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Costume of Colonial Times
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
COSTUME OF COLONIAL TIMES. 12mo,
$1.25.
CUSTOMS AND FASHIONS IN OLD NEW
ENGLAND. 12mo, $1.25.
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'Costume of
Colonial Times
BY
I3X^
ALICE MORSE EARLE
«JNlVERSlTr
OF
fFOI
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1894
Ex.
G-no7
/)JLr\t
Copyright, 1894, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
■LIUO^
Tnow omccTORY
miNTINO AMD BOOKKNOmr. COMPANY
NIW YONK
TO
HENRY EARLE
216709
CONTENTS
PAGB
Foreword, ix
History of Colonial Dress, .... 1
Costume of Colonial Times, ... 43
FOREWORD
The material for the compilation of this
glossary has been found in old letters,
wills, inventories of estates, court records,
and in eighteenth-century newspapers, hun-
dreds of which have been carefully examined
and noted.
Though the work would appear to have
been tedious, it has not so been found.
The old letters and wills have the charm of
quaint orthography and diction, and also
the purely personal interest arising from
the sense of touch with the writer thereof,
which always appeals so vividly to the im-
agination. The inventories and court
records have been so filled with curious
terms and items that they have never
seemed monotonous.
Foreword
The advertisements contained in old
newspapers have had for me a special
charm, the same indescribable and inex-
plicable fascination that held Hawthorne
an eager reader and made him spend hours
poring over the dusty files. These adver-
tisements afford an opportunity of insight
into the manners of their times no less in-
teresting than valuable, and in them con-
temporary social life is largely written.
Through the many glimpses thus given of
curious old-time customs, and the full
knowledge obtained of century - old fash-
ions, the reading and transcription has
never proved tiresome. I can fully echo
Mr. Ashton's declaration that "by taking
the very words of people then living, a
charm has been lent to the task which fully
compensated for the labor.''
Though the compilation of this glossary
has been a pleasure, I can also say, with
truth, in old Sir Thomas Browne's words,
" / have studied not for my own sake only.
Foreword
hut for theirs that study not for them-
selves.'' I hope and believe this hook will
prove of value and of use to artists, to
portrayers of old colonial days—portray-
ers not only in colors, hut in words— and
that it will help to prevent in the future
any such anachronisms as now disfigure
many of our stories and accounts of the
dress of early times, not only through
incorrect verbal description, but through
equally imperfect and inaccurate illus-
tration.
That the value of this work as a hook of
refererwe may he complete, I have endeav-
ored to give the price of materials and
garments at various dates, especially in
early colonial days ; also to show when
certain attire came into fashion — when it
became no longer the vogue.
When I have written of garments or
stuffs familiar to us at the present day,
it was because there was something in their
old-time form or use that varied from that
Foreword
of our own day ; or because some incident
of interest was attached to their assump-
tion. Sometimes it was simply to show
how ancient in use they were.
In the main, the fashions of the colonies
were the fashions of old England ; when a
garment or headgear came to he the mode
in London, scarce a year elapsed ere
Philadelphia, Boston, and Newport gentry
were also bedecked therewith. Still this
rule had exceptions. When all French
and English dames wore "commodes," I
do not doubt that women of wealth in
New York and Virginia thus dressed their
heads, but I have not been able to find a
single proof of the fact, not even an in-
stance of the use of the word on this side
the Atlantic.
I have found, however, that English au-
thorities on costume have made many
errors in dates ; for, of course, no modish
garment would be advertised in a New
England newspaper eight or ten years be-
Foreword
fore it was worn in London. I have
therefore paid slight heed to modern Eng-
lish and French writers on dress, hut have
preferred to cite my own examples of the
use of words, and to shape my own defini-
tions ; I note and define over one hundred
terms not given by Planche, the authority
on English costume.
The references to New England sources
of information may appear to predominate
herein, but the records and accounts of
the southern colonies have been searched
with equal care. Owing, however, to the
events of history, especially to the devas-
tation of two wars, the documents and
manuscripts, and even the newspapers of
Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas
have not been preserved to the same extent
as have been those of the more northern
colonies.
To the valuable books of reference in the
library of the Long Island Historical So-
ciety, and to the priceless files of newspa-
Foreword
pers in that happy haven for antiquaries —
the library of the American Antiquarian
Society at Worcester, Mass. — / owe much
of the information contained in these pages.
To these societies I give my sincere thanks
for their unbounded and cordial generos-
ity and their unvarying courtesy.
OBLIGE {MORSE EARLE.
Brooklyn Heights, September y 1894.
History of Colonial Dress
HISTORY OF COLONIAL DRESS
THE most devoted follower of fashion
in the present day gives no more heed
to dress and the nipd«s-thaiL_did the
early American colonist. J This close atten-^
tion was paid by the settler to his own attire'
and that of his neighbors, not so much
through his vanity or love of fashion and
dress, as through his careful regard of social
distinctions and his respect for the propri-.
eties of life.f He believed that ''dress had!
a moral effect upon the conduct of man- J
kind," and he studied to dress ''orderly!
and well according to the fashion and thai
time. ' ' I Dress was also to the colonists an;
important badge of rank; and for manyj
years class distinctions were as carefullyj
guarded and insisted upon in America as|
in England.^ Attempts were made through
"sumptuary laws in different colonies to
definitely fix and restrict the dress of what
3
•'Cbitiinris* of Colonial Times
\ Won*, Idbirt/if^ "Hie ' lower classes ; laws were
passed similar to those which had been
enforced in England by the English kings
and queens, especially the dress-loving Eliza-
beth. But these statutes proved a dire fail-
ure in the new land, and universal freedom
and much diversity of attire became a part
of the universal liberty.
Through the various records of colonial
days which have been preserved to us, and
through the interesting, though ofttimes
crude portraits of our ancestors which still
exist, it is possible to trace with considerable
precision the variations in dress in the differ-
ent settlements ; to note how quickly in
some localities the thrifty simplicity of the
attire of the early planters was abandoned,
and to picture the succession of modes.
The earliest Virginia planters were many
of them Cavaliers and had no Puritanical
horror of fine dress ; hence small attempt was
made at restriction of extravagance in attire
in that colony. Wealth was great, and if
the tobacco crop were large and factors
prompt, doubtless the gowns and doublets
which were sent from England were corre-
4
History of Colonial Dress
spondingly rich. Some mild sumptuary edicts
were sent forth **to suppress excess in
cloaths," such as the orders to Sir Francis
Wyatt in 1621. He was enjoined ''not to
permit any but the council and the heads
of hundreds to wear gold in their cloaths or
to wear silk till they make it themselves. ' *
This order was probably intended not so
much to discourage the wearing of silk as
to encourage its manufacture (as silk culture
v/as for many years a bee in the colonial
bonnet), and the law must have been a dead
letter. John Pory, Secretary of the Vir-
ginia colony, wrote about that time to a
friend in England,
Our cowekeeper here of James citty on Sundays
goes accoutred all in ffreshe fflaminge silke, and a
wife of one that had in England professed the blacke
arte not of a Scholler but of a Collier weares her
rough bever hatt with a faire perle hatband, and a
silken sute there to correspondent ;
which, I must say, strikes me as somewhat
grotesque and even comic, when I think of
the Indian-surrounded wilderness wherein
the ' ' fflaminge silk ' ' and fair pearl hatband
were worn.
Costume of Colonial Times
In 1660 the Virginia colonists were or-
dered to import *' no si Ike stiiffe in garments
or in peeces (except for whoodsand scarfes),
nor silver or gold lace, nor bone lace of
silke or threads, nor ribbands wrought with
gold or silver in them." I know of no
prosecutions or confiscations under this law.
In M^yland, that state of freedom, both
reUgious and social, no attempt was made to
restrict the dress of the settlers ; and there
is evidence that rich and varied wardrobes
were brought over by the lords of the
manors, those aristocratic emigrants, — more
varied and costly dress probably than was
that of any Puritans or Quakers. I have
never seen in the records of any other col-
ony proofs of such multifariousness of head
and neck gear, such frivolities and fripperies
as a Maryland gentleman left by will, with
other attire, in 1642 : " Nine laced stripps,
two plain stripps, nine quoifes, one call, eight
crosse-cloths, a paire holland sleeves, a paire
womens cuffs, nine plaine neck-cloths, five
laced neck-cloths, two plaine gorgetts, seven
laced gorgetts, three old clouts, five plaine
neckhandkerchiefs, two plain shadowes."
6
History of Colonial Dress
In nearly all cases in Maryland and Vir-
ginia, the prices of garments and of stuffs
by the yard or piece are given in pounds of
tobacco. Hence, through the variations in
value of that staple, it is difficult now to
assign exact values to articles named. Even
tailors' bills are made out with tobacco as
currency. One of the year 1643 reads :
To making a suit with buttons to it, . . 80 lb.
I ell canvas, 30 "
for dimothy linings, 30 "
for buttons & silke, 50 "
for points, . 50 "
for taffeta, • 58 "
for belly pieces, 40 "
for hooks & eies, 10 "
for ribbonin for pockets, 20 "
for stiffinin for a collar, 10 "
Sum, 378 lb.
As urban life for the wealthy did not pre-
vail in the eighteenth century in the southern
colonies as in New England, New York, and
Pennsylvania, but instead segregation on
widely separated plantations, there was not
through those years the same constant and
general rivalry in dress that was seen in the
7
Costume of Colonial Times
large northern towns. There was excep-
tional elegance at gatherings at races and
fairs and all folk-mootings, even at the
courts-leet and courts-baron in Maryland.
But at home the planters went in negligee
costumes, banians and night caps, as William
Byrd notes the ordinary dress in 1735. -^
writer in the London Magazine in 1745 also
remarked this carelessness of dress of the
Southern planters. He says :
'Tis an odd sight, that except some of the very
Elevated Sort few Persons wear Perukes, so that you
would imagine they were all sick or going to bed ;
Common People wear Woolen and Yam Caps, but
the better ones wear white Holland or Cotton.
Thus they travel fifty miles from Home. It may be
cooler for ought I know, but methinks 'tis very
ridiculous.
Perhaps no quotation could show more
thoroughly than the above the universal
prevalence of wig-wearing at that date among
folk of any pretence toward being well
dressed. Not only gentlemen, but children,
servants, negro slaves, soldiers, even convicts,
wore false headgear. A shipload of dis-
reputable, indentured servants, who were
i
History of Colonial Dress
nearly all rogues and vagabonds, were, ere
being landed in America, supplied with
second-hand wigs, in order to cut a compara-
tively respectable figure and obtain positions
as schoolmasters — a calling which seemed to
gather the worst dregs of the southern colo-
nies, and which was almost always filled by
redempti oners. So when the planters could
ride in their own hair, and with any such
ridiculous headgear as woollen or cotton caps,
they were indeed hopelessly lost to any sense
of propriety of carriage or dignity of apparel.
The southern newspapers of the half cen-
tury previous to the Revolution show few ad*-
vertisements of milliners and mercers ; no rich
and varied assortment of dress fabrics such as
fill the columns of New England and even of
Pennsylvania and New York papers of those
dates. I fear that southern dames knew few
of the pleasures of shopping ; they seldom
tip-toed on clogs or pattens or rode in sedan
chairs through narrow, crowded streets to
mantua-makers' and haberdashers' shops, or
on board great foreign-laden ships, or on the
teeming wharfs alongside, and pulled over
the lading of India gauzes and muslins and
9
Costume of Colonial Times
V =*
Italian silks and Dutch linens, as did favored
northern housewives. They prosaically sent
long lists to London merchants, who could be
paid from the next crop of tobacco, and then
waited patiently for return ships to bring to
them year-old fashions. One London house
had thirty Virginia planters, to whom it sent
a yearly supply of apparel. In a few cities —
Annapolis and Charleston — great elegance of
attire could be seen, but throughout the sur-
rounding counties not nearly as universal
modishness as obtained in northern villages
and towns. Even runaway servants were far
less showily and handsomely dressed; pos-
sibly because there were proportionately far
more servants and slaves to be dressed.
That many southern women dressed in a
graceful and elegant fashion we learn from
existing portraits. That of Anne Francis,
who married James Tilghman and became
the mother of the Revolutionary soldier
Colonel Tench Tilghman, displays a lovely
countenance, with a dress of much beauty
and simplicity. That of the unhappy Evelyn
Byrd, of Westover, Va., is equally graceful
in dress and carriage. Willi amine Wemyss,
History of Colonial Dress
wife of William Moore, of Moore Hall, Pa.,
is attired in a more picturesque, almost in
grotesque fashion, in sacque and coquettish
feathered hat. The wife of Governor Spots-
wood displays in her portrait a rich and
charming garb.
We know very well what a young Virginia
miss of gentle birth needed as fashionable
and proper attire in 1737 — what articles were
included in her wardrobe — through the or-
der given by Col. John Lewis for his young
ward. It reads thus :
A cap, ruffle, and tucker, the lace 5^. per yard.
1 pair White Stays.
8 pair White kid gloves.
2 pair Colour'd kid gloves.
2 pair worsted hose.
3 pair .thread hose.
I pair silk shoes laced.
1 pair morocco shoes.
4 pair plain Spanish shoes.
2 pair calf shoes.
I Mask.
I Fan.
I Necklace.
I Girdle and Buckle.
I Piece fashionable Calico.
4 yards Ribbon for knots.
L
Costume of Colonial Times
I Hoop Coat
1 Hat.
1 1-2 Yard of Cambric.
A Mantua and Coat of Slite Lustring.
A decade later George Washington ordered
from England for his little step -daughter —
''Miss Custis" — a very full list of costly
and modish garments :
8 pairs kid mitts.
4 " gloves.
2 " silk shoes.
4 " Calamanco shoes.
4 *' leather pumps.
6 •' fine thread stockings.
4 " " worsted "
2 Caps.
2 pairs Ruffles.
2 tuckers, bibs, and aprons if Fashionable.
2 Fans.
2 Masks.
2 bonnets.
I Cloth Cloak.
1 Stiffened Coat of Fashionable silk made to pack-
thread stays.
6 yards Ribbons.
2 Necklaces.
I Pair Silver Sleeve Buttons with Stones.
