John Hunsley

John Hunsley was a bagpiper from Manton, North Lincolnshire and last known player of the Lincolnshire bagpipes, which he played until shortly before his death at around 1850.[1]

Hunsley's music was described as unrefined, or "unmelodious",[2] but popular amongst his peers. Hunsley was known to play for riotous parties where guests "danced until the brick dust came through the soles of their feet."[3] One commentator noted that Hunsley's bagpipe was "little more than the Oaten Pipe improved with a bag."[4] Organologist Anthony Baines notes that Hunsley used to send his pipes to be "tuned" in Edinburgh.[5] Another reference claimed that he took the pipes himself, on a white pony. The same authority recorded that he was a champion boxer and wrestler, defeated only once in his life.[6]

References
  1. A commentator the 1881 Oxford Journals' Notes and queries noted that Hunsley played the pipes up until shortly before his death, which occurred "between twenty and thirty years ago."
  2. Oxford Journals (Firm) (1881). Notes and queries. Oxford University Press. pp. 95–. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  3. Lincolnshire famed for its sausages, flat landscape, cathedral and... bagpipes?. Lincolnshire Echo, 30 December 2010
  4. Christopher R. Wilson, Michela Calore. Music in Shakespeare: a dictionary. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 0-8264-7846-8, ISBN 978-0-8264-7846-7. Pg 33
  5. Anthony Baines (1979). Bagpipes. Pitt Rivers Museum. p. 134. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  6. Binnall, P.B.G. "A Man of Might" in FOLKLORE, Vol.52, pp.52-74, 1942


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