UK terminology

tabber / tabberer

"Tabber" appears to be15th to 19th century spelling/useage for drumming in general,
as well as an ancester to ' tabor' as a musical instrument.

1500's poem - tabber pipe played to accompany maypole dancing
"Of suche as could a diffrence make, of drom and trompetts sounde,  
(Fro tabber pipe & Maipole mirth,) their helpyng hands he founde:  "

A storie translated out of Frenche in: ' Bibliographical miscellanies: being a selection of curious pieces, in verse' by Philip Bliss, Thomas Churchyard (c.1520 – 1604)

1580 tabber, a noun, played for dancing:
"Dance afftter drom, let tabber goe, the musyck is nott good
thatt macks men look liek gyrlls, and mynce on carypaytts gaye"  

' A light Bondell of liuly discourses called Churchyards Charge' - presented as a Newe yeres gifte to the right honourable, the Earl of Surrie, in which Bondell of verses is sutche varietie of matter, and seuerall inuentions, that maie bee as delitefull to the Reader, as it was a Charge and labour to the writer, sette forthe for a peece of pastime, by Thomas Churchyarde (1520?-1604)

1601 Two men were excommunicated for playing the pipe and tabor at the time of church services:
10 th March Willelmus Hopkins excommunicated
"detected for playeing at tabber and pype at servis tymes"
Andreras Philpotat
"detected for playeing at tabber and pype at servis tymes"

Gloucestershire Diocese Consistory Court Case Book GRO: GDR 90

1605 dictionary of German/Latin‘Etymologicum Teutonicae linguae, sive dictionarium Teutonico-Latinum’ by Kiel, Cornelis 1528-1607 Verfasser (Etymological of the Teutonic language, or a Teutonic-Latin dictionary)

1610 religious treatise: “she fell starke mad with sorow, and love of her Atys, and ranne out of her fathers house, wandring about the country with a tabber, & pipe, and her haire about her eares, untill shee died. “

‘The second part of a treatise concerning policy, and religion Wherein the necessity, fruite, and dignity of christian religion, in common
welth, is evidently showed, with the absurdity of false religions, and the danger, and dammage, that ensueth thereof to all states; and by
the way somme philosophical, moral, and politicall matters are treated ... finally it is clearely proved, that the catholique Roman religion
only doth make a happy common welth.’ Written by Thomas Fitzherbert Esquyre, and Catholique priest.’

'Tabber' - to tap or to drum, a verb "Tom Tinker" "With Hammer on Kettle he tabbers all Day At night he will tumble on strummell or hay…” from the song 'Tom Tinker's my true love' (Playford 1651, 1719 edition of 'Pills to Purge Melancholy', Vol 6, p. 205, Beggers Opera 1729) 17th century: 'tabberer' was mentioned in Throckmorton family (Coughton Court, Alcester, Warwickshire) accounts: “In the late Stuart period several people, some named, some not, appear in the Throckmorton accounts for various services rendered: chimney sweep, mummer, dancing master and tabberer” ‘DIFFERING RESPONSES TO AN INDUSTRIALISING ECONOMY: OCCUPATIONS IN RURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE HEART OF ENGLAND FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE RAILWAY AGE (c. 1660 - c. 1840) (MALE OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE IN THE HINTERLAND OF THE MARKET TOWN OF ALCESTER, WARWICKSHIRE)’ by RICHARD ALLEN CHURCHLEY, page 330 WaRO, CR1998/LCB/26, 40, Throckmorton MSS.

1671 drumstick / tabber stick
 " That with her Tabber Stick strike up she may,
Tort'ring its Tabber stick that makes it Sound. "

'The poems of Edward Taylor'   by Edward Taylor, (1642? - 1729)
Donald E. Stanford
"My tongue my speeches tabber stick can't dance
Unto thy prais as I would have it jump.
My Drumb stick thin of Dogtree Wood is made
And is unfit to beat thy praises Cade"

'Edward Taylor's Gods Determinations and Preparatory Meditations -
A Critical Edition' edited by Daniel Patterson 2003
"...their Tongues, than to be a tabber Sticks for hell to beate up a March out against heaven withall:
Oh then What Multitudes? Multitudes of Sins come a tumbling in upon them that they use not their tongues aright... "

I have found 'tabber' in regional glossaries of local dialects of these counties:

1878 glossary, Shropshire
SHROPSHIRE WORD-BOOK, a glossary of ARCHAIC AND PROVINCIAL WORDS, ETC.,
USED IN THE COUNTY; by GEORGINA F. JACKSON. page 426

definition		glossary date
Berkshire	Tabber , v. to make a drumming noise	1888
Hartland, Devon		1891 1940
Gloucestershire		1890       1893
Sandwich, Kent	"wee all have bin ruled by him and so will be." There were further revels, culminating in a free banquet enlivened with a tabber and pipe-playing, "after the manner of men- of-war."	?
Leicestershire	to tap, pat or strike quickly with the feet or anything else	1881
Northamptonshire	"Tabber, n To tap or pat, so as to make a sound"	1851
Shropshire		1886
Warwickshire		1896   1918
S. E. Worcestershire		1893
West Worcestershire		?1882
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire	"tabber - to tap or drum Nahum ii.7 comp tabor"	1883

1890'A glossary of dialect & archaic words used in the county of Gloucester' page 275

1896 ' A list of words and phrases in every-day use by the natives of Hetton-Le-Hole In The County Of Durham; Being Words Not Ordinarily Accepted or but seldom found in the standard English of the day.' vol 31, page 79 by Francis Milnes Temple Palgrave

In 1905 a number of these definitions were gathered together in one volume which also includes 'You can tabber on a drum' and 'hence Taborer - a country dancer' and a local dancing celebrity known as 'Jack the taborer'

1918 "As hard as a tabber . Northall, FPh. 9.   Tabber , tabour.
This form rec. fr. 1587 and still current in some Midi. Counties.
The pipe and tabour, for a long time very popular throughout Europe,
are now obsolete in England. NED
'Intensifying similies in English', T. Hilding Svartengren '

1943:

 

top of page