6 Pocket Handkerchiefs.
History of Colonial Dress
A little girl four years of age, in kid mitts,
a mask, a stiffened coat, with pack-thread
stays, a tucker, ruffles, bib, apron, necklace,
and fan,was indeed a typical example of the
fashionable follies of the day.
The step-son — Master Custis — was six
years old and was fitted out with equal care:
6 Pocket Handkerchiefs, small and fine.
6 pairs Gloves.
2 Laced Hats.
2 Pieces India Nankeen.
6 pairs fine Thread Stockings.
4 " Coarse " "
6 " Worsted
4 " strong shoes.
4 " Pumps.
I Summer suit of clothes to be made of something
light and thin.
I piece black Hair Ribbon.
I pair handsome Silver shoe & knee buckles.
I light duffel cloak with Silver Frogs.
As a pendant to this list of children's clothes
may be given the description of her own
evening dress, recorded by a school-girl of
twelve — Anna Green Winslow — in her diary
in 1 77 1 :
I was dressed in my yellow coat, black bib and
apron, black feathers on my head, my paste comb
13
Costume of Colonial Times
and all my paste, garnet, marquasett and jet pins,
together with ray silver plume — my locket, rings,
black collar round my neck, black mitts and yards
of blue ribbon (black and blue is high taste) striped
tucker & ruffles (not my best) and my silk pom-
pedore shoes completed my dress.
Other school-girls dressed equally well.
The little daughters of General Huntington,
of Norwich, Conn., were sent at that same date
from Norwich to Boston to be " finished ' '
in Boston schools by Boston teachers. The
outfit of one of these boarding-school misses
comprised twelve silk gowns, but her chaper-
on wrote that the young lady must have
another gown of a ' * recently imported rich
fabric," which was at once procured in or-
der that Miss Huntington's dress might cor-
respond with her rank and station.
It is easy to form a picture of the dress of
the first New England colonists. The inven-
tories of the apparel furnished in London to
the male settlers of Salem, Mass., and of
Piscataquay, N. H., are still in existence and
show to us, with minute exactness, the char-
acter and quantity of the garments of these
New England settlers. The supply to each
14
History of Colonial Dress
individual was liberal and of good quality,
but the chief characteristic was durability.
Both the breeches and long hose were of
leather or of heavy woollens lined with
leather. The Salem planters stepped on
shore in 1628 in either long hose or breeches.
By 1635 the New Hampshire settlers had
made a decided advancing step in fashion
in this portion of the attire — the long hose
were then quite out of date. The doublets
and jerkins of both companies of colonists
were of leather, the cassocks of cloth or
canvas, usually fastened with hooks and eyes
— buttons were a vanity. Strong and warm
caps and hats were in abundance ; also heavy
shoes and stockings. The leather and calf-
skin garments were, of course, quiet in color,
as were the mandillions or cloaks, but the
caps were of scarlet, and the waistcoats were
also scarlet or of green bound about with
red; and in 1633 we find that Governor
Winthrop had several dozen scarlet coats
sent from England to the Bay. The con-
signer wrote, '* I could not find any
Bridgwater cloth but Red ; so all the coats
sent are red lined with blew, and lace suit-
es
Costume of Colonial Times
able ; which red is the choise color of all."
So all was not sad-colored and dun in the
new land on the shores of the Bay or the
banks of the Piscataquay.
The good wives had correspondingly sim-
ple, durable, and plentiful attire, appropriate
for the laborious life they were forced to
lead, and for the rigorous climate they
encountered. But by 1650 the plenteous
crops, growing industries, and free commer-
cial exchange had, as Johnson noted at that
date in his Wonder Working Providence,
brought comfort and prosperity to Massa-
chusetts— and there also had entered a de-
sire for finer and costlier attire. The dura-
ble and appropriate leather doublets and
breeches were often replaced by garments of
fine wool, and even frail damask and velvet
were suggested. The good wives' gowns
and cloaks were also shaped from far more
costly and more beautiful fabrics. Alarmed
and indignant at this veering toward cavalier
ways, the watchful Connecticut and Massa-
chusetts magistrates at once passed sumptu-
ary laws to restrain and to attempt to pro-
hibit this luxury and extravagance of dress.
16
History of Colonial Dress
An estate of at least ;£^2oo was held neces-
sary in order to allow any freedom of costly
or gay attire.
We can be sure that the stern Puritan law-
makers did not base these prohibitory laws
on single instances of flaunting finery ; so let
us see what excess in apparel had become
common enough in New England to warrant
an alarmed attempt at extirpation. The
Massachusetts magistrates prohibited the
wearing of gold, silver or thread lace ; all
cut-works, embroideries, or needlework in
the form of caps, bands or rails ; gold and
silver girdles, hat-bands, belts, ruffs, or beaver
hats ; knots of ribbon ; broad shoulder-bands;
silk roses ; double ruffles or capes ; gold and
silver buttons ; silk points ; silk and tiffany
hoods and scarfs. Truly a fine array of fol-
lies. No wonder the thrifty souls were
alarmed when they beheld such gay and
varied bedizenings and bedeckings. And
the cut and fashioning of the settlers' gar-
ments became extreme. Women displayed
immoderate great sleeves and rails ; and
men walked in immoderate great sleeves and
boots and breeches; both w^ore slashed ap-
17
Costume of Colonial Times
parel and long wings — a. specially offensive
fashion.
Vain offenders against these sumptuary-
laws were presented by scores, and were
tried and fined ; and the selectmen of vari-
ous towns were arraigned for not prosecut-
ing the culprits. And the ministers preached
at them, and had tracts printed to warn and
deter them ; but still the haughty daughter
and proud sons ' ' psisted in ff lonting ' ' until
both preachers and magistrates gave up the
unequal struggle in despair, and yielded
gloomily with dire memories of Sodom and
Gomorrah, and premonitions of similar and
speedy annihilation.
The rich wardrobe of Colonel Thomas
Richbell, who died in Boston in 1682, must
have sorely vexed the stern magistrates, and
he must have appeared to them a gay flam-
boyant peacock in sober Boston streets. His
clothing was inventoried thus, and the inven-
tory is now in the Suffolk Probate Court.
jC- s. J.
I Sattin coate w*^ Gold Flowers & blew
breeches, 4 00
18
History of Colonial Dress
£. s. d.
I Scarlet coate & breeches w*** Silver i
Buttons, >-8 oo
I P' w*^* Damask breeches, . . . . )
I Stuffe Suite with Gold Buttons, . . 2 lo
I Silk Crape Suite, i
I Stuffe Suite with Silke Buttons, . . i
I Black Cloth Suite, ...... i
I Stuffe Suite with Lace, . ' . . . . i
1 haire Chamlett coate w* Froggs, . 2
7 p' white thread hose, 20s. 7 white
wastcoats, 3 4
4 p' Silke, I p' Scarlet worsted hose, 2
12 shirts L8 3 p"^ Holland drawers 12s., 8 12
II handkerchers, i8s. 3 caps, 3s., . . i i
7 Cravats & 7 p' Ruffels & Ribbands^ 7
3 hatts & bands, 2 10
2 Rapiers w'*^ Silver hilts & a belt, . 12
I Cane w* Silver Head, 10
3 small Periwiggs, 3
I Diamond Ri«g & Mourning Ring, . 3
I p"^ Bootes, 2p
But many simple folk, throughout the sev-
enteenth century, continued to dress plain-
ly, and offered by their frugality and absti-
nence a foundation on which for a while these
sumptuary statutes could be based. Leather
breeches, especially, continued to be worn
by thrifty townsmen and farm-folk as well
19
Costume of Colonial Times
as hunters, as long as breeches were worn at
all. "Leather breeches -m akers " advertise
in American newspapers till this century. -
Women's attire when simple in material
was often varied in shape. Jane Humphrey
of Dorchester, Mass., a woman of no wealth,
died in 1668. She owned a red kersey, a
blemmish serge, a red serge, a black serge,
and a green linsey woolsey petticoat — five
petticoats in all ; a sad grey kersey, a white
fustian, a green serge, a blue, and a murry
waistcoat — five waistcoats to correspond ;
two jumps ; a blue short coat ; a green
under coat ; a staning kersey coat ; a fringed
whittle ; a cloak; black silk, calico and hol-
land neckcloths ; white, blue, holland, and
green aprons ; quoifes and queues and hoods
and muffs ; a wardrobe which was certainly
sufficient in quantity and which also offered
variety.
No better expounder could be found of
the style of dress- and expense of dress-mak-
ing and tailoring of a well-to-do New Eng-
land family in those da}'S, than this tailor's
bill of William Sweatland for work done for
Jonathan Cor win of Salem. The manu-
History of Colonial Dress
script of the bill is in the library of the
American Antiquarian Society :
£. s. d.
Sept. 29, 1679. To plaiting a gown for
M^s- 36
To makeing a Childs Coat, .... 6
To makeing a Scarlett petticoat with Sil-
ver Lace for M"^- 9
For new makeing a plush somar for M's- 6
Dec. 22, 1679. For making a somar for
your Maide, 10
Mar. 10, 1679. To a yard of Callico, . 2
To I Douzen and \ of silver buttons, . i 6
To Thread, 4
To makeing a broad cloth hatte, . . .' 14
To making a haire Camcottcoat, . . 9
To making new halfsleeves to a silk
Coascett, I
March 25. To altering and fitting a paire
of Stays for M"- I
Ap. 2, 1680, to makeing aGowne for ye
Maide, 10
May 20. For removeing buttons of y'
coat, 6
Juli 25, 1630. For makeing two Hatts
and Jacketts for your two sonnes, . 19
Aug. 14. To makeing a white Scarson-
nett plaited Gowne for M"- . . 8
To makeing a black broad cloth Coat for
yourselfe, 9
21
Costume of Colonial Times
[\0ic £• s. d.
Sep. 3, 1868. To making a Silke Laced
Gowne for M**- i 8
Oct. 7, 1680, to makeing a Young Childs
Coate, 4
To faceing your Owne Coat Sleeves, . i
To new plaiting a petty Coat for M"^- . i 6
Nov. 7. To makeing a black broad
Cloth Gowne for M.^- 18
Feb. 26, 1 680-1. To Searing a Petty
Coat for M«- 6
Sum is, ;^8. 4^. lod.
The dress of the settlers on the Connecti-
cut Valley differed little from that of the
Puritans on the coast. Richard Sawyer died
in 1648 in Windsor, Connecticut ; his wear-
ing apparel was thus inventoried :
£. s. d.
I musck - colour'd cloth doublitt &
breeches, i
I bucks leather doublitt, 12
I calves leather doublitt, 6
I liver-colour' d doublitt & jacket &
breeches, 7
I haire-colour'd doublitt & jackett &
breeches, 5
I paire canvas drawers, 16
I olde coate. i paire old gray breeches, 5
History of Colonial Dress
£. s. d.
I stuff jackett, 26
I paire greene knit mens hose, ... 2
I paire old knit cotten hose, ... i .6
I old coloured hatt, 3
I new coloured hatt, 7
10 Bands, 15
3 shirts, 12
I paire old boots, 5
I paire old shoes, 2
I paire cloth buskins, 7
Goodman Sawyer had a more varied ex-
ternal covering than the Salem settlers, but
his undergarments were not equal either in
quantity or quality.
The outfit of the Maine colonists was sim-
ilar, but contained more garments for the
use of sailors and fishermen — haling-hands,
trushes, slyders, barvells, batts, and broags —
as became a fishing community.
At last there arose in New England a
truly vain people. From every source open
to the antiquary proof can be obtained that,
with the early years of the new century,
sobriety and economy of dress were lost to
the children of the Puritans and Pilgrims.
The '' pestilent heretics " of Rhode Island,
23
Costume of Colonial Times
the Quakers, Baptists, and Gortonians, were
troubled with no sumptuary legislation, nor
were they wealthy enough to be very extrav-
agant; but soon the opulent Narragansett
planters could boast a richness of attire that
rivalled that of town-folk. In Boston the
influence of the Royal Governor and his
staff established a miniature court which
closely aped English dress and manners, and
rivalled English luxury. An English trav-
eller, Bennett, wrote of Boston in 1740,
''Both the ladies and gentlemen dress and
appear as gay in common as courtiers in
England on a coronation or birthday."
Whitefield complained bitterly of the '' fool-
ish virgins of New England covered all over
with the pride of life;" of the jewels,
patches, and gay apparel commonly worn.
Other travellers made similar observations
on the bravery of the modes ; and from the
account-books and letter-books of merchants,
the lists of the wardrobes of deceased per-
sons, the printed advertisements of milliners
and mercers, we obtain proof of great luxury
and richness of dress, which lasted through-
out the century. The attire of the signers
34
History of Colonial Dress
of the Declaration of Independence showed
no Republican simplicity.
With all this love of dress and the lavish
expenditure for rich attire, there came no
wastefulness. The papers abound in adver-
tisements of dyers who will new calender
and dye old gowns and cloaks and ^refinish
old stuffs and silks. We find even so fine a
lady as Peter Faneuil's sister, Mary Ann,
sending her gowns to London to be dyed
and returned to her ; and her old gloves and
shoe-roses and shoe-strings to be sold. And
clothing was carefully bequeathed by will ;
sometimes a garment served through three
generations.
We have a most interesting and valuable
contribution to our knowledge of colonial
dress in New York, in the list of the ward-
robe of the widow of Dr. Jacob De Lange,
of New York, in 1682. It consisted of
twelve costly petticoats, six samares, and
other articles in smaller number. It was far
richer than any list I have ever seen of the
possessions of New England goodwives.
The jewels are exceptionally rich ; I doubt
if any woman in New England had such at
25
Costume of Colonial Times
that time. The silver girdle-chain and em-
broidered purse were Dutch, not English
fashions. The list reads thus :
£. s. d.
One under petticoat with a body of red
bay, 17
One under petticoat, scarlet, 115
One petticoat, red cloth with black lace, . 215
One striped stuff petticoat with black
lace, 18
Two colored drugget petticoats with gray
linings, 12
Two colored dnigget petticoats with white
linings, 18
One colored drugget petticoat with pointed
lace, 8
One black silk petticoat with ash gray silk
lining, i 10
One potto-foo silk petticoat with black silk
lining, 2 15
One potto-foo silk petticoat with taffeta
lining, i 13
One silk potoso- i-samare with lace, . . 3
One tartanel samare with tucker, ... i 10
One black silk crape samare with tucker, . i 10
Three flowered calico samares, . . . . 2 17
Three calico nightgowns, one flowered,
two red, 7
One silk waistcoat, one calico waistcoat, . 14
One pair of bodice, 4
Five pair white cotton stockings, ... 9
36
History of Colonial Dress
£. s. d.
