And my mum was a Wilson before she was married.
But talking about the keys instruments are (or were) in (which we weren't) - we tend to think of pitch as fixed. But it's gone up and down a lot. So an instrument now described as, for example,in C, might have been in B, or D, when the design was standardised. Maybe pitch didn't come into it, it was just made from a bit wood that was too small to be worth putting on the fire; or had been selected as a tool handle?
And as an (another) aside - Why have we been trained to think of concert C as the basic pitch anyway? A would surely make more sense as a basis. We tune to A, not C; which therefore wanders up and down a bit according to which temperament we're in, plus a bit of artistic license!