Tom the piper's son

Can you please tell me the origin of the pub name "Pig and Whistle"

"Tom, Tom the Piper's Son
Stole a pig and away did run"

a whistle is a woodwind instrument - as in "penny-whistle" - a pig is just a pig, unless it gets the chop and then it is bacon.

L

No doubt this is completely irrelevant, but here's more about Tom, this time a song.

Oh, Tom he was a piper's son,
He learned to play when he was young,
But all the tune that he could play
Was "Over the hills and far away."
Over the hills and a long way off,
The wind will blow your top-knot off.
SS