Three black love-hoods, 5
One white love-hood, 26
Two pair sleeves with gjeat lace, ...13'
Four comet caps with lace, 3
One black silk rain cloth cap, .... 10
One black plush mask, 16
Four yellow lace drowlas, 2
One embroidered purse with silver bugle
and chain to the girdle and silver
hook and eye, 14
One pair black pendants, gold nocks, . . 10
One gold boat, wherein thirteen diamonds
& one white coral chain, 16
One pair gold stucks or pendants each
with ten diamonds, 25
Two diamond rings, 24
One gold ring with clasp beck, .... 12
One gold ring or hoop bound round with
diamonds, 2 10
Dr. De Lange's wardrobe was abundant,
but not so rich :
£. s. d.
I Grosgfrained cloak lined with silk, . . 2 10
I Black broadcloth coat, i 10
I Black broadcloth suit, i 15
1 Coat lined with red serge, i 15
2 Old coats, I 10
I Black grosgrained suit, i 14
I Coloured cloth waistcoat with silver but-
tons, 14
27
Costume of Colonial Times
£. s. d.
1 Coloured serge suit with silver buttons, . 5
3 silk drawers, 2
2 Calico drawers, 26
3 White drawers, 6
I pair yellow hand gloves with black silk
fringe, 14
5 pair white Calico Stockings, .... g
I pair Black worsted Stockings, .... 4
I pair gray worsted Stockings, .... 5
I fine black hat, i old gray hat, i black
hat, I 10
As no breeches are named in this inventory,
and such a goodly number of coats, I think
the eight pairs of drawers were summer
breeches.
When Cornelius Stienwerck, a wealthy
man. Mayor of. New York, died at about
that same date, he left in one room — his
'^ great chamber" — twelve coats, eight pair
breeches, three cloaks and two doublets.
The outfit of the wife of a respectable and
well-to-do Dutch settler in New Netherlands
differed somewhat from that of Madame De
Lange. Vrouentje Ides Stoffelsen left be-
hind her in 1641 a gold hoop ring, a silver
medal and chain and a silver undergirdle to
28
History of Colonial Dress
hang keys on ; a damask furred jacket, two
black camlet jackets, two doublets — one iron
gray, the other black; a blue, a steel-gray
lined petticoat, and a black coarse camlet-
lined petticoat ; two black skirts, a new
bodice, two white waistcoats, one of Harlem
stuff; a little black vest with two sleeves, a
pair of damask sleeves, a reddish morning
gown, not lined ; four pair pattens, one of
Spanish leather ; a purple apron and four blue
aprons ; nineteen cambric caps and four linen
ones ; a fur cap trimmed with beaver ; nine
linen handkerchiefs trimmed with lace, two
pair of old stockings, and three shifts. One
disposed to be critical might note the some-
what scanty proportion of underclothing in
this wardrobe, and as Ides' s husband swore
'^ by his manly troth" that the list of her
possessions was a true and complete one, we
are forced to believe that it was indeed all
the underclothing she possessed.
In the following century, many New York
women had rich jewels. Mary Duyckinck
Sinclair in 1736 bequeathed by will:
One gold chaane of five strings. One neclase of
Large Perels. One Large Diamond ring. One gold
29
Costume of Colonial Times
Watch. One Picter set in gold. One paer of gold
Ear Rings with Learge Perels set in them. One
necklase of perels of five strings and gold Lockit.
One gold ring with a red stone. One gold Cross
laaid in with Pressious stones. One gold Girdel
Buckell. One gold hair Neadell.
By Revolutionary times love of dress every-
where prevailed throughout the State of New
York — a love of dress which caused great ex-
travagance and was noted by all travellers.
The Chevalier de Crevecoeur gave his testi-
mony to the extravagance of New York fair
ones, saying, '' If there is a town on the
American continent where EngHsh luxury
displayed its follies it is in New York. . . .
In the dress of the women you will see the
most brilliant silks, gauzes, hats and borrowed
hair. ' ' Miss Rebecca Franks, a Philadelphia
belle, wrote in 1778 of society in New York :
You can have no idea of the life of continued
amusement I live in ; I can scarce have a moment to
myself. I have stole this while everybody is retired
to dress for dinner. I am but just come from under
Mr. J. Black's hands, and most elegantly dressed am
I for a ball this evening at Smith's, where we have
one every Thursday. I wish to Heaven you were
going with us this evening to judge for yourself. . . .
30
History of Colonial Dress
The Dress is more ridiculous and pretty than any-
thing I ever saw — great quantity of different colored
feathers on the head at a time besides a thousand
other things. The Hair dress'd very high, in the
shape Miss Vining's was the night we return'd
from Smith's — the Hat we found in your Mothers
closet wou'd be of a proper size. I have an afternoon
cap with one wing, tho* I assure you I go less in
the fashion than most of the Ladies — no being dress'd
without a hoop. . . . No loss for partners. Even
I am engaged to seven different gentlemen, for you
must know 'tis a fixed rule never to dance but two
dances at a time with the same person. Oh, how I
wish Mr. P. wou'd let you come in for a week or two
— tell him I'll answer for your being let to return. I
know you are as fond of a gay life as myself — you'd
have an opportunity of rakeing as much as you
choose at either Plays, Balls, Concerts or Assem-
blys.
A Hessian officer ^v^ote mth equal deci-
sion of the extravagance of fair country
maids, throughout the State :
They are great admirers of cleanliness and keep
themselves well shod. They friz their hair every
day and gather it up on the back of the head into a
chignon at the same time puffing it up in front.
They generally walk about with their heads un-
covered and sometimes but not often wear some light
fabric on their hair. Now and then some country
31
Costume of Colonial Times
nymph has her hair flowing down behind her, braid-
ing it with a piece of ribbon. Should they go out
even though they be living in a hut, they throw a
silk wrap about themselves and put on gloves.
They also put on some well made and stylish little
sunbonnet, from beneath which their roguish eyes
have a most fascinating way of meeting yours. In
the English colonies the beauties have fallen in love
with red silk or woolen wraps. The wives and
daughters spend more than their incomes allow.
The man must fish up the last penny he has in his
pocket. The funniest part of it is the women do
not seem to steal it from them, neither do they ob-
tain it by cajoling, fighting, or falling in a faint.
How they obtain it is a mystery, but that the men
are heavily taxed for their extravagance is certain.
The daughters keep up their stylish dressing because
their mothers desire it. Nearly all articles neces-
sary for the adornment of the female sex are very
scarce and dear. For this reason they are wearing
their Sunday finery. Should this begin to show signs
of wear I am afraid that the husbands and fathers
will be compelled to make peace with the Crown if
they would keep their women folk supplied with
gewgaws.
The Quakers, through custom and de-
nominational law, were pledged to simple,
sober, and uniform dress ; yet even they felt
the love of dress, which was so strongly
crescent everywhere throughout the colonies
33
History of Colonial Dress
in the early part of the eighteenth century.
In 1726 the ^' woman ffriends " at the Yearly
Meeting at Burlington, felt constrained to
send, through their spokeswoman, Hannah
Hill, a formal deprecatory message to their
fellow women-Quakers. It ran thus :
As first, that Immodest fashion of hooped petti-
coats or the imitation either by something put into
their petticoats to make them set full, or any other
imitation whatever, which we take to be but a branch
springing from the same corrupt root of pride. And
also that none of our ffriends accustom themselves to
wear the gowns with superfluous folds behind, but
plain and decent, nor go without aprons, nor to wear
superfluous gathers or plaits in their caps or pinners,
nor to wear their heads drest high behind ; neither
to cut or lay their hair on their foreheads or temples.
And that ffriends be careful to avoid wearing
striped shoes or red and white heeled shoes or clogs
or shoes trimmed with gaudy colors.
And also that no ffriends use that irreverent
practice of taking snuff or handing a snuff box one
to the other in meeting.
Also that ffriends avoid the unnecessary use of
fans in meetings lest it direct the mind from the
more inward and spiritual exercises which all ought
to be concerned in.
And also that ffriends do not accustom themselves
to go with bare breasts or bare necks.
33
Costume of Colonial Times
I By Benjamin Franklin's day Philadel-
phians were as fond of dress as were other
Americans. Even that rigid and thrifty
economist sent home from France, to his
j Deborah and his daughter, silk negligees,
[white cloaks and plumes, satin cardinals,
land paste shoe-buckles, that they might not
r dress with singularity." By Revolution-
ary days Philadelphia outdid other towns in
folly, and surpassed them in lavishness ; com-
ing to a climax of astonishing frivolity and
extravagance in that extraordinary and pict-
uresque revel, the Meschianza — a pageant
more resembling a royal masque than an
assembly in a staid Quaker town. General
Greene declared the luxury of Boston **an
infant babe ' ' to that of Philadelphia. An-
other officer wrote to General Wayne. ' ' The
town is all gayety, and every lady and gentle-
man endeavors to outdo the other in splendor
and show ; " and we read in Washington's
diary, in Adams's, of the luxury and display
in Philadelphia.
It is curious to note that the succession of
events in European and American history
can be traced through the commemorative
34
History of Colonial Dress
names given to garments worn in colonial
da}^. Rami Hies and Campaign wigs, Que-
bec cloaks, Garrick hats, Brunswick cloaks,-
Kitty Fisher bonnets, all show the marks of
passing events or historic or notorious person-
ages. At a later date, when French ideas so
largely dominated in America, French names
and references constantly appear; a notable
example being the various applications of the
words air-balloon and parachute at the be-
ginning of the aeronautic craze. The open-
ing of the East India trade brought to
America many Chinese and Indian stuffs,
the names of which are now nearly all obso-
lete. I have given in my book. Customs
and Fashions in Old New England, over
one hundred names of oriental stuffs, whose
exact definition cannot now be indicated,
and which were of silk, cotf:on, linen, or
cotton and silk, and were usually gauzes,
cottons, or muslins for summer wear, which
took their name from the Indian town or
community where they were manufactured.
I have also noted in the same book the
curious fact that, from the letters and diaries
of early days, we gain a notion not so much
35
Costume of Colonial Times
of the vanity of our grandmothers as of our
grandfathers. Comparatively few letters
written by colonial women have been pre-
served ; indeed, the women of those days
were not great letter-writers, and their rare
letters seldom refer to dress. But the letters
of their husbands and brothers speak with
no uncertain voice of the pains these good,
sober, pious gentlemen took with their gar-
ments— their satisfaction in becoming cloth-
ing ; their intense discontent over ill-fitting
or ill-colored attire. They are as eager for
*' patterns" and modes as any country girl
on her first visit to town. Here is a portion
of a letter written to New London in June,
1706, by John Winthrop, a young Boston
spark, to a fellow-dandy, his uncle Fitz-John
Winthrop, a sedately foppish old gentleman
of nearly seventy summers :
Since my last I have picked up at severall shopps
in towne a parcell of pattemes which are inclosed.
There is no choise of anything. Everything very
ordinary and extravigantly dear. It was an acci-
dental! thing I litt upon y' camblett which was
very good and very cheap as times goe. As soon
as ever I see it at Banisters shopp I thought it
was ye genteelest thing I had seen anywhere.
36
History of Colonial Dress
Yo' Honours Cote, my Cote, Gov' Dudleys cote
and his sonns cote took up y« whole piece. There
is no cloths y* are fitt for a jackett and britches
for yo' Honour & if there were they would be
too hott for summer ; and no silks but a parcell of
slimsey gaudy things that yo"^ Honour would not
like. It is a great fashion here to wear West India
linnens. I have enclos'd some of ye best patternes.
They make pretty light cool wastcotes and britches.
Everybody of any fashion wears them in summer.
Scores of reference to dress abound in the
letters of Wait Winthrop, that solid man of
Boston, and of his brother Fitz-John. Very
rarely women's attire is ordered, and with
but scant explanation, simply a gown or a
petticoat ; but for their own masculine gar-
ments such sentences as these were exchanged
by the brothers ;
I desire you to bring me a very good camlet
cloake lyned with what you like except blew. It
may be purple or red or striped with those or other
colors if so worn suitable and fashionable. ... I
would make a hard shift rather than not have the
cloak.
I have sent youre sute by Major Palmer. The
stufe was ye most fashionable y* could be got,
Y* which is most in weare is a drugett but here
is iK)t a piece in town.
37
Costume of Colonial Times
I have endeavour'd to sute you with what you
wrote for ; the coate is of the best drab de bury in
towne. The serge as fine as I could get.
Indeed, John Winthrop ordered so many
suits in Boston that I did not wonder at his
brother-in-law's suggestion that he wear out
those he already had ere he bought others.
Even petty articles, such as hats and shoes,
received from him vast attention, and he
condescended much to buttons and made
careful drawings and descriptions of modish
buttonholes which he desired. A certain
buckled buff belt caused so much exchange
of correspondence that it was truly a Girdle
of Opakka, a symbol of prudence, thrift, and
decision.
Rough old Governor Belcher was equally
fond of dress. In 1740 he wrote thus to his
son :
In this bundle is a leathern wastcoat & breeches
which get lac'd with gold in the handsomest manner;
not open or bone lace but close lace something open
near the head of the lace. Let it be substantial
strong lace. The buttons to be metal buttons with
eyes of the same, not buttons with wooden molds &
catgut loops which are good for nothing. They
History of Colonial Dress
must be gilt with gold & wrought in imitations of
buttons made with thread or wire. You must also
send me a fine cloth jockey coat of same colour with
the wastcoat and breeches, and lined with a fine
shalloon of same colour, & trim'd plain, onely a but-
ton with same sort as that of the wastcoat but pro-
portionably bigger. The coat may be made to fit
me by the wastcoat. I must also have two pair of
fine worsted hose to match this suit, and a very good
hatt laced or not as may be the fashion, and a sett of
silver buckles for shoes & knees & another sett of
pinchbeck, ... I desire to buy me as much
three pile black velvet such asy is made for mens wear
and the best can be had for Anoney, as much as will
make me a compleat suit, the buttons and holes to be
of the same with the cloaths, and the lining of the
best double shagrine of a dark gold colour, if that not
to be had some other good lining silk of that colour.
