Scots Town Pipers

The Town Piper of Aberdeen
In 1593 we find the Magistrates ordering 'ane garment of reid Inglis flaning' for the Town Drummer. This is our first reference to an office which was to survive till 1878, announcements in the 15th century having been made by a Bellman with a handbell. One of the most colourful characters of the time was the Town Piper, who played for the entertainment of citizens and visiting dignitaries. In 1630 however, the Council dispensed with his services describing his performance as 'ane incivill forme to be usit within a famous burgh'.
Aberdeen - Until 1630 Aberdeen had its town piper. Then "The Magistrates discharge the common piper of all going through the town at nycht, or in the morning, in tyme coming, with his pype, it being an incivill forme to be usit within sic a famous burghe, and being often found fault with, als weill by sundrie nichtbouris of the toune as by strangers"
From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).

Arbroath - the town piper of Arbroath, John Sinclair, served as piper in Ogilvie's Regiment at Culloden.
From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).

Crail, Fife - On 13th October 1568, the Town Council granted that, " Charles Mercer, our Common Menstrall, shall play throughout the town, evening and morning ilk day."

Dalkeith - Geordie Syme, the piper of Dalkeith, was allowed, beside a small wage, a suit of clothes: this consisted of a long yellow coat lined with red, red plush breeches, white stockings and shoes with buckles.
From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).

The Town Piper of Brechin
In Brechin, a small town between Dundee and Aberdeen, the town piper's duties were to pipe up and down the town streets each weekday at five in the morning and seven at night. In 1688, this official was assigned a salary of ten merks yearly.
Brechin - a meeting of the Brechin Town Council on the 20th June 1688, where entered in the minutes, John Wyslie was elected town piper. http://tour-scotland.blogspot.com/2007/07/tour-scotland-stirling.html
John Wyslie, Town Piper of Brechin
The earliest record of any official connection between Brechin Town Council and bagpipe music is contained in the minutes of the magistrates on 20th June 1688 appointing John Wyslie to the post of Town Piper.

Dysart - town piper of Dysart http://www.scotsfind.org/dysart_access/dysart.pdf

From "Walter's Tales of the Borders", Walter Elliott, 1996:
In the Scottish Borders there were three classes of piper. Lowest in the social scale was the wandering or gypsy piper; highest in scale was the personal piper to a duke or other nobleman. Somewhere in the middle was the "Toun Piper", for each Border town of any size and pretension had a Town Piper. This office was often a hereditary one and passed down from father to son, providing the son had sufficient skill on the pipes. When not engaged on their official duties, they would wander the countryside, playing and telling stories. By having a bellows pipe, the Border piper could sing and play his own accompaniment at the same time. It is said that some could also dance while doing both the above.
Each Burgh had its official piper and drummer who attended the magistrates during official engagements. As they were not highly paid for such an important burgh office they had to entertain at other functions - which usually got them into trouble with either kirk or court (see Sunday in Scotland).
In the case of the Personal Pipers the higher the title the better the piper. Two noted pipers were James Allen, the famous (or notorious) piper of the Duke of Northumberland, and Geordie Syme who was attached to the Duke of Buccleuch. Geordie lived in Dalkeith and seems to have gone round the town twice daily but paid particular attention to the Buccleuch family whenever they were in residence. The Queen still has her personal piper at Balmoral where she is awakened each morning to the sound of the pipes.

From "The Pre-Seventeenth Century Highland Bagpipe" by Steven W. Knox:
Starting in the late fifteenth century, a piper might be in service to a town rather than a lord or chief. The duty of a town piper was to play through the streets of the town once each morning and once each evening and also at fairs and other special events. In return, the piper was provided with a salary and sometimes a set of clothes in the town's livery colors.

Dundee - At Dundee the town piper was paid twelve pennies yearly by each householder in the town. From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975), ISBN: 0710079133.

Edinburgh - the office of town piper was revived in 1660 with the appointment of John Johnstone "to accompany the town's drummer throw the town morning and evening", paying him his salary and livery as in former years. From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).

