In the 16th century neither terminology nor spelling were fixed. So a pipe and tabor player could be, for example,
a mynstrell, a musician, a drummer, a pyper, taber and piper, tabret, taboret, taberette or a fidler. It is impossible
to know now which of some of these are taborers or players of other instruments, as seen in contemporary images.
In Parish Records instrumentalists are also termed 'miussicion', 'musycion,' 'Musytion,' ' musitionn' without naming
the instrument they played.

Corporation of London Record Office, Repertory 13, fo1.255~1

The 'taberet' could be a small drum player or a pipe and tabor player.

1502-03 two pipe and tabor players were assigned to play for the Queen (Elizabeth of York) in her chamber -
Marques Loryden and Janyn Marcasin (tabrets)

‘Tudor court musicians, 1485-1547 : their number, status and function’ by Eileen Sharpe Pearsall, 1986

“Northumberland retained a taboret, a luter, and a rebec player.
Similarly, Oxford retained a taboret, a luter, and a fiddle player.

Katherine of Aragon's minstrels included a taboret”

1509 'The Early Tudor Court and International Musical Relations' by Theodor Dumitrescu · 2017

‘Musical Instruments at the Court of Henry VIII’ by Frances Palmer

Some entertainments which took place during the reign of Henry VIII involved taborers
These were described by Richard Gibson, Master of the Revels, in the Revels Accounts:

1510 Accounts of Revels
 pageant prepared called "the Golldyn Arber in the Archeyerd of Plesyer."  The costumes included:
  “For Cornish's and the minstrel's garments, for 40 "fassys" 3 yds. 46½ yards green satin
for another gown for Cornish, for 3 taborets, &c”

1513 REVEL ACCOUNTS, No. 5.
a pageant called the 'Ryche Mount'… “ The lords, the six minstrels on the mount, the men at arms,
the tambourines [Ed. presumably taborers] and the rebecks kept their dresses…
Number of persons in the revel 6 minstrels on the mount, and 4 for the dance.”

1514 REVEL ACCOUNTS, No. 7.
Christmas Day, a mumming in which the King himself took part.  Lists of costumes included:
“4 blue and white damask coats and bonnets for "drumbyllslads;" [drummers of large drums,
originating in Switzerland] crimson and green satin for the taborets and rebecks.”

1516 REVEL ACCOUNTS, No. 9.
for  "the story of Troylous and Pandor rychly inparylled”...“To the taborets, 2 jackets of the store.”

'Revels', in ‘Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 2, 1515-1518’

1512 a taborer kept by a noble household:
‘The Regulations and Establishment of the Household
of Henry Algernon Percy’ The 5th Earl of Northumberland's Household Book:

Page 42 lists: “MYNSTRÅLLS IN HOUSHOLD .
ITEM Mynstralls in Houshold iij Viz . A Taberett A Luyte and A Rebecc = iij .”

Page 45
“Mynſtralls iij Viz . A Taberett a Luyte and a Rebecc .”

Page 46 and 48
ALLWAYS PROVIDITT the Wagies accustommyde of my Lordes Hous that every Person belongynge
to every rowme accustomed in the foresaid roull shall have by Yere after this forme followynge if they be
payde by th'assignemente of the Hous ,…Every Mynstrall if he be Taberet iiij . Every Luyte and Rebecc
xxxiijs . iiijd . and to be payd in Housholde if they have it nott by Patentt or Warraunt

Page 343/344 (Payments made to minstrels for other household duties for the family):
AL MANER OF REWARDIS Customably usede to be Yeven by my Lorde to his Lordshipis
SERVAUNTS As the Consideracion WHY more playnly hereafter followith ,
“ITEM My Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyf yerly when his Lordschipp is at home to his Mynstraills
that be daly in his Houshold as his Tabret Lute ande Rebek upon New-Yeres-Day in the mornynge
when they doo play at my Lordis Chambre doure for his Lordschipe and my Lady xxs. Viz. xiijs. iiijd,
for my Lorde and vjs. viiijd. for my Lady if sche be at my Lords fyndynge and not at hir owen And for
playing at my Lordis sone and heir Chaumbre doure the Lord Percy ijs. And for playinge at the Chaumbre
doures of my Lords Yonger Sonnes my Yonge Maisters after viijd. the pece for every of them [xxiijs. Iiijd”