I herewith deliver you my measure that the cloaths
may be made to, and rather too big than too little.
I desire you also to buy me a nightgown of the best
Genoa damask that is made for mens wear. Let the
gown be every way large enough for you and it will
fitt me. Let the colour of the outside and lining be
a deep crimson. And I would have to spare a yard
of the velvet & two of the damask.
Though he characterized himself as '*a
poor Governor living from hand to mouth,"
these letters of Belcher's indicate no poverty,
and his portrait displays a rich embroidered
39
Costume of Colonial Times
coat and waistcoat with fine laces and elab-
orate frogs and buttons.
From the days of his early manhood
George Washington showed a truly proper —
indeed, I may say a truly masculine love of
dress. We find him in 1747, when a lad of
fifteen, making this careful note for a tailor :
Memorandum. To have my coat made by the
following Directions, to be made a Frock with a
Lapel Breast. The Lapel to contain on each side
six Button Holes & to be about 5 or 6 inches wide all
the way equal, & to turn as the Breast on the Coat
does, to have it made very long Waisted and in
Length to come down to or below the bent of the
knee, the Waist from the Armpit to the Fold to be
exactly as long or Longer than from thence to the
Bottom, not to have more than one fold in the Skirt
and the top to be made just to turn in and three But-
ton Holes, the Lapel at the top to turn as the Cape
of the Coat and Button to come parallel with the But-
ton Holes and the Last Button Hole on the Breast
to be right opposite the Button on the Hip.
After his marriage to a rich widow, Wash-
ington showed equal interest in the dress of
his increased family. In one order in 1759,
he sent for these articles of wearing apparel for
himself and his wife ; and as he said, ** partic-
40
History of Colonial Dress
ularized the sorts, qualities, and taste, all to be
good and fashionable of their several kinds."
A Light Summer Suit made of Duroy by the measure.
4 pieces Best India Nankeen.
2 best plain beaver Hats at 21s.
I piece Black Satin Ribbon.
1 Sword belt red morocco or buff, no buckles or rings.
A Salmon Coloured Tabby of the Enclosed Pattern
to be made in a sack & coat.
A Cap, Handkerchief, Tucker, & Ruffles to be made
of Brussels Lace or point proper to be worn with
the above negligee, to cost ;^20.
2 Fine Flowered Aprons.
I pair womans white silk hose.
6 " " fine cotton "
4 " " " thread "
I pair black satin, i pair white satin shoes of. small-
est 5s.
4 " calamanco shoes.
I Fashionable hat or bonnet.
6 pairs Womens best Kid Gloves.
8 " " " " Mitts.
1-2 Dozen Knots & Breastknots.
I " Round Silk Laces.
I Black Mask.
I Dozen most Fashionable Cambric Pockethandker-
chiefs.
Washington throughout his life never let
affairs of state or war crowd out his love of
41
Costume of Colonial Times
fitting and rich attire ; and in every order
to England, the instructions to secure the
latest modes, the reigning fashion, were
strenuously dwelt upon. Other Revolution-
ary heroes were equally vain, and vied with
judges, doctors, and merchants, in rich and
carefully studied attire; but Washington
was
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion, and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers.
4a
Costume of Colonial Times
COSTUME OF COLONIAL TIMES
Alamode. a plain soft glossy silk much
like lustring or our modern surah silk, but
more loosely woven. It was originally made
on the Continent, and is said to have been
first made in England in 1693 in the reign
of William and Mary. I find from Judge
Sewall's letter-book, published by the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society, that he ordered
it, with other dress fabrics, from England as
early as 1687. In 1697 John Lane, of Wo-
burn, Mass., left *' 20 els of alamod " by
will. The name appears constantly until after
Revolutionary times, certainly until 1785,
in New England and Southern newspapers,
in miUiners', mercers', and other shopkeep-
ers' lists, under the various and ingenious
spellings with which our forbears managed
to vary their orthography — elamond, ali-
mod, olamod, alemod, arlimod, allamode,
and ellimod — and must have been widely
45
Costume of Colonial Times
used. In the Boston News Letter of Sep-
tember 15, 1 715, is an early advertisement
which reads, '* Allamods French and Eng-
lish." I also find allamode fringes adver-
tised in the Boston Evening Post of June,
1756. It was largely employed for man-
tuas and hoods and for linings for rich gar-
ments.
Allapine. This woollen stuff, also
spelled ellapine, allpine, alpine, was fre-
quently mentioned in public and private in-
ventories of the first half of the eighteenth
century. It must have been strong and
good, for it was not cheap. It was ap-
parently used exclusively for men's wear.
Captain William Templer's best suit of
garments was a *' double Allpine coat and
breeches" and was worth ;^2 5. In
1 741 WiUiam Bennet's "Speckled Jacket
and Breeches" of allapine were worth ;^9,
Allapine was advertised in the Boston
News Letter in 1739 and 1742, but I
have not found it named in newspapers
of later dates.
Costume of Colonial Times
Apron.
These aprons white of finest thrid,
So choicely tide, so dearly bought,
So finely fringed, so nicely spred.
So quaintlie cut, so richlie wrought.
— Pleasant Quippes for Netv-Fangled
Upstart Gentlewomen. ijg6.
I doubt not many an apron <:ame over in
the Mayflower. Wood in his New Eng-
land's Prospects, 1634, speaks of ordering
'' Green Sayes for aprons." Early inven-
tories of the effects of emigrant dames con-
tain many an item of those housewifely
garments : Jane Humphreys, of Dorchester,
Mass., had in her good wardrobe, in 1668,
*' 2 Blew aprons, A White Holland Apron
with a Small Lace at the bottom. A White
Holland Apron with two breathes in it.
My best white apron. My greene apron."
After the death of Madam Usher, who had
been the v/idow of President Leonard Hoar
of Harvard College, and who had a rich
wardrobe, much of her clothing was sent to
her daughter, in 1725; among the items
enumerated were, ^' 9 aprons, five of them
short." By this time aprons had become
an indisputable, almost an essential part of
47
Costume of Colonial Times
a fine lady's attire. Queen Anne wore
them, and of course all fashionable and
loyal women in England did likewise and in
New England also. As soon as advertise-
ments of dress goods and articles of dress
appeared in New England newspapers, such
notices as this were found — of the New
England Weekly Journal of 1739, ''Beauti-
ful Gold and Silver Brocade Aprons ; " of
1740, *' Short Aprons wrought with Gold,"
''Minuet Aprons;" or this of Sally Trip-
pers of Draw Lane, Hartford, in 1766,
" Female Aprons for ladies from eighteen to
fifty." Striped gauze and " drest picket"
and lawn-embroidered aprons appear, show-
ing that they were purely an ornamental,
not a useful adjunct to the toilet. Lessons
were given and patterns sold for embroid-
ering aprons, in Dresden work, cross-stitch,
and darned work. Sample aprons were
sent from England and eagerly copied by
deft-fingered New England dames. Until
well into this century aprons were worn
— indeed until our own day, when the
pretty feminine fancy has been too much
given over to servant maids.
48
Costume of Colonial Times
Arlimod. See Alamode.
Armozine. Also Armoisine and Arma-
ziNE. A strong corded silk used from the
time of Elizabeth to that of George III. In
Hakluyf s Voyages we read of '' armesine of
Portugall." I presmne the ** Black Ermo-
zeen " advertised in the Massachusetts Ga-
zette of September 26, 1771, was armozine.
I have also found it in inventories spelled
armazine. It was used for gowns for
women and waistcoats for men.
Artois. a long cloak made with several
capes and worn by women about 1790. It
had lapels and revers like a box-coat.
Baize. This was quite as frequently spelt
bayes. It was a coarse woollen cloth made
at Norwich and Colchester in the time of
Elizabeth, and called Colchester baize as
late certainly as 1775, for in the Connecticut
Courant of December 11 of that year,
'' common blue and white Colchester baize "
was advertised for sale, and ** white bayes"
also. In Peter Faneuil's time — 1737 — it
was worth five shillings a yard. We often
49
Costume of Colonial Times
find it composing portions of the dress of
runaway servants, especially the petticoats
and jackets of negro slaves.
Band. A stiff collar of linen or cambric
worn by nearly all Puritans. We read in
the Character of a Roundhead, 1 640 :
What creature's this with his short hairs,
His Httle band, and huge long ears,
That this new faith hath founded ?
Four plain and three falling bands were sup-
plied to each settler of Massachusetts Bay.
The various shapes may be seen in the por-
traits of the times. They were usually
severely simple — indeed, embroidered and
broad bands were forbidden by sumptuary
laws in New England. They were some-
times fastened by narrow ferret or by band-
strings, cords, and tassels, as in the portrait
of Governor Winslow (1645), and of Gover-
nor Endicott (1655). Geneva bands were
worn by the ministers. Women wore laced
bands. Lawyer Lechford in his note-book
gave the cost of eighteen bands as thirty-six
shillings, in 1639. The judges of the Su-
50
Costume of Colonial Times
preme Court wore bands when on the bench
till this century. See FaUing-Band.
Bandilier. a case of wood or metal
covered with leather and strung with cord
on a belt. The cover was made to slip up
and down on the cord that it might not be
lost. It contained charges of powder, and
thus formed part of a soldier's outfit. The
band holding these bandiliers was frequently
of strong neat's leather, and was sometimes
worn over one shoulder and hung down
under the opposite arm. In certain accounts
of the times the word bandileer appears to be
applied collectively to the band with its sus-
pended cases, instead of to the case alone.
Banyan. '^ A morning gown such as is
worn by the Banians." In 1735 the New
England Weekly Journal contained an ad-
vertisement of *'Starretts for Gowns and
Banyans," and in 1739 '< Scarlet Cloth for
Banyans ; " in the preceding year the
Weekly Rehearsal had one of '^Banjans
made of Worsted Damask Brocaded Stuffs,
Scotch Plods and Calliminco. ' ' The Boston
News Letter of 1742, had '* Masqueraded
51
Costume of Colonial Times
Stuffs suitable for Gown, and Banyans." In
the Boston Gazette of April 17, 1769, we
read of a '* Ran away Negro Boy named
Robin of yellow complexion and hair, car-
ried off a green flower'd Russell Banyan."
A diary of the times speaks in the year 1744
of an Indian child '' neatly dressed in a green
banjan ; " and the will of Colonel Robert
Vassall of Cambridge, Mass., left a " Ban-
jan " to his son. So it was evidently a gar-
ment like a dressing-gown, made of highly
colored or figured cloth and worn by old
and young of both sexes; perhaps it is a
banyan that appears garishly enveloping the
masculine form in many of Copley's por-
traits— for instance, the one of Nicholas
Boylston, in Harvard Memorial Hall. In
Virginia these banyans were much worn, so
said Wm. Byrd, and were sometimes lined
with a rich material, and thus could be worn
either side out.
Barlicorns. ** Check'd barlicorns "
were advertised among dress fabrics in the
Boston Gazette 'ui 1755, and until Revolu-
tionary times.
Costume of Colonial Times
Barragons. *' Barragons of various fig-
ures and colours ' ' were advertised in the Bos-
ton Evening Post in 1 7 6 1 and in 1783. The
word is also \vritten barraken, barracan, and
barragan. Gilbert White described it in his
Selborne as " a genteel corded stuff much
in vogue for summer wear." It was made
originally at the Levant, of camel's hair.
Barratine. An obsolete stuff, of which
even the description is wholly lost. In the
Lo7idon Gazette of 1689, a barratine mantua
and petticoat were advertised. In the will
of one C. Taylor, of Philadelphia, in 1697,
were named a '' baratine body, stomacher,
petticoat and forehead clothes." I think it
was a silk stuff.
Barry. I have read several times of
barry-colored gowns. I know of no such
color. The heraldic term barry means
horizontally barred. A barry gown may have
been what we now term bayadere striped.
Barvell. a coarse leathern apron used
by workmen, chiefly by fishermen. It is
possibly a corruption of bann, meaning lap.
Costume of Colonial Times
and fell, meaning skin. The name appears
in inventories of goods sent by the English
Company to America in the seventeenth
century, especially to the Maine settlers
who were with John Wynter at Richmond's
Island, in the years from 1635 to 1640.
These inventories are published in the Col-
lections of the Maine Historical Society for
the year 1884. We there read of '' calue
skins for barvells," and find that three bar-
veils were worth nine shillings. By a curi-
ous survival, this old English provincial word
still may be heard used by the fishermen on
the coast of Maine, as well as by English
sailors and seamen.
Batts. In the inventories of goods
ordered by and sent to John Wynter in 1636,
from the English Company, appear fre-
quently such items as "Four Paire Batts."
Batts were heavy low shoes, laced in front.
The word is still used in Somersetshire for
similar shoes.
Bayes. See Baize.
Beads. Beads were a staple article of
importation to the new land even in earliest
S4
Costume of Colonial Times
days, being of especial value in trading with
the Indians, who coveted them above every-
thing save strong waters. The red men
made beads for themselves "work'd out of
certain shells so cunningly that neither Jew
nor devil could counterfeit." Josselyn, in
his New England^ s Rarities, thus de-
scribed the adornments of the ''tawny las-
They are girt about the middle with a Zone
wrought with Blue and White Beads into pretty
Works. Of these Beads they have Bracelets for the
Neck and Arms, and Links to hang in their Ears,
and a Fair Table curiously made up with Beads like-
wise to wear before their Breast. Their Hair they
Combe backward and tye it up short with a Border
about two Handsfull broad, wrought in works as the
other with their Beads.
By newspaper times we read of beads
which were intended for the wear of Cau-
casian dames and maids.
'* SolUtaire & Common Black & White
Beeds " were offered for sale in the Boston
Gazette in 1749. Gold, silver, jet, pearl
and marquasite beads also were sold. See
Bugle.
55
Costume of Colonial Times
Bearer. A roll or padding placed like
a bustle at either hip to raise the skirt.
Swift speaks of the " bolsters that supply her
hips." We read of a colonial dame '' with a
coat raised by great bearers."
Beaver. See Hat.
Bedcoat. See Rail.
