Hackney Waits

Three waits were licensed by Francis Tyssen in 1704 to play within the manor of Hackney, in an attempt to control revelry which had become a cloak for crime.
From: ‘Hackney: Social and Cultural Activities’, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 65-73.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22705&strquery=waits.