REGULATIONS AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HOUSHOLD OF HENRY ALGERNON PERCY , THE FIFTH EARL OF WRESILL
NORTHUMBERLAND , AT HIS CASTLES OF AND LEKINFIELD IN YORKSHIRE

1514 taberets were employed at court by Christmas.
The accounts presented by Richard Gibson, the Master of the Revels, state four minstrels, who are identified
as taberets and rebecs, who were dressed in crimson and green satin.

1517-18 Rye, Sussex, Chamberlains’ Accounts (Expenses)
Item geven in reward to the kynges taberer

1520/21 Privy Purse Expenses, Princess Mary:
The expenses incurred by the Lord of Misrule in January included payments for two taberets.

1523 "This is expenses and charges and money paid unto my master, anno 14."
 "To Watte Taberer, 10d."

Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 3, 1519-1523

“In the year 1526 the king's band of musicians was constituted as follows: 15 trumpets, 3 lutes, 3 rebecks,
3 taborets, 1 harp, 2 viols, 10 sackbuts, a fife, and 4 drumslades.”

'The Story of Minstrelsy' by EDMONDSTOUNE DUNCAN 1907

1530 Peter Taberet is mentioned in court documents.

'A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3. Parishes: Dorney'

1538 Alex Penny, a taboret at court, was promoted to became a drummer:
"Nov 1538 Alex Penny, taboret, appointed a drumslade 3 by warrant of 5 Oct at 6d a day one quarter 45s 6d."

1541 William Burdwayes, originally from Anjou, France, emigrated to Ampthill, Redbornstoke hundred, 
Bedfordshire. He gave his profession as 'taboret'.

1542 letter from Henry VIII to Sir Thomas Seymour, 29 Aug: When the English and Imperial forces
were allied, Henry VIII himself wrote a letter of instructions to Sir Thomas Seymour, interrupting
the serious business of war requesting:
”...to conduct hither in wages 10 taboryns of the Hungarians fashion, one or two of whom
to be able to make and use the taboryns”

1552 An indictment of eighteen minstrels at Chester included three taborers, eight fiddlers and eight pipers.

‘Vagabonds and minstrels in sixteenth-century Wales’ by Richard Suggett 2018

1555 A civic code in Beverley, aimed at the "part-time" musician, forbids any "miller, shepherd,
or husbandman playing on pipe or other instrument should perform without authority at any wedding
or merry-making, outside his own parish."

'the renaissance wind band and wind ensemble', by David Whitwell, 1983

1561 York, an ordinance was passed concerning the non-resident minstrel, specifying that "no manner of foreigner"
be allowed to practice any form of minstrelsy, singing or playing upon any instrument within any parish within this city
or franchise thereof upon any church holidays or dedication days hallowed or kept within the same parish, any
brotherhood's or freeman's dinner or dinners."

'the renaissance wind band and wind ensemble', by David Whitwell, 1983

1569 “paymentes by the saide mayor when the Quens maiesty was here.”
“Item payed to the drome and flute of portismothe” x s
“Item payed Peter glasier for his drome and flute” v s

Hampshire, Southampton, Book of Fines f 125v

1583-84 Southampton, Hampshire
“Laide out for Liveries for the officers this yeare as ffolloweth in Anno 1583
To Peter breame j yearde 2 quarter ½”

Peter Breame was a glasier who played the drum and flute for musters

Book of Fines, Southampton City Archives: SC5/3/1

After King Henry VIII’s reformation people could be tried as heretics for not attending church.

1576/7 Leverington, Cambridgeshire; Diocesan Court Proceedings:
“The office of the lord (judge) against Richard Cobbe, the minstrel ...”
“notatur yat he was absent from service the xxth & xxvijth of maye last, & coulde alledge noe iuste cause of excuse….
 That one of those dayes he was furthe at a brydall in Marshland …”

1580 Southampton, Hampshire; Mayor's Accounts:
"Lyveries for officers as followeth the ixth day of December 1580"

"Henry the Minstrell j yeardes ij quarters"

Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714. Originally published by University of Oxford, Oxford, 1891.