Beryllian. In the Pemisylvania Ga-
zette of 1729, and in the Charleston Ga-
zette oi i^^^, appears frequently this v.ord,
in such advertisements as this ''Beryllian
and other Eastern India Goods for Women's
apparell. " I do not find the word in any
dictionary.
Biggin. A coif worn formerly by men ;
it came quickly to mean exclusively a child's
close cap or hood. Shakespeare speaks of
''homely biggins," and they were evidently
a cap for everyday wear. The word is prob-
ably derived from beguine, a nun. The
word biggonet was a later derivative and was
applied to a woman's cap. We find in the
Winthrop Papers Mistress Mary Dudley writ-
56
Costume of Colonial Times
ing in 1636 to Madame Winthrop for '* fine
Holland for bigins ' ' for her new-born baby.
In a masque given at Whitehall in 1639, a
chorus of children wore as stage dress ' ' bibs,
biggins and muckinders. ' '
BiRDET. '' Stript & plain Birdet" were
named in the JVc7e/ Englafid Weekly Journal
in 1737, and ''Very nice stript Damsacus
and Chinese Burdet for Waistcoats " in 1767.
It was apparently an India silk stuff.
,r Bodice. This article of wear, usually
spelt boddice, occasionally appears. More
frequently in seventeenth century invento-
ries is seen this form — " a pair of bodyes."
These ' ' bodyes ' ' were a bodice in two
pieces for outside wear, laced front and back
and thus were literally a pair. I think the
term was also used for stays.
Bodkin. Originally a dagger, then a
"hair-peg" or hair-pin. In the Triumph'
ant Widow i 1677, we read :
Silver bodkins for your hair,
Bobs which maidens love to wear.
57
Costume of Colonial Times
Martha Emmons, of Boston, left in 1666
a ** Silver Bodkine," while Widow Susan-
nah Oxenbridge of the same town had, in
1695, a gold bodkin. A silver hair-peg
named in 1 748 was a hair bodkin. A ' ' hair
neadell ' ' was also an ornamental hair-pin —
the good old Saxon word haernaedl. See
Hairpin.
BoMBAZiN. A mixture of silk and cotton
introduced in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
In 1675 " the Dutch elders presented at
court (at Norwich) a specimen of a novel
work called bombazines for the manufactur-
ing of which elegant stuff this city has ever
since been famed." The name frequently
appears in early colonial inventories ; '' bom-
ber-zeen " was advertised in the New Eng-
land Weekly Journal in 1741, and the stuff
has been in wear till our own day.
Bone-Lace. See Lace.
Bonnet. The first use that I have chanced
to see in New England records of the word
bonnet for women's headgear, was in the
year 1725, when Madam Usher's wardrobe
58
Costume of Colonial Times
was sent to England. ** Two silk bonnets "
were on the list. In the Boston News Letter
in 1743 it was stated where ladies might
have bonnets made, so they must then have
become widely worn. In 1 760 in the Boston
Evening Post ' ' Sattin Bonnets ' ' were ad-
vertised, and ** Quilted Bonnets and Kitty
Fisher Bonnets ; ' ' and Anna Adams, a Bos-
ton milHner, had ^'Quebeck and Garrick
Bonnets. ' ' The following year came * * Prus-
sian and Ranelagh Bonnets. ' ' In July, 1 764,
came seasonable Leghorn and Queens Bon-
nets, and then *' drawn lace and rich lac'd
bonnets," and '' women's neat -made mourn-
ing bonnets." In Hartford in 1775, Mary
Gabiel, "MilHner from France," charged
two shillings and six-pence for making new-
est-fashioned bonnets in the neatest manner,
and but a shilling for making a plain bon-
net. We gain some notion of the colors
fashionably worn, and sold opposite the
Liberty Tree. ' * Plain and Masqueraded
newest fashion crimson, blue, pink, white
and black bonnets." There is no hint of
the shapes of these early bonnets, whether
poke or cottage, tunnel or saucer - shaped.
59
Costume of Colonial Times
From the portraits of the times I judge the
modish head covering for many years to be
hats and hoods.
Boots. By the provincial government
of Massachusetts it was ordered, in 1651,
that no man worth under J[^2oo should be
aJlowed to * ' walk in great boots. ' ' Jonas
Fairbanks and Robert Edwards were tried
in the Bay Colony for this offence against
the commonwealth. As the boots of that
day were frequently made cavalier-fashion,
with broad, flaring tops, there is no doubt
that this law was a frugal measure to dis-
countenance the waste of leather.
In 1 64 1 in the inventory of Edward Skin-
ner, a leather worker, appeared ** White
Russett Boots ;" he also had *' 5 payr Boots "
— made doubtless for wealthy colonists.
Advertisements of boots are not plentiful in
the early newspapers, though the law about
boot-wearing had long ere their day become
a dead letter. In 17 15, in the Boston News
Letter appear notices of ''English boots,
half-jack and small, tops & spurs," and a
** fresh hogshead of Half Jack English
60
Costume of Colonial Times
Jockey Boots." And at rare intervals jack-
boots are advertised until Revolutionary
times, but apparently were only for wear on
horseback. Top-boots, the delight of bucks
and bloods, appeared in the latter half of the
century ; and with the snowy tops and pol-
ished legs formed an elegant foot-gear that
deserved its popularity.
Boot-Breeches. See Breeches.
Boot-Hose. These were the same as spat-
terdashes, q. V. The name and article were
in constant use in the Southern colonies.
The earliest record is in the will of Zachary
Molleshead, of St. Marys, Maryland, in
1638. '* Boot-hose tops" also are named.
Bosom Bottle. I was much puzzled by
the advertisement in the Boston Evening
Post of July 26, 1756, and in subsequent
newspapers, of * ' Bosom Bottles. ' ' I now
believe them to be the small, flat glasses,
which, filled with water, were worn in the
stomacher of the dress, and in ^vhich the
stems of ''bosom flowers" were placed.
No lady at that time was considered to be
61
Costume of Colonial Times
in full dress unless she wore a bunch of
natural flowers in her dress. A bosom bot-
tle, four inches in height, used in the year
1770, was pear-shaped, of heavy ribbed
glass. They were sometimes covered with
silk the color of the gown, for the purpose
of more effectual concealment.
Bracelet. I fancy these pieces of jew-
elry were rare in America in early days.
Ann Clark had a *'braselett" in Boston,
in 1666, and wealthy Jane Oxen bridge had
a carneUan bracelet in 1673; but I do not
find any advertisements of them in eighteenth
century newspapers, nor do I recall many
portraits of that date in which the fair sitters
displayed bracelets.
Brasselets. " Figur'd & Spangl'd
Brasselets ' ' were named among dress-fabrics
in the Boston Evening Post in November,
1767, and for a decade of years later.
Brawls. A blue and white striped cot-
ton cloth made in India. I find it adver-
tised from 1785 to 1795 among other Indian
stuffs. It was also spelt brauls.
6a
Costume of Colonial Times
Breast Knots. We read in the Weekly
Rehearsal oi ]2inn3.ry lo, 1732, that *'in
breast knots may be shown a good deal of
ingenuity in delicate Choice of Colours &
Dispositions ; a beautiful Purple is the gen-
eral Mode." In 1798, in the Fanners^
Weekly, '' the brick dust hue of coquelicot
ribands " was said to be the prevailing color
in knots. The Federal breast-knot, or rose,
was made of black ribbon with a white but-
ton or fastening. Bosom-knots were breast-
knots.
Breeches. This word was in use as ear-
ly as the year 1382 when Wiclif wrote of
Adam and Eve that they made *^ briches "
of fig-leaves. In still earlier days the Saxons
and other breeched barbarians wore the gar-
ment.
Though the Bay colonists had '* doublet
and hose," they also had coats and bryks,
or breeches ; and they quickly taught the
Indians to wear the latter also. This don-
ning of small clothes by the savages was not
wholly approved by the colonists, though it
is difficult to conjecture the ground of ob-
63
Costume of Colonial Times
jection. Roger Williams wrote, '*I have
long had scruples of selling the natives aught
but what may tend to bring to civilizing.
I therefore neither bought nor shall sell them
loose coats nor breeches." King Phihp
wrote from Mount Hope in 1672, to Colonel
Hopestill Foster, of Dorchester, asking for
**A prof good Indian briches and silke &
Buttons & 7 yards Gallownes for trimming. "
We hear of another pair of Indian breeches
at Warwick, R. I., in 1656, worth 'js. 6d.
And, indeed, by 1746 so prevalent had
English fashions become among American
savages tliat a runaway Indian maidservant
was advertised as wearing off '* smoked
leather breaches. ' '
Breeches-making became a trade in itself,
aside from tailoring, because the breeches
were commonly made of leather, deer-skin
or sheep-skin, and required different work-
men. ''Philadelphia breeches" of deer-
skin cost but $4 a pair. In 1740 we
read of '* breeches with neither strings
nor knee-straps," and again of a runaway
''with white knee-strings," and another
with "silk knee-straps." Knit breeches
64
Costume of Colonial Times
came in in 1768 "as low as four pistareens
a pair," and " breeches pieces " or " breech-
es patterns ' ' of velvet, plush, silk, brocade,
and other stuffs were sold. The breeches
worn by the early planters were fulled at the
waist and knee, after the Dutch fashion,
somewhat like our modern knickerbockers,
or the English bag-breeches. By the latter
part of the eighteenth century they were
worn skin-tight. A gentleman when order-
ing a pair is said to have told his tailor, " If
I can get into 'em, I won't pay for 'em."
A curious item on many inventories of goods
sent to John Wynter in Maine, about the
year 1640 is " boot-breeches," and we read
often of his seUing '' 2 yards Cape Cloth to
make a paire boote-breeches. ' ' These were
gathered full below the knee with a strap.
Brocade. In the New England Weekly
JotLvnal oi September 29, 1737, we read of
a "New parcel fine Brocaded Silks with
White Grounds, beautifully Flower' d with
Lively Colours." At other dates appear
'■ ' rich Armozed Ground Brocades, " " Flow-
er'd Brocade of Blue Ground " and " Pinck
65
Costume of Colonial Times
colour Brocade. ' ' Tbe brocades of colonial
days were exceedingly rich in texture and
color ; and examples preserved to our own
day prove them unrivaled by the products
of our modern looms.
Brogue. A heavy coarse shoe made of
rawhide, and originally of a single upper
piece of untanned leather sewed on a heavy
sole, and with a single tie lace. In the in-
ventories of goods consigned to John Wyn-
ter in Maine, in 1640, appear ''46 paire
Brogues," and again '' 2 paire broags," and
** 3 paire Irish broags." Nineteen pair of
** broags" were worth ;£i. 8s. lod. These
were the ** clouted brogues" of Shake-
speare's day. The Irish word brogan has
much the same meaning. In the plural
brogues sometimes meant trousers. Wash-
ington Irving used the word in that sense.
Brooch. Though doubtless brooches were
worn in America in early days, I have not
chanced to find them named till 1775, when
*' mocus and marquasite broaches" were of-
fered for sale. A little later came ** gold
broaches with devices of hair and pearl."
66
Costume of Colonial Times
Brunswick. A habit or riding coat for
ladies' wear, said to have been introduced in
England in 1750 from Germany. It had
collar, lappets and buttons like a man's coat,
and of course Boston dames had to follow
English fashions; so Boston milliners had
Brunswicks for sale, and also Prussian cloaks.
Bryks. See Breeches.
Buckles. Weeden, in his Economic and
Social History of New England, says that
shoebuckles for women's wear were out of
fashion in 1727; but we find that man of
importance in the commonwealth — Judge
Sewall — ^giving the Widow Denison, in 1728,
a pair that cost five shillings and sixpence.
By 1750 we find advertised, in the Boston
Gazette, *' women's white shoebuckles."
They must have been in constant wear by
men at that date, for they appear in every
shopkeeper's list both North and South, and
in many of the inventories of goods ordered
abroad for children's and grown persons*
wear. In the Connecticut Courant of May
I, 1773, we read of *' silver, plated, and
67
Costume of Colonial Times
pinchbeck shoe, knee, and stock buckles ; * *
also *' bootbuckles and Ladies' Elegant Set
Shoe Buckles." Kneebuckles were also an
important article of dress, being made of gold
and silver and set with paste jewels. Gov-
ernor Belcher had gold kneebuckles.
BuFFONTS. A full projecting covering for
a lady's throat and breast, made of gauze or
lace or linen, and much worn from 1750 to
1790, according to English magazines of
these years. It was confined by the bodice
and puffed out above like the breast of a
pouter pigeon. In 1784, in the Salem news-
papers, ' ' Thread and Net Buffonts ' ' and
** Gauze Buffons " were advertised, and in
the Massachusetts Gazette of May, 1771,
" Hair bouffes and mops."
Bugles. These tube-shaped black glass
beads were offered for sale in Boston as early
as 1740, and spelled beaugles. Spenser, in
the Shepherd^ s Calendar^ i579> spelt it
beaugles.
Buskins. In a few inventories I find bus-
kins named. Richard Sawyer, of Windsor,
68
Costume of Colonial Times
Conn., had a pair of cloth *' buskens " in
1648. As late as 1743 a Boston runaway
wore off "gray stockings with blue buskins
over them," and a Pennsylvania redemp-
tioner wore sliders with buskins. Buskins
were also called kit-packs. They were a sort
of half-boot.
Buttons. The waistcoats and mandill-
ions and doublets of the Bay colonists were
fastened with hooks and eyes, but buttons
must have been worn also, for John Eliot
ordered for traffic with the Indians in 165 1
three gross of pewter buttons. Robert
Keayne, of Boston, writing in 1653, said
bitterly that a " haynous offence" of his
had been selling buttons at too large profit —
that they were gold buttons and he had sold
them for two shillings ninepence a dozen in
Boston, when they had cost but two shillings
a dozen in London ; which does not seem, in
the light of our modern duties on imported
goods, a very " haynous " profit. He also
added with acerbity that '' they were never
payd for by those that complayned. ' ' These
gilt and silvered buttons must have been
69
Costume of Colonial Times
fashionable, for I find them often named. In
a tailor's bill of 1679 I find an item of ** i
Dozen & ^ Silver Buttons, ish 6d."
