In response to Keith’s question about this Robert Hastie, I paid a visit to the Haddington Archive where the Dunbar records are held.  I began with the 1720 volume but it wasn’t until I reached the meeting of November 8th 1725 that I came across mention of him. On that day the council declared that ‘the sallarie of Robert Hastie their present piper to be twentie pounds Scots yearly, he being obliged to furnish himself in a sufficient Livrie Coat…’, so by that time he was already established as piper.
I decided to press on, rather than call up the earlier volume to look for his first appointment; I needed to know whether he ceased to be piper in Dunbar around 1730. The answer turned out to be a resounding ‘No’. What’s more, the Hasties made it a family affair. Robert’s son William became an ‘Officer’ of the town, as did his brother Charles a little later. In addition the meeting of April 11 1748 recorded the appointment of ‘Robert Hastie younger son [then not quite 18 years old] of Robert Hastie piper in this Burgh, to be Drummer of said Burgh.”  He was to “perform the duty as usuall by going through the Town evening and morning with the drum.” This must be the first father-and-son pipe and drum team so far identified.
Nor was this the end of the Hastie regime, for on November 26 1762 the minute book recorded a petition presented to them by William Hastie “one of their Town officers craving to be admitted Town Piper in room of Robert Hastie deceased his father.” His petition was granted “upon the petitioner performing that office and going through the town with his pipes playing evening and morning as usual.”
Robert senior was Dunbar’s piper for more than 35 years - less than James Ritchie’s 65 years in Peebles, but  an impressive record nevertheless.

Pete Stewart