1585 “the fagge-end of an old man’s old will, who gave a good somme of mony to a Red-fac’d Ale-drinker,
who plaid upon a Pipe and Tabor, which was this:
“To make your Pipe and Tabor keepe their sound,
And dye your Crimson tincture more profound,
There growes no better medicine on the ground
Than Aleano (if it may be found)
To buy which drug I give a hundred pound.”

'Drinke and Welcome' quoted in Th'e Curiosities of Ale & Beer: An Entertaining History', by John Bickerdyke 1889

1586 Shropshire - Town Bill payment for wine
“Wine geven to the quens taber  ij s. ij d”

REED Shropshire, page 242

1586 Bleadon, Somerset July 8:
“in the tyme of the sermon, ther was pyping tabering & [day] dancing and wold not come to the sermon nether”

 ‘Two Minstrels too many? The Remunerated musicians of  the 16th century, from status symbol of the court to Social Outcast’ by Andrew C.Rouse, 2002

1588 Oldham
" On the 14th, being Sunday, "there was, by certain of Oldham parishe, in tyme of divine service, gallowpinge of horses
in the streete of Burye, showtinge and pypinge, with other fowle disorders, in the forenone of the same daie,
a lamentable spectacle in the place of preachinge ministerye, of all good men to be pytted and reformed."
Hopes the offenders may be apprehended and punished.

The National Archives DDKE/acc. 7840 HMC/f.2

1594 Litton, Somerset: Deposition of Philip Bridges of Ston Boston, yeoman, aged 52
“…That he hath scene & hard 1 [doth knowe] the John huishe to playe some times
uppon a fiddle and somtimes uppon a taber, …”

‘Somerset including Bath 1: The Records - Records of Early English Drama’ f86

John Rowland was a taberer who played in Berkshire for at least 16 years:
1590-91 Wantage, Berkshire “paid to Iohn Rowland taberer   xvij s. vj d.”
1594-95 Wantage, Berkshire “payed to Rouland for playing at whitsontide  xij d”
1595-96 Wantage, Berkshire “paid to Rowland forplaynge   ij s.”

St Peter and St Paul's Churchwardens' Accounts, Bodl.: MS. Top. Berks c.44

1605-06 Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire “Item to Iohn Rowland for one dayes playe  iij s.”
St Denys' Churchwardens' Accounts, BRO: D/P 118/5/1

1593/4 Butcombe, Somerset; case brought for tempting people away from church:
“for withdrawing of the parishoners there from divine service being a fidler”

‘Two Minstrels too many? The Remunerated musicians of  the 16th century,  from status symbol of the court to Social Outcast’ by Andrew C.Rouse, 2002

1597 "John Bouset, or Possetis was a master at jests and clownish tricks… He often carried a pipe and sometimes,
like other English clowns, a drum. He raised a laugh by looks and actions without speaking a word…”

‘The Elizabethan jig and related song drama’ by Baskervill, Charles Read, by Mangold ‘Markschiffs Nachen’ (1597)

'LOST CHRONICLE OF BARNSTAPLE 1586—1611' by Todd Gray

1599 book dedication:
“To his worthy good patron, Lusty Humfrey, according as the townsmen do christen him; Little Numps, as the nobility
and courtiers do name him; and Honest Humfrey, as all his friends and acquaintance esteem him; king of the tobacconists
hic & ubique, and a singular Maecenas* to the pipe and the tabor (as his patient livery attendant can witness), his
bounden orator T.N. most prostrately offers up this tribute of ink and paper.”

*a generous patron especially of literature

Humphrey King was a tobacconist in London.  He was also a verse-writer, and author of ‘An Halfe-penny-worth of Wit,
in a Pennyworth of Paper. Or, The Hermites Tale. The third impression,’ London, 1613. 

