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One question concerning town waits that I have had for some time is whether we can be confident that someone named "Richard le Wayte" was in fact a town wait, or may just have "le Wayte" as his family name? Is "le Wayte" a more trustworthy indication of occupation than simply "Wayte"? (In Southampton in 1433, a new group of waits are adopted, and are identified as Richard March, John Goddislond, and William Goldsmith. In the 1434 accounts, the steward pays wages to Richard Wayte, John Wayte and William Wayte.) I ask this because such names turn up in deeds, patent rolls, court cases and the like, with no indication of performance, so the records themselves do not get printed, according to REED's principles of selection. Such references may, however, be very helpful in answering questions like the one I have about when Southampton had waits and when it did not. At some times in the town's history we know it had waits, from council minutes and the like, but did not pay them wages. Thus, a lack of reference to them in the steward's accounts does not mean they did not exist in a particular year. And should references to "David le Harpour" and other apparent indications that a person is a musician or performer be interpreted in the same way as the wait references? Peter Greenfield University of Puget Sound