“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, piper, and rebec player.”

‘Patrons and performance : early Tudor household revels’ by Westfall, Suzanne R 1990

Some of the entertainments which took place during the reign of Henry VIII and involved taborers, were described
by Richard Gibson 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’

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

“Given to entertainers of the lord king on the feast of the translation of St Ethelred the virgin by custom, 10s.
  Given (to be divided) among others, pipers, at that time, 4s.....
Given to pipers of the lord king, 3s 4d...”

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

“Item payd to my lord talbotes mynstrell for a Reward     xx d.”

“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

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

“Item to Crofte the mynstrell     ij s.”

1569 “paymentes by the saide mayor when the Quens maiesty was here.”

Hampshire, Southampton, Book of Fines f 125v

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

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”

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"

“ John of Salvinton, a common fidler born 16 Dec. 1584”

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.”

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

1587 a French musician compiled a list of the events he had played in. This included in 1587, 'la nuit de Saint-Julien'
as part of a grand noise of instruments playing together including 'flûtes à neuf trous' [recorder]
as well as a three-holed pipe and tabor.

1620 list compiled by Michel Henry

1590-91 Wantage, Berkshire

“paid to Iohn Rowland taberer   xvij s. vj d.”

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

1594-95 Wantage, Berkshire

“payed to Rouland for playing at whitsontide  xij d”

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

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

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…”

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

“Spence a minstrell that being a piper draweth the youth of Sutton to ill order on the Sabaoth dayes, & being
admonished by the Minister he would doe yt in spite of him. On which day he appeared and the lord (judge)
enjoined him to do penance in the church of Sutton…”

“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 shortly before 1530, when the drummers and the fifers were procured from the Continent for
the King's Band. In 1539 we find the citizens of London mustering with Drums and Fifes ; and George Ferrers, who,
as Lord of Misrule at the Christmas festivities of Edward VI, had to give directions for the necessary preparations, writes :
" 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."

Again, 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,”

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

House Book records in York: 1594
“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.]