Robert Hutton, comments and selected references

Robert Hutton spent most of his life in Wilmington, Delaware, owned a small business, raised a family, owned at least one recreational boat and was active in Scottish social and cultural organizations. His involvement in Irish music and Irish pipemaking was probably a sideline, not a longtime major interest. Still, Hutton was in Francis O'Neill's list of "living performers on the union pipes," 1917.

Earliest newspaper reference to him is as a Highland piper, elected as an officer and piper to Wilmington's newly-formed Social Literary Caledonian Club, 1872. At the time he would have been newly-arrived in Wilmington, or close to it. He spent the previous two or three years, after immigration from Scotland, in Philadelphia.

In the following years he is occasionally mentioned as piper for processions and entertainments, always in a Scottish context. Twice in the 1870s he was mentioned as an invited guest to the Scottish Games in Philadelphia.

I have found only one contemporary reference to Hutton as a pipemaker, the 1891 mention of him as one who "makes Scottish bag pipes which sell all over the country."

At some point, perhaps as early as his days in Philadelphia, Hutton became friends with William and Charles Taylor of that city. The Taylor brothers were regarded as the best of the uilleann pipemakers in North America. Their work is highly sought after to this day. Many years later Hutton wrote:

... both William and Charley tayler was a grate friend of mine the two taylers had one room above a beer solon on Second st and Chester street and i used to go and see them once a week the give me a grate deal of information about Making reeds for the irish Bag Pipes i only made Scotch Pipes and loved to hear him play on the irish Pipes he [William] could play on the Scotch Pipes also i used to take my pipes and we both Play on them...

Distance from Wilmington to Philadelphia is about 30 miles (50 km) and an easy day trip by railroad in the 1870s or 80s.

After William Taylor died, 1892, Charles stopped making pipes and sold pipemaking tools and a set of pipes to Hutton. This Taylor set is now in the collection of the Mercer Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania. To my eye some of the parts do not look like Taylor work: the reedcap, the bass regulator, the bass drone, the endcaps on the tenor and baritone regulators, for examples. These may be Hutton's work. The only other known example of Hutton's work is a full set of uilleann pipes made for William F. Maher (1862-1931) of New Haven, Connecticut. This set was later acquired by Tom Busby and is currently owned by a man in Ireland.

By 1920 Henry Mercer was looking for a set of uilleann pipes to purchase for his museum in Doylestown. He was collecting examples of pre-industrial tools and objects from crafts judged to be extinct, or nearly so. He wrote a letter to Hutton in 1920, asking about the Taylor's tools. Hutton waited seven years before replying and agreed to sell. This reply is one of the major sources of information about the Taylor brothers.

Robert Hutton, almost certainly our man, was listed in the 1861 Census of Scotland as born June 10, 1845, son of James Hutton and Janet Thompson. He was the eldest of six children and in 1861 his occupation was listed as Plumber. He married Margaret, perhaps around 1867, and they had two children. In Wilmington he had a business as "Plumber and Gas Fitter" and advertised often in the newspapers in the 1870s. An 1883 article describes him as "the well known plumber." His first wife died 1902; he later remarried. His son James, his business partner, died in 1914. Hutton apparently closed his business not long after.

Hutton died Jan. 10, 1930 and was buried at Silverbrook Cemetery, Wilmington.

Nick Whitmer July 2020
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"B. B. [Breandán Breathnach] Tom Busby, New York" [Tom Busby owns pipes made by Hutton] An Píobaire vol. 1 no. 2 Meitheamh 1969 p. 6
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1010&mediaId=25879

"A false Charge." [falsely charged with stealing a watch; described as the well known plumber] Wilmington DE Daily Gazette Dec. 6, 1883 p. 1 column 4
Newspapers.com

Hutton, Robert letter to Henry Mercer Dec. 30, 1927 From the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, PA.

"Instruments Mercer Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania" [the Taylor set once owned by Hutton] An Píobaire vol. 10 no. 5 Dec. 2014 pp. 24-25
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1019&mediaId=26064

"Local Intelligence Scotch-Americans." [piper to the Social Literary Caledonian Club] Wilmington DE Every Evening [Newspapers.com calls it the News Journal] Sep. 27, 1872 p. 4 column 2
Newspapers.com

Mercer, Henry letter to Robert Hutton Aug. 18, 1920 From the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, PA.

O'Neill, Francis "Names and addresses of living performers on the union pipes sent by Francis O'Neill in Chicago to Séamus Ó Casaide in Dublin, letters of June-August 1917." Transcribed by Michael Kelly from the National Library of Ireland, Séamus Ó Casaide Collection, Ms. 8116 (7).

"Scottish Games." [invited guest Robert Hutton] Philadelphia [PA] Inquirer Aug. 21, 1877 p. 2 column 1
Philadelphia PA Inquirer 1877 - 1590.pdf