Habbie Simpson, Town Piper of Kilbarchan
One of the most renowned of Scottish pipers is Habbie Simpson, the early seventeenth-century Town Piper of Kilbarchan in Renfrewshire, whose life and reputation are celebrated in an elegy by the laird-poet Robert Semple of Beltrees.


The Town Piper of North Berwich
In 1740 a town piper was appointed at a salary of �5 Scots which was paid as his house rent. In 1754 the Council allowed him the privilege of making advertisements and the crying of all roupings and things that were lost.

The Town Piper of Glasgow
The Reformation ended ambitious music-making. In 1563 the sub-cantor at Glasgow was tried for assisting at mass. Secular music was also affected. In 1593 the Kirk Session threatened the town piper with excommunication if he played on Sundays.

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Inverness town pipers
Murdoch Maclennan (1504-1574) and Murdoch Maclennan (1547-1627) were both town pipers in Inverness.

Kilbarchan - Every parish has produced some men whom it regards as notable, and unquestionably Habbie or Robert Simpson is the most widely known of the sons of Kilbarchan. He lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and was thus a contemporary of Shakespeare. In early life he was probably a retainer in the family of Craigends or in that of Johnstone, and tradition, supported by the emblem on his reputed tomb-stone, asserts that in later life he combined the occupation of butcher with the office of town-piper. http://www.archive.org/stream/kilbarchanparish00mack/kilbarchanparish00mack_djvu.txt

Willie Orr, the Town Piper of Kilsyth
On http://www.kilsyth-scotland.co.uk/kilsyth3.htm there is a picture of Willie Orr, Town Piper of Kilsyth.
Unfortunately, this picture has been removed. See Notes & Queries.

Peebles - It was the custom of James Ritchie, the town piper of Peebles, who was among the last of his order, to make his rounds annually on Handsel Monday, or the first Monday of the year, for the purpose of receiving a gratuity from the different householders. His uniform consisted of a pair of red breeches and coat, of an antique fashion, with a looped-up cocked hat, and, till the last, he wore a plaited queue. http://www.fife.50megs.com/famous-bagpipers.htm
Piper Ritchie, Town Piper of Peebles, from the Memoir of William and Robert Chambers, 1883
The town-piper, dressed in a red uniform and cocked hat, as befitted a civic official ... escorting a marriage-party, he marched with becoming importance in front, playing with might and main a tune called Welcome hame, my Dearie.

James Waugh, Town Piper of Musselburgh
The pipes have had a long association with the King's Own Scottish Borderers and were first mentioned in connection with the Regiment in 1691 when the town piper of Musselburgh, one James Waugh, was forcibly carried off to be a soldier in the 25th Edinburgh Regiment whilst playing in the streets, purely for patriotic motives, to a newly assembled group of recruits.

John Anderson, Town Piper of Kelso
The touching melody of "John Anderson," long preserved by oral tradition, was at length written down in the year 1578 in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, which is still preserved. John Anderson was a real personage, and, according to tradition, the town piper of Kelso and a good deal of a joker.

Johnny McGill, Town Piper of Girvan
The Scots claim "Johnny McGill" was composed by a Scot by that name, Town Piper of Girvan.

Town Pipers in the Scottish Lowlands
In the Lowlands of Scotland, pipers occupied well-defined positions as town pipers, performers for weddings, feasts and fairs. There was no recorded "master piper" nor was there any pipe schools. Lowland pipers played songs and dance music, as was expected by their audience, so no effort was made to produce great music.

Adam Ainslie and Robin Hastie, Town Pipers of Jedburgh
The Piper's House was exactly that, the home of the town piper from 1604 when Adam Ainslie built it, his initials and date are inscribed above a first floor window which used to be the main entrance. Robin Hastie was the last town piper to live occupy the house in the early 1800's, bringing to an end a three hundred years of a member his Hastie family being Jedburgh's piper. There is a figure on the statue of a piper mounted on the house roofs gable end.

