23/12/2019
The Bristol Cittie Waits History in brief - Mid 16th century to the Coronation of James II (1685)
The Waits are not mentioned among the list of guilds included at the beginning of the Ricart's Kalendar (1479-1557). Only in the 1550's did they to attain the status of a guild and were now granted the "liberties of the cittie". Before that time, they were regarded as minstrels to be hired for specific occasions and had been so for centuries. The Mayor's accounts book (c.1550's) shows that two apprentice musicians were trained to play loud and still shawms as well as stringed instruments (a rebec and a viol), but by the early 17th century saggbutts were beginning to replace the earlier hautbois (shawms). By the second decade there were five instruments, two of which were now saggbutts (a bass and probably a tenor: the size of instrument is rarely, if ever specified. An exception to this occurred in the case of a bass, where the entry states that, "a fifth man" was hired, "to play with the other musicions of the City, on the saggebutt (trombone), to make up a fifth part". The saggbutts continued in service as the main instruments played by the Waits throughout the 17th century, though a pair of brass trumpets, purchased by the Council in 1672, was used for civic duties connected with the Judges Assizes.