Sir WilUam Pepperell, writing to London
in 1737, ordered '' mohere buttons and
mohere answerable," showing that buttons
were made to match stuffs; and he also
ordered ''12 grose Cheap mettal bottens
and 12 grose coat bottens." The buttons
displayed in his portrait are very large. He
did not need to send to London for them ;
there were for sale at that time in Boston
''Gold and Silver Frosted Buttons, Cloth
colored Horsehair Buttons All Sorts, Silver
Washed Metal Buttons," and many other
varieties.
Buttons were made of coins, often of
Spanish dollars ; and pewter buttons were
cast at home in button moulds. A very
grotesque form of buttons was of horses' teeth
set in brass. By Revolutionary times basket
and deathshead buttons became so fashion-
able and so largely sold tliat for many years
every newspaper throughout the country
contained advertisements of them. It is
safe to believe that buttons were worn con-
70
Costume of Colonial Times
stantly on men's clothes, from the earliest
colonial days, and varied but slightly in
their position on garments from that of the
present day. They were also worn on
looped or cocked hats.
Button - Holes. Button - holes were a
matter of ornament as well as of use. They
were carefully cut and * ' laid around ' '
bound in gay colors, embroidered, with sil-
ver and gold thread, bound with vellum.
We find in old-time letters directions about
modish button - holes, and drawings even,
in order that the shape may be exactly as
wished. In the New England Weekly Jour-
nal^ in 1737, we find advertised "Silver
and Gold Thread for Button Holes, and Sil-
ver and Gold Sleazy Thread for Stitching
and embroidering."
Caddis. A woollen tape or coarse crew-
ell used as a cheap trimming or woven in-
to garters. It is frequently spelled cadiss,
as in t\iQ Boston News Letter in 1736, or
caddas, caddice and caddes, and often
classed with qualities, another coarse bind-
71
Costume of Colonial Times
ing tape. The word is familiar to us
through its use in the works of the old Eng-
lish dramatists. Caddis was in the pedler's
pack in The Winter's Tale.
Calash.
Hail, great Calash! o'erwhelming veil,
By all-indulgent Heaven
To sallow nymphs and maidens stale,
In sportive kindness given.
Thus wTote a Yankee poet in RiviiigtorC s
New York Gazette and in a Norwich news-
paper in 1780.
The calash is said to have been invented
by the Duchess of Bedford in the year 1765,
though similar head-coverings may be seen
on English effigies of the sixteenth century.
It was an enormous head-covering, a veri-
table sunshade, which could scarcely be
called a bonnet. It was usually made of
thin green silk shirred on strong lengths of
rattan or whalebone placed two or three
inches apart, which were drawn in at the
neck ; and it was sometimes, though seldom,
finished with a narrow cape. It was extend-
ible over the face like the top or hood of an
7a
Costume of Colonial Times
old-fashioned chaise or calash, from which
latter it doubtless received its name. It
could be drawn out by narrow ribbons or
bridles which were fastened to the edge at
the top. The calash could also be pushed
into a close gathered mass at the back of
the head. Thus, standing well up from
the head, tliey formed a good covering for
the high-dressed and powdered heads of the
date when they fashionably were worn — from
1765 throughout the century; and for the
caps worn in the beginning of this century.
They were frequently a foot and a half in
diameter and were sometimes of brown or
gray silk, and I know of two made of thin
white dimity, to be worn to evening parties
by two young misses about sixty years ago.
They were seen on the heads of old ladies in
country towns in New England certainly
until 1840, and possibly later. In England
they were also worn until that date, as we
learn from Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford, and
Thackeray's Vanity Fair.
Calico. Calicoes are spoken of by Jos-
selyn in his JVew EnglamV s Rarities, who
Costume of Colonial Times
says that *' callicoes and aligers " were readily-
vendible in New England, and specially
sends for '^ blevv-callicoe." John Wynter
had six '' Calciie Shiirtes " in 1636. Pepys
wrote forty years later that the English cus-
toms officers taxed it as linen, while the East
India Company asserted that it was made of
cotton wool that grew on trees. Though
the name occasionally appears in American
inventories and descriptions of the early part
of the eighteenth century (as in the posses-
sions of witch Anne Hibbins in 1656, ** 5
painted Callico curtains & vaHants "), cali-
coes were neither universally nor fashionably
worn until after the Revolution, when Bris-
sot wrote : ' ' Calicoes and chintzes dress the
women and children." I read in an old
newspaper: "Since the peace, calico has
become the general fashion of our country-
women, and is worn by females of all condi-
tions at all seasons of the year, both in town
and country." The French calicoes were
extremely delicate in color, fine of texture,
and high in price, and were worn in mid-
winter, even in the icy churches. They
were also used to trim other and richer ma-
74
Costume of Colonial Times
terials. Such advertisements as this, from
the Boston Evening Post in 1743, may fre-
quently be seen: *'Demy Chinted Callico
Borders for Womens Petticoats. ' '
These calicoes came in many fanciful de-
signs. We read of patterns called ''liberty
peak," ''basket work," " Covent Garden
cross-bar," " Ranelagh half-moon," " Prus-
sian stormont," "harlequin moth," "a fine
check inclosing four Lions Rampant and
three flours de Luce." 1 have seen old
calicoes stamped with portraits of Benjamin
Franklin and George Washington, and an-
other design with the presentment of some
British officer. As these designs were
stamped with blocks by hand, it was easy to
order special patterns for special uses, such
as bed-hangings. At Deerfield Memorial
Hall may be seen a full stock of all the old-
time tools and machines used in weaving and
printing calico, including the old hand-
stamps.
Callimanco. Fairholt says, erroneous-
ly, that this was a glazed linen stuff; it was
a substantial and fashionable woollen stuff.
75
Costume of Colonial Times
The name is said to have meant, originally,
a head-covering made of camel's hair ; later,
by derivation, a vestment of the Pope. It
was a woollen stuff of fine gloss, either ribbed
or plain, and was used for many articles of
men's and women's attire, and largely used
in the middle of the last century for women's
shoes. It was worn certainly as early as
1666 in America ; Martha* Emmons, of Bos-
ton, left by will at that date a " callimanco
gound." In 1592 it had been woven in
England. James Fontaine, a Huguenot set-
tler of Virginia, gives in his memoirs a care-
ful account of his attempt to manufacture
oallimanco in 1694, and says it was made
of an extremely fine double twisted worsted
thread. Pepperell, writing abroad in 1737,
ordered a ''peace of flowered Callimanco
suitable to make my mother aWinf gown,"
and the same for his wife. In a letter pub-
lished in the Collections of the Lexington
Historical Society relating to the visit of
Washington to that town in November, 1 789,
we read that, to do him full honor, " Lucin-
dy, pert minx, had a most lovely Gown of
Green Callamanco with Plumes to her hatt. ' *
76
Costume of Colonial Times
Camlet. A stuff either of hair, of silk, or
of wool, or of all these materials in various
combinations, in universal use from early-
colonial days, especially for cloaks and petti-
coats. Camlets were also plain, twilled,
or of double or single warp, and they fre-
quently were watered. In 1652 Dorothie
King, of Weymouth, had a *'haire couller
water chamlett goune," and we read con-
stantly of camlet cloaks till well into this
century. I have found vast variety in the
spelling of the word : chamelot, camblet,
chamlett, camilet, as well as camlet.
Cantsloper. See Slops.
Cap. In Durfey's Wit &> Mirth, or Pills
to Purge Melancholy, there is a ballad on
caps which proves that
Any cap what e'er it be
Is still the sign of some degree.
The author mentions
The Monmouth cap, the saylors thrum
And that wherein the tradesmen come ;
The physicke, lawe, the cap divine.
And that which crowns the Muses Nine.
Costume of Colonial Times
Monmouth caps, worth two shillings each,
were furnished to the Massachusetts colo-
nists. These were much worn by seafaring
men. We read, in A Satyr on Sea Offi-
cers "With Monmouth cap and cutlass at
my side, striding at least a yard at every
stride." Washington also ordered them as
late as 1769. "Red mill'd capps," worth
five pence apiece, were supplied to the Bay
emigrants. The portraits of Endicott, Se-
wall, and many others, especially wig-haters,
show black skull-caps. In the various Bos-
ton newspapers by the year 1740, we find
advertised, " Strip'd and Scarlett Single &
Double Worsted Caps, Round-puflf't and
Quilted Caps; Fine Imbroidered Velvett
Caps, Kilmarnock Mill'd Caps, Thrumb'd
Caps."
Women's caps were of equal variety by
the middle of the century. We read of
" Fly caps with Egrets, Drest Gauze Caps,"
round ear'd caps (which had no strings),
strap caps (which had a strap under the
chin). Bugle fly caps were worn in Penn-
sylvania about 1760. Mob caps were de-
scribed as a caul with two lappets, and were
78
Costume of Colonial Times
much worn. They were sloiichy, baggy
caps, with floppy frills or ruffles — not ele-
gant for full dress. Mr. Felt quotes a letter
written from Cape Cod in 1720 :
Mobs are now worn but not so long by a quarter
of a yard as mine. I was forced to cut mine half a
quarter from each end to make them short enough
for the fashion.
These mobs must have been the streamers
upon the mob-caps. Ranelagh mobs were
made of gauze or net, puffed about the head,
with two ends crossed under the chin and
then tied at the back, and left hanging in
floating ends. The Queen's night-cap,
though similar in shape, was made of richer
gauze and was more trim and compact. It
is familiar to us through having been worn
by Martha Washington and shown in her
portraits. It remained in fashion for nearly
half a century.
See Biggin, Curch, Coif, Mercury.
Capuchin. A hooded cloak, so called
from its resemblance to the hooded garment
worn by the Capuchin monks. Fairholt,
79
Costume of Colonial Times
Planch6, and other English writers say capu-
chins were introduced into England in 1752,
but this date is incorrect ; the name appears
in English publications as early as 1709.
Fielding used it in *' Tom Jones " in 1749,
and the Covent Garden Journal of May i,
1752, says:
Within my memory the ladies covered their lovely
necks with a Cloak, this was exchanged lor the man-
teel, this again was succeeded by the pelorine, the
pelorine by the neckatee, the neckatee by the capu-
chin which hath now stood its ground for a long-
time.
Even in America, in 1749, the Boston
Gazette advertised * ' Cappechines. ' ' In
June, 1753, Harriet Paine, the Boston shop-
keeper, had '* Flowered and Spotted Velvet
for Capuchin Cloaks." Pink and figured
mode capuchines, and colored and black silk,
and black flowered mode for these cloaks
came next, and were advertised in South
Carolina newspapers. Fringe also appeared,
and in 1767 crimson capuchin silk was worth
four shillings and sixpence a yard. In order
to show how rich a cloak and how richly
80
Costume of Colonial Times
trimmed these capuchins were, let me quote
this notice from the Boston Evening Post of
January 13, 1772 :
Taken from Concert Hall on Thursday Evening a
handsom Crimson Satin Capuchin trimmed with a
rich white Blond Lace with a narrow Blond Lace on
the upper edge Lined with White Sarsnet.
Twelve dollars reward was offered for its
return. They were for many years much
worn by women of fashion, and were used
as a riding-hood.
Cardinal. A hooded cloak greatly worn
during the first half of the eighteenth cen-
tury. The name continued in use till this
century. It was originally of scarlet cloth,
like the mozetta of a cardinal ; hence its
name. Cardinals appear in Hogarth's prints,
and are advertised in many New England
papers for many years and in the Maryland
Gazette in 1769.
Carsey. See Kersey.
Cassock. Steevens says a cassock '^sig-
nifies a horseman's loose coat, and is used in
81
Costume of Colonial Times
that sense by the writers of the age of
Shakespeare." It was apparently a garment
much like a coat or jerkin, and the names
were used interchangeably. It finally be-
came applied only to the coat or gown of
the clergy. In the * ' enuentory ' ' of the
goods supplied to the Piscataquay Planta-
tions in 1635 are these items:
50 Cloth Cassocks & breeches
153 Canvass " " "
40 Shot " " "
In the will of Robert Saltonstall, made in
1650, he names a ''Plush Cassock," but
cloth cassocks were the commonest wear.
In the sixteenth century cassocks were worn
by Englishwomen, but I have found no
reference to their being worn by women in
our colonies.
Castor. See Hat.
Catgut. A cloth woven in cords and
used for Hning and stiffening garments; and
also I judge, from Mrs. Delany's reference to
it, as a canvas for embroidery purposes.
UNIVERSITY
OF
Costume of Colonial Times
John Adams, in his diary, under date 1766,
tells of sitting to * * hear the ladies talk of
catgut, Paris net and riding-hoods." It
was advertised in the newspapers until this
century.
Caul. A caul was a net to confine the
hair, or a flat-netted head-dress. The word is
said to have been thus used from the Middle
Ages to the seventeenth century. I find it
thus employed in Virginia in 1642, in the
inventory of one Richard Lusthead. As
indicating the hinder portions of a woman's
cap, the word was used till this century. It
was also applied to one part of a wig.
Cherridary. This was an Indian cotton
stuff much like a gingham. It was adver-
tised for sale by the names cheridery, cher-
riderrey, charidery, from 1712 until Revo-
lutionary times, and may have been cheap,
as it often appears as the material of vari-
ous articles of apparel of runaways ; '' cheri-
dary wascotes," a " cherrederry gown," a
**cherredary apron," &c. It is most fre-
quently specified as being *' narrow stript."
83
Costume of Colonial Times
CiFFER. — See Coif.
Cloak. This garment has been worn by
both sexes from the time of the landing of
the Cavaliers and Pilgrims. Ellinor Tras-
ler had a sad-colored cloak in 1654. An-
other colonist had a ''white Hair camblet
Cloke lyned with blue." ''Silk short
Cloaks" were the wear in 1737, and in
1742 there were advertised in the News
Letter-. " Womens Cloaks of most Colours ;
viz : Scarlet, Crimson, Cloth Colour, made
after the newest Fashion." Robert Sal ton -
stall had a " gray cloke and a Sadd collered
Cloke," and Major Pyncheon's " moehaire
cloke" was worth one pound in 1703.
