Biography:John Young

John Young was a London musical instrument maker and music seller at the sign of the Dolphin and Crown, in St. Paul's Church Yard, at the west side and at the corner of London House Yard. He partnered with John Cullen to produce the 13th edition of The Dancing Master after Henry Playford's death in 1706. Cullen, a publisher, appears to have acquired the Playford stock-in-trade at that time. Afterwards the Dancing Master volumes were published by Young until the last editions of 1728. Following Henry Playford's death there were a number of rival publishers who printed country dance collections, chief among them John Walsh, who issued his own Compleat Country Dancing Master that contained much of the same tunes and dances as the Playford volumes (in an age where there were few copyright controls). Thus, when Young took over the Dancing Master series there was increasing competition, which Young countered by making his volumes ever larger and more inclusive of both new and much older dances. Unfortunately, little is known of Young, save that he made musical instruments and had a son named Talbot who was a notable fiddler. Both father and son were known to John Playford (1623-1687, who published the original English Dancing Master in 1651, and who was Henry's father), however, for he commemorated them in a catch from one of his publications called The Pleasant Musical Companion: You scrapers that want a good fiddle well strung You should go to the man that is old while he's Young, But if this same fiddle you fain would play bold You must go to his son who'll be Young when he's old. There's old Young and young Young, both men of renown, Old sells and young plays the best fiddle in town. Young and old live together, and may they live long, Young to play an old fiddle, Old to sell a new song.