this way was John Ryppys, who in 1517/18 was 'infirm and unable to perform his duties': his settlement was an annuity and a place at Philpot's Alms when one became available. 80 Ryppys's infirmity is not specifically linked to age, so his problem may have been permanent illness or injury. The name is not an error for Nicholas Ryppes, who was a London wait in 1501/2: he could be the Ryppis (no first name given) who was a Canterbury wait in 1504/5 and perhaps a son or other relative of Nicholas, for whom see below.
Also in 1517/18, a deceased wait called Blewet (formerly of Coventry?) was replaced. The other waits nominated one John Frith for the post, and Frith was appointed. 81 London had a minstrel fraternity in the late fourteenth century, which sought to limit performance by non-members. No doubt protecting their own work, the London waits petitioned the mayor and aldermen in 1501/2 for freedom of the city through the Fellowship of Minstrels, without charge, as had been the custom 'tyme out of mynde'. The waits-currently only five of them-are named as John Marshall, John Brown, William Pallyng, Nicholas Ryppes and John Nayler. Their petition was granted. 82 They also requested their summer livery, as promised 'at theire commyng to London'. Apparently this was a newly-formed group, but we have no information about the dissolution of the previous group, nor about the recruitment of this one. It may eventually be possible to trace all five, but two of them can certainly be followed from their former employment. William Palling and Nicholas Ryppes had been waits of Canterbury until at least 1498/9: Palling had been in service there since 1478/9, Ryppes since 1490/1.
The waits' earlier petition (1442) implies that as freelance minstrels they could not command enough income, and that the city's livery would improve this situation by making their status known. In granting the petition the Council laid down some conditions that set out the waits' obligations and brought the London waits into line with civic minstrels elsewhere. This suggests a relatively recent organisation (although in that case it is surprising that as many as nine men were involved), but it is impossible to know at what date the waits had originally been instituted.
The waits travelled out of London, including to York, but most often down the principal highway to Canterbury: they were probably there in 1445/6 (histrioni de london) and 1448/9 (histrihones [sic] londonie); 83 and in 1504/5, and again in 1505/6, they went there specifically to work on a major Canterbury celebration, St Thomas's eve. 84 (REED, Civic London, REED, Ecclesiastical London, and REED, Kent, Diocese of Canterbury)

Newcastle upon Tyne
The city of York rewarded three minstrels of Newcastle (iij Ministrallis Noui Castri super Tynam) in 1445 and two in 1447. The rewards of 20d and 12d, respectively, are commensurate with those to other liveried minstrels attached to gentlemen and knights, and probably refer to civic minstrels. There is no firmer evidence for civic minstrels at Newcastle before 1508, however, when the surviving Chamberlains' accounts begin. Cloth liveries were made to three waits: only Thomas Carr and William Carr are named.
In the same year a 'coller' was made for William Carr. A payment in 1511 to the waits and a serjeant together may indicate that the minstrels worked in tandem with a serjeant at arms accompanying them at night. There are hints of this elsewhere, but nothing definite.

Northampton
In 1479/80 the town of Shrewsbury paid 3s 0d to bring a minstrel 'called a wait' from Northampton. This was probably a town minstrel, perhaps drafted in to make good a temporary vacancy at Shrewsbury, but there is no further information.  90 Stephen, 'Waits', 5. There is as yet no REED volume for Norwich records before 1540. The most recent work is Janssen's 'The Waytes of Norwich ' (1978). I am grateful to Rob Glencross, Digital Publishing Assistant at the library of the University of New Brunswick, for facilitating access to a digital image of this thesis, and to ProQuest for allowing that access.
were two of them, named as John Underwood and Roger Jacob. 91 They were increased to three by 1426/7, when the Treasurer's accounts record payment for the making of three silver skochonys for the minstrels. 92 Another scutcheon made in 1432/3 marks an increase to four waits, named as Thomas Verdon, John Cros, John Smyth and William Goldryng. 93 William Spencer, minstrel, was granted livery as a wait of the city on 18 December 1437, but he was probably a replacement. On 10 November 1440 only three waits received livery, named as William Goldryng, John Smyth and John Cros. 94 Although three waits were the norm in many places and only three were admitted in 1452, 95 Norwich seems to have wanted four. William Warwyck and three others (unnamed) were given winter liveries in 1457/8, an increase that may not have been new (there is a gap in the records, 1440-57). Warwyck resigned his post in 1463/4. A fourth wait was elected in 1466 to join Thomas Barwyck/Berwyck, John Clyfton and John Robynson. William Scarlett was chosen, in preference to one Bele, but his election was reversed and Robert Dikman given the post. The reason for this is not known: Scarlett was given 10s in compensation. 96 In 1467 four waits were again sworn-John Robynson, Thomas Berwyck and two others, unnamedand four waits regularly appear in the records from 1470 onwards. The waits accompanied Edward IV to France as his minstrels in 1475. Thomas Berwyck must have been one of these: he was removed from office in 1505 on account of his senility, and pensioned (he died in 1508). 97 Returning to William Scarlett, a man of that name had taken the freedom of the city in 1455, and was presumably well known. At some time before 1488/9 he was a tenant of the city, if it is the same man. Janssen notes that in 1491/2 St George's Guild paid 16d to two minstrels, 'Scarlet and Jamys luter', and suggests that this was Thomas Scarlett, to whom John Reynolds (later a wait) was apprenticed in 1497/8; and that in 1509 one William Scarlett took John Florens as apprentice. There was evidently a family of Scarletts, who may or may not be related to those in London and the south-east.