Clogs. Clogs appear in newspaper ad-
vertisements from 1737 throughout the
eighteenth century. In England the name
was used as early as 141 6. These over-
shoes were made of various materials. I
find named for sale brocaded, leather-eared,
leather-toed, silk, velvet-banded, worsted,
black velvet, white damask, flowered silk
and prunella clogs. The stilted soles were
of wood or thick leather, and the upper
84
Costume of Colonial Times
bands were frequently made to match the
shoes or slippers with which the clogs were
intended to be worn. White damask clogs
were certainly worthy the wear of a bride.
Common clogs were worth in 171 7 fifteen
pence a pair, and in 1764 one shilling six
pence a pair. Old clogs can be seen at the
Deerfield Memorial Hall.
Clout. We read in Hamlet :
. . . a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood ;
and in T/ie Debate betweeii Pride and Low-
liness,
With homely clouts i-knitt upon their head
Simple yet white as thing so coarse might be.
A clout was a coarse kerchief or covering for
the head. I find the word in Maryland in-
ventories.
Coats. I do not find coats named in the
inventories of the goods and clothing fur-
nished to the planters at Plymouth and at
Massachusetts Bay ; but the emigrants to
85
Costume of Colonial Times
the Piscataquay Plantations had ''27 Lined
Coats, 16 Moose Coats., and 15 Papous
Coats, ' ' which latter garment, after frequent
encounter in similar inventories and " pain-
ful " investigation and consideration, I have
found to be pappoose coats. These would
appear to be children's coats, but in a con-
temporary record I also find that ' ' three pa-
poose skins were equal in value to one beaver
skin," so I wish to believe that the word pa-
poose meant something other than an Indian
baby. Josselyn said that moose-skin made
'* excellent coats for martial men," so doubt-
less the Piscataquay warriors wore the moose
coats. The name and garment quickly
came into vogue in Boston. Raccoon-skin
coats were worn : one owned by Thomas
Fenner of Windsor, Conn., was worth ten
shillings. Until our own day huntsmen and
frontiersmen wore deerskin coats or jack-
ets, picturesque and appropriate garments.
The Apostle Eliot received by the will of
Joseph Weld in 1646 the gift of " a tawny
cloth coat," and in the same year a neigh-
bor, John Pope of Dorchester, bequeathed
** two Vper Coates," which were overcoats
86
Costume of Colonial Times
I fancy. In 1 640 Robert Keayne of Boston
paid ^^ £,"2. \os. for a silver lac'd coat and a
gold lac'd hat," while in the same year
three plainer coats were worth the same
amount.
Scarlet coats were plentiful in New Eng-
land at that time, and Winthrop ordered in
1636 a coat of ''sad foulding-colour without
lace."
John Wynter, in 1636, had coats for the
Indians that were worth ''2 lb. Beaver"
apiece. He writes to the consigner, '' The
coates are good, but somewhat of the short-
est. The Indyans make choyse of the long-
est. They pass best. ' '
The coat, as worn by men, is said by Fair-
holt to have originated from the long waist-
coat, or vest as Pepys called it, worn in the
reign of Charles II., and for many years it was
straight and full-skirted. It was not sloped
away at the sides till the time of George
III. — until macaroni time. All drawings or
descriptions of men's costumes assigned to
earlier days should have square-skirted coats,
save in the case of a soldier's uniform, which
ere that date had been turned back in lapels
87
Costume of Colonial Times
or revers for convenience's sake, and held
back by buttons. The memorandum of
George Washington, given on page 40, shows
the shape of coat which was fashionable in
the middle of the century in America.
Horsemen's coats are frequently mentioned
in early days ; for instance, in the will of one
Metcalfe, in 1664 — '* My largest gray Horse-
man's Coat." Gabriel Harris, of New Lon-
don, had in 1684 a ''Broadcloth Coat with
Red lining & a white Serge coat, ' ' quite showy
articles of attire. From advertisements of
runaways we learn of the various names ap-
plied to various styles of coats. A deserter
wore, in 1704, a " white cape cloth watch-
coat ; " a negro wore off in the same year ' ' a
Sad colour' d old Coat or new light Drugget
coat with Buttons, Holes, and Linings of
black ; " another runaway had on a " Grego
Watch Coat. ' ' Peter Faneuil bought in 1 738
*' 2 Large Fine Well painted Beaver Coats,"
for sleighing. We read, under the date 1736,
of the loss of a " Great Coat of Red Whitney
with red velvet Cape. The Coat a little
fuUy'd at the Back."
Perhaps the most curious name given to a
Costume of Colonial Times
coat was one in the Virginia Gazette of May
2» 1757 — *' A Thunder and Lightning Coat ;
otherwise German Sarge."
Children wore coats. Judge Sewall ap-
propriately gave one of '^blew, faced with
red," to a Httle Puritan Aaron. John Cor-
win paid, in 1679, six shillings for having a
coat made for one of his children. Women
wore coats also. The wotd was applied to
their upper garments, and also to the petti-
coats, and it is often difficult to decide to
which it refers. Sometimes it is thus used :
*' Petty Coats, Peti -cotes," or, as Sewall wrote
it, "Petit-coats." The "turkey mohere
coate" of Martha Emmons in 1666, the
" blew shorte Coate, Green Vnder Coate,
and Kersey Coate" of Jane Humphreys in
1668, were apparently outer garments. The
"Silk Crape Quilted Coat" that runaway
Keziah Wampum eloped with in 1740 seems
somewhat difficult to place. See Petti-
coat.
Cockade. The first naming of this word
or article was in Rabelais, where it was
written coquaide. In 1660 we read of
89
Costume of Colonial Times
cockaxded hats. Steele and Pope wrote of
cockards. Ribbon cockades were worn by
women on hats and in the hair, as well as
by men on cocked hats. In 1755 Horeshair
"cocades" were advertised in the Boston
Evening Post ; then, gold, silver, lace, and
wire cockades. Federalist cockades were
roses of white and black ribbon.
Cockers. Also spelled cocurs, cocrez, and
cokers. Laced high shoes or half-boots;
also thick stockmg legs without feet. The
name is still used in England, as it was in
Piers Ploughman's time, but is obsolete in
New England.
Coif. I find the words coif, quoife,
quoyf, quoiff, ciffer, coifer, quiffer, and quiff,
all used in New England to refer to a close
head-dress or cap. The words had applied
originally to a hood or cap, equally for
men's and women's wear, but appear in this
country to have been used only for wom-
en's headgear. In a letter to Winthrop,
dated 1636, we read of ** cutt-worke coifes.'*
And the Indian braves called English women
90
Costume of Colonial Times
*'Lazie Squaes " because they sat at home
" embroidering coifs " instead of digging in
the fields for their lords. Mary Haines's in-
ventory in New London, in 1655, contained
both the word ciffer and quoyf. Jane
Humphrey left behind her in 1668 '' a plain
black Quoife without any lace, and my best
quoife with a lace." John Pyncheon, of
Springfield, sold in 1653 ** blew coifers " to
Henry Burt that were worth five shillings
apiece." In Virginia the word was usually
spelled quoiff.
Colchester Cloth. See Baize.
CoLVERTEEN. See Lace.
Comb. In the list of orders which John
Eliot sent to England in 1651 he specified
*' 4 Boxes of Combes " for the Indians, thus
proving that he deemed cleanliness next to
godliness. In 1737 Sir William Pepperell,
ordering also for trade with the Indians,
wished "I Grose Horn Combes, I Grose
Ivory small teeth Combes." In 1763 in
the Boston Evening Post, were advertised
91
Costume of Colonial Times
*' Fine Dander Combs, Horn & Buckling
Combs, Toiiper Combs with & without
Cases," and again, ''Fine Dand riff Combs,
and Tupee Cramber Combs." Ten years
later came ''Tortoise Shell Poll Combs,
Ivory Tupee & Tail Combs," and then " Bent
combs;" proving that they had — as I saw
advertised in the Connecticut Courant —
"combs of every denomination." I have
seen an old case of tortoise - shell dressing
combs about one hundred years old. The
teeth were heavier and coarser than in our
modern combs; hence perhaps their safe
preservation to the present day.
The great "poll combs" of shell, horn
or silver, for ornamenting the head are fa-
miliar to us all, and have been worn almost
to the present day.
Cornet. Cotgrave said a cornet was " a
fashion of Shadow or Boone grace vsed in
old time and to this day by some old women, ' '
and Evelyn speaks of " the upper pinner of
a cornet dangling about her cheeks like
hounds ears." The head -covering of the
Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul is called a cor-
Costume of Colonial Times
net. Cornets and cornuted caps appear in
early New York inventories, and were ap-
parently a Dutch fashion.
Copper-Clouts. See Spatterdashes.
Corsets. See Stays.
CouRCHEF. Same meaning as curch, q. v.
Cravat. Blount in 1656 called a cravat
* ' a new fashioned Gorget which women
wear. ' ' Lawn cravats were advertised in the
Boston Evening Post as early as 1753. The
Governor of Acadia had lace cravats in
1690. Governor Berkeley, of Virginia,
ordered in 1660 a cravat which was to cost
five pounds. Such rich neck wear as that
could not have been found in New England
at that date. In the middle of the eighteenth
century we often read of ''black mill'd
cravats."
Crewell. Fine worsted used originally
for fringe and garters, then for embroidery
purposes.
Crocus. There is no clew whatever to the
93
Costume of Colonial Times
quality of this stuff, though the word was for
a century in common use. Nor does the
definition of the word in this sense appear in
any English or American dictionary. A
runaway slave was advertised in the Boston
News Letter of October, 1704, as wearing a
** Crocus Apron;" others in the Virginia
Gazette of 1757 with '' Crocus Trowzers."
In a crazily wild letter written from the Bar-
badoes by Richard Hall to Benning Went-
worth in 17 19, he says of smuggling, *'This
is indeed to squint over the Left Shoulder, to
run Crocus under a wrapper of Ozenbrigs,"
which would seem to imply that crocus was
a fine and costly fabric. Still, *' trowzers "
at that date were made wholly of coarse linen
and tow stuffs, not of rich or heavy materials.
Miss Caroline Hazard in her interesting ac-
count of Narragansett colonial days — College
Tom — gives many valuable household inven-
tories. From them we learn that in 1760
the cost of weaving crocus was but half that
of weaving flannel ; which would also imply
that crocus was a cheap coarse stuff. Its
general wear by slaves and servants would
point to the same conclusion.
94
Costume of Colonial Times
Crosscloth. a crosscloth was a portion
of a woman's head-dress worn with a coif in
the seventeenth century, and was apparently
the same as a forehead cloth. I find " crosse-
cloths " enumerated with quoifes in the pos-
sessions of Richard Lusthead in Maryland in
1642. A Puritan of Wenham, Mass., and
another of Dorchester had them in 1647.
Hence, they were worn by both Puritan and
Cavalier dames.
CuRCH. This word, as used in New
England and in Pennsylvania, designated an
inner cap for the head, worn by women, and
usually of plain linen. It is doubtless an
abbreviation of kerchief, and is of Scotch
origin. It is frequently used by Scott in his
novels, and a note in T/ie Lady of the Lake
says, '■ ' The snood was exchanged for the
curch, toy, or coif, when a Scottish lass
passed by marriage into the matron state. ' '
CusTALL. See Stays.
CUTWORK.
' ' Cut werke was greate both in court and tounes,
Both in menes hoddis and also in their gounes."
A portrait of Louis of Anjou shows him
95
Costume of Colonial Times
dressed in a hood, siirtout, and a long
shoulder sash all edged with cutwork — a
graceful openwork embroidery in the shape
of leaves. The excessive use of cutwork
embroidery was forbidden to the Puritans,
yet cutwork coifs were worn in the new land.
Christopher Youngs, of Wenham, Mass.,
owned them in 1647 ; and one writer com-
plained of the vanity of the Pilgrims in
sending to England for cutwork. The
Massachusetts Indians noted, as did Burton
in his Anatomy of Melancholy ^ that Eng-
lish women loved to occupy their time with
embroidering cutwork. In several of the
century-darkened portraits of our ancestors
that have descended to us, especially of the
Virginian settlers, the broad collars appear
to have cutwork borders.
Cypress. Also Cyprus, cipre, sipers, sy-
press, syphus. Originally a rich stuff, cloth of
gold and silk, the name came to be applied
only to a thin mourning silk which was used
like crape, and was in substance much like
crape. Phillips in 1678 said cypress was " a
fine curled stuff part Silk part Hair, of a Cob-
96
Costume of Colonial Times
web thinness, of which hoods for Women are
made. ' ' It was named in a New England
will as early as 1695 — '*half a piece of
sipers. * * It was always black. Autolycus in
The Winter' s Tale says,
Lawne as white as driven snow,
Cyprus black as ere was crow.
*' Silk Crape, Widow's Crape, Cyprus and
Hat Crape ' ' were advertised in the Boston
Evening Post of 1755, and until Federal
days.
Damask. A rich fabric woven in elabo-
rate patterns in silk, silk and wool, or Hnen ;
and when in silk, frequently of various col-
ors. In 1698 a piece of damask was said to
be worth J[^2 10s. This may have been a
fabric of linen or of silk. We read of
** India Flower' d Damask and Venetian
Flower' d Damask," which were surely silk.
Negro women ran off in green flowered
damask gowns and red damask petticoats,
which were probably woollen damask. By
Revolutionary times, in the Connecticut
Courant^Q read of ^* silk and cotton Damas-
cusses ' ' which were evidently also damask,
97
Costume of Colonial Times
and of ' ' Damascuss for Waistcoats. ' ' Many
of the rich garments of the times were of
damask, and the materials of our own day
are not superior either in design or color to
these colonial fabrics. The gorgeous gowns
of Peter Faneuil's sister, which are preserved
in cases and exhibited at the Boston Art
Museum, are good examples.
Dauphiness. This was the name of a
certain style of mantle. Harriott Paine had
* ' Dauphiness Mantles ' ' for sale in Boston in
1755-
Demicastor. See Hat.
Desoy. The full name of this material
was sergedesoy, or sergedusoy, — a coarse
silken stuff, as the name plainly indicates.
It was in frequent use in the eighteenth
century, especially for men's coats and
waistcoats.
Dimity. This ribbed cotton stuff is said
to have been made first at Damietta. It
was mentioned by the Apostle John Eliot as
98
Costume of Colonial Times
early as 165 1, on the list of goods ordered
from England. ' ' White Dimity, " * ' Corded
Dimothy," " Flowered dymmitty," appear
at later dates in colonial papers. In fact,
the material has been used until the present
day.
