John Hilton the younger

His father was probably the church musician and composer John Hilton the elder, who died in Cambridge in 1609.

[2] Hilton junior became organist at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster in 1628, having published his music book Ayres or Fa-Las for Three Voices in 1627.

The diarist Samuel Pepys owned a copy of the 1667 edition and enjoyed it, writing on April 15, 1667, "Playford’s new Catch-book ... hath a great many new fooleries in it."

A few days later, he wrote, "[I] tried two or three grace parts in Playford’s new book, my wife pleasing me in singing her part of the things she knew, which is a comfort to my very heart.

Published in 1627, it represented one of the last publications of English song until John Playford's Musical Banquet of 1651 (the one exception being Walter Porter's Madrigales and Ayres of 1632).