Nottingham
The three 'Waytes de Notyngham' were rewarded at York in 1448: their number remained at three into the sixteenth century. 98 They were given 'colars', presumably scutcheons and chains, which had to be mended in 1496 and so dated from before then. 99 A record of sureties for these chains in 1502/03 names the waits as Hugh Little, William Chumley (alias William Wayte) and Roger Barker (alias Roger Wayte). 100

Oxford
The town probably had its own civic minstrels by 1490/1, when an order for receiving the mayor includes, in a list of town officials, 'ye Mynstrels'.

Plymouth (Devon)
The waits received livery of sixteen yards of cloth in 1496/7, which suggests that there were four of them. (REED,Devon,213) Pocklington (East Riding of Yorkshire) Three minstrels 'de Pokelynaton' were rewarded by the city of York on 31 May 1447. They were probably independent performers, as their reward of 8d would be small for liveried minstrels, even of a small and nearby town.

Sandwich (Kent)
Sandwich had a special version of the night marches of civic minstrels seen elsewhere as calling the hours.
In the mid-1460s it was apparently customary for players of stringed instruments and trumpets (fidicines and tubicines) to march through the town announcing the state of the wind. 102 The trumpeters (or hornblowers?) would certainly have been employees of the town, but not necessarily civic minstrels as such: the string-players might be regarded with some scepticism. Town minstrels may have existed at Sandwich as early as 1444/5, when Christ Church Canterbury gave 2s 0d 'to [the] minstrels of Sandwich' (datum Ministrallis de Sandewico), but the first certain record of them is for cloth liveries in 1462/3. The town accounts for 1465/6 record that the minstrels received 4½ yards of red cloth and musterdeviller (grey woollen cloth) at 2s 6d a yard, totalling 11s 3d. While this was quite expensive material, the length suggests no more than two tunics. In 1468/9 'þe waytes of þe town' took 16s 0d for their livery as well as 40s 0d for their wages, perhaps indicating that there were still only two of them.
Three 'waytes' were sworn in 1476/7. They are named as John Watson, William Watson and William Scarlett. The Watsons were Beverley spiculatores in 1467 and earlier. Scarlett soon moved to Canterbury.
Three unnamed waits took the year's wages and money for livery cloth in 1482/3. No more is recorded about the waits in the years up to 1509/10, although between 1498 and 1508 payments were made to one Richard Jeffe for blowing the horn. Jeffe was not necessarily a minstrel.

Shrewsbury (Shropshire)
The town employed two minstrels by 1432/3, when liveries were made to them, but there were three 'waits of the town and community' (Weytes ville et communitatis) in 1435/6. There were again only two of them in 1437/8 and 1438/9. Three waits received liveries in 1441/2 and 1442/3, and between 1446/7 and 1509/10 (records for some years are missing). The waits had scutcheons before 1463/4: records of the annual check on these, which alone provide information on the minstrels' names, are not very helpful. In 1505/6 pledges were given on behalf of William Breese, wait. 104

Wells (Somerset)
In 1409/10 Philip Piper and William Godyer, minstrels, were elected and admitted burgesses of the town and sworn in as civic servants (presumably, although not certainly, as town minstrels). 106 (REED, Somerset, 242)

Winchelsea (Sussex)
The accounts of Battle Abbey for c1478-82 record a payment of 3s 4d to one or more minstrels of Winchelsea (hist' de Wynchilse) at Christmas. The reward would be adequate for several civic minstrels, but the accounts of Winchelsea do not survive from so early and the existence of civic minstrels cannot be confirmed.

Winchester (Hampshire)
Winchester's ministralli civitatis were given cloth liveries in 1397/8, when the town paid 16s 8d for 8½ yards of striped cloth and 5½ yards of a one-colour cloth, a total of 14 yards of cloth. Southampton allowed two yards of broadcloth for each minstrel in 1478/9, and 5½ yards of broadcloth each in 1482/3, so Winchester's 14 yards could indicate a group of three minstrels. An unspecified number of town minstrels received livery costing 16s 0d in 1406/7. Judging by later costs this was probably for three minstrels: tunics for three minstrels cost 17s 8d in 1432/3 and 15s 10d in 1446/7. In 1434 the Winchester waits-Richard March, John Goddislond and William Goldfynch-were released to Southampton: they were apparently replaced within two or three years, but the incomers' names are not recorded.