Another source on Jedburgh Town Pipers
"These town pipers, an institution of great antiquity upon the Borders, were certainly the last remains of the minstrel race. Robin Hastie, town piper of Jedburgh, perhaps the last of the order, died nine or ten years ago [this was written about 1802]; his family was supposed to have held the office for about three centuries. Old age had rendered Robin a wretched performer, but he knew several old songs and tunes which have probably died with him. The town pipers received a livery and salary from the community to which they belonged, and in some burghs they had a small allotment of land called ' the Piper's Croft.'"
One of the statutes passed by the Town Council of Jedburgh was to the following effect:--
"The swasher (town drummer) and piper to go duly round at four in the morning and eight at night under the penalty of forfeiting their wages, and eight days' imprisonment."
That the drummer and piper attended to their duties is shown by an extract from "The Autobiography of a Scottish Borderer". The writer of the extract was a Jedburgh lady, who died in 1846, and very probably either saw or heard of a procession such as she describes:--
"The bells rung a merry peal and parties paraded the streets, preceded by the town piper, with favours in their hats,"
See Notes & Queries concerning this "autobiography".

The Town Piper of Kirkudbright
At the Market Cross all the proclamations regarding legal processes, Acts of Parliament, fair days, high days and holidays were made by the town piper or drummer. Prior to 1600 the proclamations were made by the piper, but in October 1600, a drummer was appointed. The minutes of appointment read as follows.
"The quhilk day Alexander Corkirk is chosin and seit drummar for ane zeir for the quhilk he sal haif ten libs of fie, and his meit throu the toun, and that thai that hes not houses pey him iijs, viijd (i.e. 3/8d) thairfoir.
The quhilk day Ferguss Neilsone is seit toun piper for ane zear, his dewtie usit and wont (x libs) provyding he and the drummer pairt the Zule wages (Christmas boxes) betwixt thame."

Donald Grant, Town Piper of Kirkaldy, from "Wilson's Border Tales"
At this moment, a new cause of pleasurable excitement struck on the ears of the joyous party in the cave. This was the sound of pipes. Donald Grant, the town piper of Kirkcaldy, and as good a performer as ever blew a chanter, was both heard and seen coming alongst the sands towards the Bonnet Rock, playing, with might and main, the well-known tune of "Maggie Lauder." On arriving at the cave, Donald was received with shouts of welcome by its inmates; but their joy at so timeous and valuable an accession as the piper, was by no means confined to mere expressions of satisfaction with his presence. It soon took a more substantial form; bumpers of brandy and lumps of bread and cheese, short-bread, and currant-bun, were thrust in upon him at all hands. The former, Donald-who was reputed as good a hand at the pint-stoup as at the pipes, and that was excellent-nipped off, one after the other, as fast as they were presented to him; the latter he thrust into the capacious pockets of his greatcoat, till they could hold no more. Thus charged and primed, Donald was ready for anything, and therefore at once agreed to a proposal which was made to him, that he should ascend from the land side, where it was of easy access, to the top of the Bonnet Rock, and play some tunes from that conspicuous and elevated situation.

Lanark - payment to Johne Watsone the town piper of Lanark in 1566-7 of vjs viijd for the landmuris; to play his pipes at the town's horse races and fairs..
From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).

Musselburgh - Even the town-piper of Musselburgh, James Waugh by name, while playing at the head of the troop, and thinking of no harm, had been carried off for a soldier. http://www.electricscotland.com/history/domestic/vol3ch1c.htm

Perth - Perth had a town piper as late as 1831, and his death was much lamented: "the music having an effect in the morning inexpressibly soothing and delightful."
From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).

Various - In Dundee, Jedburgh and Lanark, the piper's round started by official edict at 4 a.m. At Perth and Dalkeith it was 5 a.m.. The evening round varied from 6 p.m. at Lanark and 7 p.m. at Perth to 8 p.m. at Dalkeith and Jedburgh.
From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).
The following are some of the Scots town and burghs which are mentioned in various sources as having their common piper and 'menstral':
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Perth, Dumfries, Dalkeith, Dumbarton, Bridgeton, Biggar, Keith, Glenluce, Falkirk, Lanark, Linlithgow, Peebles, Galashiels, Dundee, Jedburgh and Kilbarchan.
From: "The Bagpipe" by Francis M. Collinson, Routledge (1975).

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