The term used in the original for waits is spiculatores, for which a more literal translation would be "watchmen"; this reflects the wide-ranging role of waits – they were not just entertainers, but also heralds, and nightwatchmen. In the 1460s the terms histriones (applied to performers, including minstrels) and ministrallis was also used for them.

We hear of the town employing a wait as early as 1366/67, when Ralph Wayt was paid 10s. as six months' salary. By the beginning of the fifteenth century there were two waits, sharing 40s. annual salary, and the number was later increased to three. However, the waits were not always employed for a full year, but sometimes only over the winter season when there were some important festivals requiring minstrelsy. The cost of their costumes was also subsidized, on occasion at least, and during the reign of Henry VI they were issued with miniature shields and collars, as badges of office. One of their tasks was to proclaim the Corpus Christi plays.

The fifteenth century saw a greater use of minstrels or waits than before, as ceremony became an increasingly important part of the political life of a town. In the fourteenth century we mostly find ad hoc engagements, often minstrels in the service of aristocrats but apparently touring the region. For example, in 1318/19 the mayor of Leicester paid 4d. to one Wade and his unnamed associate, minstrels, in 1338/39 of 3d. given to minstrels to pipe before the muster of armed citizens, and in 1375/76 of £1 as payments to messengers and minstrels on various occasions during the year. And the Dover borough accounts of 1365-67 include payments of 20d. to John Scot, harper, 24d. to three trumpeters performing on Christmas day (one in the service of a local knight), 2s.4d to minstrels performing on Corpus Christi and the day of Ascension, and 12d. to another trumpeter named Boffett.

We also hear in that account of 6s.8d was paid for a cloth decorated with the arms of the Cinque Ports to hang from the trumpet of Alan Trompour, and 13s. for clothing for Trompour and piper John Rustler. These payments suggest that some towns were beginning to designate "official" minstrels, although doubtless such men earned more of their living by private performances. York corporation had a trio – the "city waits" – on retainer from the time of Henry VI onwards; they were provided with uniforms each Christmas and paid fees for engagements, notably at Easter, Corpus Christi, the Nativity of St. John Baptist (24 June), Christmas, and the Translation of St. William (a former archbishop of York). In 1454 we even find that one of them has been granted a life pension, presumably for long service.