York
The City Chamberlains' account-roll for 1433 is the earliest surviving from the fifteenth century, and the earliest appearance of the York waits. It records liveries for three city minstrels (called 'Waytes' in the margin), as do payments for liveries in 1442, 1445 and on into the sixteenth century (the last that concerns us here dates from 1508). Survival of the chamberlains' accounts is patchy, so that there may have been fluctuations in the number of minstrels: but three of them is the only number in surviving records and was apparently the norm. With only three exceptions their names are not given. In 1486 Robert Sheyne retired after service of forty years or more as a York wait, being then too old for the post. 107 He was presumably the former Beverley spiculator (1433-6). In recognition of his long service, the city awarded Sheyne a pension and the use of a house for his lifetime, free of charge. The pension was not provided by the city, however: 13s 4d (one mark) per annum was to be paid in quarterly instalments by Sheyne's successor, Robert Comgilton, during Sheyne's life and for as long as Comgilton was a York wait. This is an unusual, perhaps unique, arrangement, and it argues for special circumstances. A Robert Congilton was appointed spiculator at Beverley in 1440, leaving that post by 1443, but a gap of 43 years (1443-1486) casts doubt on the York wait being the same man. Apart from the question of Congilton's career in that period, there is the matter of his age: if he was 18 or so on appointment at Beverley (after apprenticeship), he would be around 64 on appointment at York.
There is clearly another story behind these facts, apparently linking the two men in their careers. Comgilton's provision of an annuity, if puzzling, argues for an indebtedness to Sheyne, perhaps for his post, or for earlier patronage. Certainly it suggests a strong and perhaps long-standing link between the two men. If Comgilton was indeed the Beverley minstrel of the early 1440s an obvious possible link would be that Sheyne was Congilton's master during the latter's apprenticeship in the 1430s. It is also possible that the York Comgilton was the Beverley wait's son, named after his father; and as the two men bore the same Christian name, Sheyne may have been godfather to Congilton.
Sheyne's pension was part of a financial deal struck between Comgilton and the city. One mark per annum was not a living income, but the money was probably not all that stood between Sheyne and starvation. A town wait might well earn enough during his career to save a useful sum against retirement. Nor should we assume that without the house Sheyne would have nowhere to live. He could live in the house provided for his lifetime, but he would already own or rent suitable lodgings, when the city's house would be a means of income through letting.
The third named York wait is Roger Smalwood, who in 1505 made himself a scutcheon at a cost of 13s 4d. Evidently Smalwood was a competent smith (initially a trained instrument-maker, perhaps?) as well as a minstrel.

Conclusions
The map of the towns discussed here shows that civic minstrels had appeared all over England by 1509. Some were apparently instituted surprisingly late, however, and even allowing for the loss of records, a range of reasons must be considered. The emergence of civic minstrels depended partly on the wealth of a town and its desire to take a prestigious place in the worldnot just in trade and commerce, but also in charity, the well-being of its citizens, and its general culture. These last were not purely altruistic, since they fostered employment and trade, and brought prestige to the town. For local minstrels, employment as civic waits provided regular work, financial security, the respect due to a livery (including well-paid work independently of the town), and often security in retirement. The civic minstrel establishment was almost entirely of a single minstrel or up to four of them. There is no indication that the number of waits employed, even when this fluctuated from year to year, depended on, or had any influence on, the kind of work that they did, which was primarily musical but may also have included announcements in some places. The number of waits employed may nevertheless point towards possible reasons for increases: a growing sense of civic pride, a wider geographical area to cover in the larger towns, expanding celebrations at the major feasts, and so on. Table 6 shows the earliest dates at which one can be fairly sure of the existence of civic minstrels and the number of them employed in various places. 108 Following a steady emergence of civic bands through the fifteenth century there is a clear increase through the 1490s, perhaps related to the relatively stable government of Henry VII and a consequent increase in civic wealth after the civil war of the Roses.
As the table shows, all of the first five towns to employ minstrels were ports: three of them employed a single minstrel, and the other two employed three and four minstrels (Exeter and Bristol, respectively). There is no evolutionary process discernible: a single minstrel seems to have fulfilled the same duties as groups of two, three or fourfluctuating numbers were not uncommon, as the records showand groups of two minstrels are found throughout the fifteenth century. Nor did the pipers transform from watchmen to musicians, for their description as vigiles or spiculatores sometimes post-dates the documents' use of ministralli or histriones (as at Canterbury and Exeter).
It is also easy to see that the majority of towns employed three minstrels. This ensemble probably consisted of two treble shawms and a tenor (or bombard). The tenor shawm was developed in the late fourteenth century and, according to the rather sparse iconographical and documentary evidence, became part of a standard loud wind band. When a fourth player was added, he was a trumpeter, Table 6. Sizes of town minstrel groups. Key: FR = First reference; 1 = solo minstrel; 2 = two minstrels; 3 = three minstrels; 4 = four minstrels FR 1 2 3 4