Nashe’s Lenten Stuff Containing the description and first procreation and increase of the town of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. With a new play
never played before, of the praise of the red herring. Fit of all clerks of noblemen’s kitchens to be read, and not unnecessary by all servingmen
that have short board-wages to be remembered. page 2

1583 criticisms of minstrelles, pypers, drummers, fidlers, tabretters " and all other of that wicked broodes"

Philip Stubbes saw ‘pyping, fluting, drumming, and such like [as] inticements to wantonnesse and sin’.

Page 83
…Job noteth it as an olde , practise of the devil to occupy men withall, & as an ancient exercise of the wicked,
that they should daunce. Upon which wordes a godly writer sayeth : that from the tabret and the flute, which
in. themselves are not unlawefull, they come to dauncing, uponiob. which is the chiefest mischiefe of all…
Page 87
“…it must be good labour (sayth Paule) just labour, and lawefull labour. The which distinction overthroweth al
maintaynance gotten by massing, by jugling, by charming, by playing interludes, by fidling and pyping uppe and downe
the countrey, by carying about beares and apes…”
Page 137
…some spend the Sabaoth day (for the most part) in frequenting of baudie Stage-playes and enterludes, in maintaining
Lords of misrule (for so they call a certaine kinde of play which they use), May-games, Church-ales, feaits.
and wakeesles : in pyping, dauncing, dicing, card exercises upon ing, bowling, tennisse playing…

“Prophane exercises upon  the Sabaoth day” - May-games, Church-ales, feaists. and wakeesses : in pyping,
dauncing, dicing, carding, bowling, tennisse playing …”

“Give over, therfore, your Occupations, you Pypers, you Fidlers, you minstrelles, and you musitions, you Drummers,
you Tabretters, you Fluters, and all other of that wicked broodes”

Every towne, Citie, and Countrey, is full of these minstrelles to pype up a dance to the Devill but of dyvines,
so few there be as they maye hardly be seene. But some of them will reply, and say, what, Sir! we have
lycenses from justices of peace to pype & use our minstralsie to our best commoditie. Cursed be those
licences which lycense any man to get his lyving with the destruction of many thousands !"

'The Anatomie of Abuses' by Philip Stubbes

“amongst the musicians of Henry VIII at his death was " Olyver Fyfer" who played the Fife …The Fife seems
to have been brought into use in England shortly before 1530, when drummers and fifers were procured from
the Continent for the King's Band. In 1539 we find the citizens of London mustering with Drums and Fifes ;
George Ferrers, who, as Lord of Misrule at the Christmas festivities of Edward VI, had to give directions
for the necessary preparations, wrote :
" I have provided one to plaie upon a Kettell Drom with his boye,
and a nother Drome with a fyffe which must be apparelled like turkes garments."

In 1557, when an army was dispatched to S. Quentin, in France, a " drumme and phife " were attached
to the train of artillery. The shrill notes of the instrument, however, were not appreciated by all, and doubts
were raised as to whether the soldiers' attention might not be distracted "by the aire of a whistle" from
the signals given by the Drum; so in the reign of James II it was banished from the army,”

'Old English instruments of music, their history and character' by Galpin, Francis W. 1910

1582 diary entry from a voyage on a ship called ‘Lycester’:
‘An Elizabethan in 1582 : the diary of Richard Madox, Fellow of All Souls’

1594 House Book records in York:
“And to bringe from evrye parishe A drume and A fife"
1596 [similar]
1598 [similar]

1600 House Book:
"Item that everye constables be ther in his best apparell without cloke and gowne with constables staves
painted to attend for wiflers as they shalbe placed and bringe ther parishoners with them and from everye
parishe A drome and A fife or suche  like upon paine of xx s of every parishe to be forfeited by the constables,
york this xxiij1*1 daie of lune, 1600. "

[There are many notes of sums being paid to 'minstrels', but the records give no hint of what instruments they played.]

1766 London court record:
“John Blackburn . I am a publican on Snow-hill, the prisoner lived servant with me some time in December last:
I missed a watch and great coat; the prisoner went away from me. He is a drum and fife in the militia…” 

Old Bailey Proceedings: Accounts of Criminal Trials LL ref: t17660219-64