Walter Halliday

Walter Halliday (also spelled Haliday, Halyday, and Holliday) was a long-serving royal minstrel in England in the 15th century. He was a founder member of a minstrels' guild which was the forerunner of the present Worshipful Company of Musicians. He is believed to be the founding father of the Halliday family of Gloucestershire, and an ancestor of some of the Halliday/ Holladay/ Holliday/ Hollyday families in the United States of America.

Surviving records show that Walter was a minstrel in the service of three successive kings, for at least fifty-four years, between 1415. and 1469. This suggests that he was born not later than 1400.

According to Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of England (1836), Walter was a younger son of the chieftain of Annandale in Dumfries in Scotland. However, Burke does not cite the source of this information and, as the Bluemantle Pursuivant at the College of Arms stated in 1975, this book "is compiled from family traditions, not proved, and is not accepted as an authority; there are many errors in it".

The records show that, in addition to Walter, two other Hallidays were royal minstrels in the first half of the 15th century : William and Thomas. As William appears to have been older than the other two, it's possible that Walter and Thomas were brothers and William was their father. The recurrence of surnames in the lists of royal minstrels over the years strongly suggests "that minstrelsy could be a family business".

Walter's first recorded listing as a royal minstrel is at the battle of Agincourt in 1415. He, and William and Thomas, are listed among the minstrels in King Henry V's retinue. Thereafter, his name appears in the royal financial records on many occasions between 1421 and 1467, particularly in connection with payments of livery (clothing) allowances.

In 1423, King Henry VI authorised a regular payment to the minstrels. In 1439, Henry VI granted Walter and other minstrels an annual payment, on condition that they did not work for anyone else.

In the late 1440s, the royal court became aware that "many rude husbandmen and artificers" were posing as royal minstrels and charging money for their amateur performances. This defrauded the public, and cheated the real minstrels of income. In 1449, Henry VI therefore authorised William Langton (marshal of the minstrels), Walter Halliday, and five other royal minstrels to investigate these activities and to punish the impostors.

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