David was born in 1859, in Bonby, Lincolnshire, to George Bilton (shepherd) and his wife Obedience (nee Camplin).
He was apprenticed at the age of 12 to his elder sister's husband who was a blacksmith. He obviously did well as census records call him foreman blacksmith, and blacksmith and overseer.
He married Emily Turner in 1882 in Wooton, and they had a family of four children.
They settled down in Ulceby, where Percy Grainger met David and collected four songs from him. One of them "Barrow Ringers" has never been found elsewhere.
David & Emily moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1920s to live with their daughter Laura and her family. They both died there in 1932.