DoRNEX. A heavy, coarse linen, much
like canvas, originally made at Dorneck or
Tournay. It appears on lists under various
speUings : dornix, tornix, darnex, darnick,
dorneck, dornickes. In 1658 Simon Eire,
of Boston, had a bed with '' curtaince and
valence of Dornix." In 1652 Thomas
Olliver had a " dornix carpitt." It was
too coarse and stiff for wear for gentlefolk,
but servants had garments made of it. I
read of *' darnex petticoats," ''dornix
breeches," and frequently of " dornex jack-
ets," on negro house-servants.
Doublet. A name apparently given be-
cause the garment was at first of double
material, wadded between. It was fre-
quently belted and made without sleeves,
and was originally used as an outer garment
99
Costume of Colonial Times
worn over a waistcoat, and worn with long
hose. In the " apparell for one hundred
men " furnished in 1628 by the Massa-
chusetts Bay Company, were '' 200 sutes
of Norden dussens or hampsheere kersies
lyned the hose with skins, the dublet with
lynen of gilford or gedlyman kerseys 2s. lod.
to 3J-. a yard, 4^ yards to asute." Hence
it is evident that doublet and hose formed a
suit. Richard Sawyer, of Hartford had, in
1648, ''bucks-leather, calfs-leather and liver-
colour'd and musck-coulour'd cloth doub-
litts." Zerubbabel Endicott, of Salem, left
by will in 1683 a ''black coat with Doublet
and Hose. ' ' In the Southern colonies doub-
lets were much more the mode than in New
England, and of richer material — " satten
doubletts with silver buttons" and velvet
doublets.
Doublets were also worn by women.
Stubbs says, " Though this be a kind of
attire proper only to a man, yet they blush
not to wear it. ' ' Pepys, in 1666, sharply crit-
icises English women for wearing doublets.
Witch Anne Hibbins, of Boston, had a black
satin one worth ten shillings. I do not
100
Costume of Colonial Times
find doublets named in inventories of the
eighteenth century, except in one or two
cases. Major John Pyncheon, an old Spring-
field gentleman who died in 1703, left be-
hind him "a Light coulour'd Diiblet with
gold twist, and sad coulour'd BritC5ie5.o\ • ^ '
Dowlas. A heavy linen largely inisport^id
from earliest times — the <* dowlas, nithy
dowlas " of Falstaff's day. It was made in
Brittany. Governor Barefoot, of New
Hampshire, sent in 1688 for *^ as many yards
of Doulas as will make a dozen shirts."
John Wynter imported in 1638 '' 6 Doz
Dowlys Shurtes at 4s. 4^. one with the
other." The name appears in occasional
use until this century, usually appHed to the
material of shirts or summer breeches.
Drawboys. In the Boston Gazette of
^^y> 1 7 50 J we read of '' Fine Figured
Drawboys for Womens Coats with Fringe."
Drawers. Cotgrave says that coarse
stockings made to draw on over other hose
were called drawers. Leathern drawers
were supplied to each Boston emigrant, and
Costume of Colonial Times
were, I think, draw-strings for the knee-
bands of breeches. I find the word seldom
used in New England in its present signifi-
cation in the seventeenth century. In New
York, gentlemen had silk and calico drawers,
wliic^i we'-e probably summer breeches.
^Di^UGGET.. A fabric of wool worth
twelve shiUings a yard in 17 13, and much
used for heavy petticoats and coats.
DuCAPE. This was a heavy silk of plain
color corded somewhat like our modern Ot-
toman silk. As early as 1675 Hull ordered
to be brought on the Seaflower * ' Black Du-
cape & Lustrings." It was advertised by
milliners and merchants for many years, fre-
quently under the name Due Cape. To
show its wearing powers (or the painstaking
care of our grandmothers), let me give the
experience of Elizabeth Porter, whose wed-
ding gown in 1770 was brown ducape.
Eighteen years later this ducape gown was
made over, and forty years from the wed-
ding-day it was still in existence and sound
enough to be again refashioned.
Costume of Colonial Times
Duffels. ''Duffle" was woollen stuff
originally made in Duffel, a town in Flan-
ders. It was excluded from England for a
time, to favor home manufactures. It had
a thick tufted or knotted nap. De Foe said
this stuff was made at Whitney, England,
purposely for winter wear in America. Cer-
tainly "coats of duffels" are constantly
mentioned. The match-coats sold to the
Indians were made of it, and it supplanted
fur garments and in time affected the fur
trade. In the Colonial Documents of New
York I read, *' Duffel cannot be called cloth,
it is worse than a sorte called wadmoll, and
not ever worne by any Christians, only by
the Indians."
We find Hull ordering '' Dutch Duffals
white, blue and striped " in 1672, and Sew-
all ''good steel blew duffal " a few years
later. Wait Winthrop writes to his brother
in 1675, "The Duffels is none of the best
but tis cheape at 4 shilling a yard ; the best
is 5^-. dd. or six shilling." William Byrd,
of Virginia, writing in 1683 said, "The
Duffields is the worst I ever saw .
Coler too light, a Darker blue pleases bet-
103
Costume of Colonial Times
ter." Duffels formed so large a part of a
trader's stock that the name finally became
a general term applied to the entire outfit of
a sportsman or camper.
DuRANT. A close-grained woollen stuff,
so named from its strength and wearing
qualities. Among many advertisements of
it I will note but one — in the Connecticut
Courant of April 22, 1776.
DussENS. Sometimes spelled dozens.
The Bay planters were furnished ''100 sutes
ofNorden dussens or Hampshire kersies."
Dussens was a kersey, q. v.
Ear-rings. The earliest portraits of co-
lonial women display no ear-rings. The
widow of Colonel Livingstone of New Lon-
don had a *'pair of stoned ear-rings" in
1735. ^^ ^^ Boston Evening Post of June
1755 we read of ** Undressed Ear-rings,
Stone, French-Pearl & Crincled Ear-rings,
French Rose Ear-rings and Cristiall Ear-
rings"— so they evidently had become at
that date wholly the mode. In 1771 J.
104
Costume of Colonial Times
Coolidge, Jr., had still further styles —
" Paste, enamelled, pearl, garnet, mock gar-
net and black ear-rings. ' ' In the Connecticut
Courant oi Msiy , 1775, we read this notice:
''For the Ladies: Pierc'd & Plain stone
ear-rings set in gold & silver ; jointed gold
wires for the ears." Bernard Gratz had for
sale in Philadelphia in 1760: "Fancy
cluster ear-rings ; French pearl, circled and
points ; plain open ear-rings ; Garnet night
Egret. Sometimes spelt aigret. A tuft
of feathers worn by women for a head orna-
ment. We read of bugle, silk, and silver
egrets, and fly caps with egrets, in the Boston
Evening Post of November, 1755, and for
thirty years later, as long as military fashions
prevailed.
Elamod. See Alamode.
Ellapine. See Allapine.
Equipage. An ornamental case for wom-
en's wear to hold scissors, knife, thimble,
105
Costume of Colonial Times
pencil, tooth-pick case, tweezers, ''ear-
pick," bodkin, nail-cleaner, etc. In the
time of George I. an equipage was worn
hooked to the left side. At a later date it
was hung by a stay hook on the upper edge
of the bodice. I find *' Silver Equipages"
advertised in the Boston News Letter of
April 28, 1768, and steel equipages also.
See Etui.
Erminetta. a thin stuff for summer
wear. In the Boston Evening Post of 1 7 5 1
we read, ''Genteel Linen and Cotton Er-
minettas. ' ' Runaway negresses were adver-
tised as wearing off erminetta gowns.
Ermozen. See Armozine.
EsTAMiNE. See Taminy.
Etui. This was a name synonymous with
equipage. In the Salem Gazette ^ in 1784,
were named, " Ladies Neat House wifs and
Etwees. ' ' Isaiah Thomas, in his Book Cat-
alogue of about the same date advertised
"Ladies Elegant Red Morocco Huswives
106
Costume of Colonial Times
and Etwees with Silver Locks and Some
Silver mounted. Red Morocco Pocket books
with Etwees." I have never found it
spelled etui until modern times, but fre-
quently estuy, ettwee, etuy, etc. See Equi-
page.
Falling Band.
The eighth Henry (as I understand)
Was the first king that ever wore a Band
And but a FalUng-Band, plaine with a hem
All other people knew no use of them.
Thus wrote old John Taylor in his
Praise of Clean Linnen.
The broad, plain linen collar, turned
down over the neck of the doublet or jerkin,
was the common form of the falling-band.
It is familiar to us through early portraits.
It sometimes consisted of several pieces, or
collars, one falling over the other. It was
frequently called simply a fall. Both names
appear in a majority of the early colonial
inventories. The " three Yards ffine Lace
for ffrills and ffals" which Governor Berke-
ley, of Virginia, ordered in 1660, and which
were worth j[^2 Zs. , may have been intended
107
Costume of Colonial Times
for falls, or for fallals, which latter were
ornamental knots of lace and ribbon worn
in England that I have never seen specially
named elsewhere in American inventories or
lists. See Band.
Fan. The first newspaper advertisement
in New England relating to fans was in the
Boston News Letter of April, 17 14. On
July 1 8th, 1728, this notice appeared :
George Harding lately from London, now at Mr.
John Potters, Confectioners, Mounteth all sorts of
Fans as well as any Done in old England. He like-
wise hath a large Sortment of Curious Mounts which
he will dispose of very Reasonably, not purposing to
stay long in These Parts.
By 1732 other fan mounters had come to
town, and set up business on Beacon street,
near the Common.
The Person that mounts Fans having a Parcel
Just arriv'd. All Gentlewomen that Desire to be
Supply'd may have them. She intending to Mount
no more desires they would be speedy in Coming.
Perhaps a few wealthy Boston dames may
have owned fans from earliest Colonial days.
Abigail Kellond paid £^^ for one in Boston,
in 1686 ; but certainly fans were not com-
ics
Costume of Colonial Times
monly used until toward the middle of the
eighteenth century. Feather fans with gold
handles had been too purely court luxuries to
be plentiful in the new land, though the
"2 Feather Skreens " in Madam Usher's
wardrobe in 1725 were doubtless hand
screens or fans. In 1736 '* Women's & Chil-
dren's Ivory, Cocoa & Bone Stick' t Fans "
were advertised, and "Fine Paper Fans,"
and "Rich Fans of Leather & Paper
Mounts."
The London Magazine of 1744 speaks of
fans at that date as wonderfully increased in
size, " from three quarters of a foot to a foot
and three quarters or two feet; " and I pre-
sume the fashion spread to America. In
1750 women's and children's mourning and
half mourning and church fans were offered
for sale, thus showing a fine and discriminat-
ing regard for fashion. " Paddlestick cut
silver mount fans" appeared in 1764, and
" Marlborough & other fashionable fans."
Occasionally a portrait of this date is shown
of a fan-bearing dame, and a few of such
fans have been preserved to us, looking more
of the French taste than of the English.
109
Costume of Colonial Times
Farrandine. See Ferrandine.
Fearnaught. a thick cloth with a long
pile, also called dreadnaught and fear-
nothing. In the Virginia Gazette in 1752
and 1753 we frequently read of runaway
slaves wearing fearnothing jackets.
Ferrandine. Also farrandine and faren-
don. A cloth partly of silk, partly of wool
or hair, much like what we now call poplin.
It was frequently named by Pepys and was
much worn at that time, and was used speci-
ally for waistcoats. The name appears in
New York and New England lists of cloth-
ing.
Ferret. Originally a narrow worsted
ribbon or tape used for bindings. The
word ferret or ferriting was at a later date
applied to any narrow tape, such as shoe
lacing. In the Boston News Letter of 1762
*' Cotton and Silk Ferrit Laces, also Black
and Colour'd Silk Ferrits " were advertised.
The word will occasionally be seen on tape-
boxes in old shops nowadays.
Costume of Colonial Times
FiLEMOT. A corruption of feuille-morte
— of the color of a dead leaf.
Foot-Mantle. See Safeguard.
Frieze. A coarse woollen stuff worn by
poor folk, and used since the fourteenth cen-
tury. I have seen the word but rarely in
colonial inventories. The New Hampshire
settlers had " ffrise " garments.
Frog. An ornamental cloak, coat, or hat
button. Frogs are seen on few of the early
portraits. Governor Belcher wears a coat
trimmed with them in his portrait. Major
John Pyncheon had, in 1703, a 'Might
coulour'd cape-coat with Frogs on it." In
the JVew England Weekly Journal of 1736
"New Fashion' d Frogs" are named; and
later, ' ' Spangled Scalloped & Brocaded
Frogs. ' ' Frogs also appeared on the list of
hat trimmings.
Frosts. Judge Sewall wrote on Jan. 19,
1 7 1 7 : " Great Rain and very Slippery ;
was fain to wear Frosts. ' ' These frosts were
Costume of Colonial Times
perhaps what have been called on horses
* * frost nails, ' ' or calks, and at a later date,
for men's wear, calks. They were simply
spiked soles to help the wearer to walk on ice.
A pair may be seen at the Deerfield Memorial
Hall.
Furbelows. In the Pleasant Art of
Money- Catching (1730) a furbelowed scarf
is said ** not to be purchased under as much
. money as heretofore would have bought a
good citizen's wife a new gown and petti-
coat. But these furbelows are not confin'd to
scarfs, but they must have furbelow' d gowns
and furbelow'd petticoats, and, as I have
heard, furbelow'd smocks too."
Furbelows were invented by a Frenchman
named Langlee, the son of a waiting-maid of
Madame de Maintenon, and were simply
rows of quilled flounces, and subsequently
gathered flounces looped in clusters of plaits.
They were called in France falbalas. Furbe-
lowed gowns and petticoats and scarfs our
foremothers had in America, and perhaps the
other garment also. Furbelowed collars we
read of. The *' Furbelow'd Gold Gauze
Costume of Colonial Times
Scarf" of Richard Hall's wife (that he sold
in Boston after her death at the Barbadoes)
must have been beautiful, indeed. I have
seen no notice of the Enghsh ' ' rump furbe-
lows," nor of the brooches placed in these
furbelows and called "rump jewels" or
rumphlets; but I doubt not that wealthy
New England dames were thus bedizened.
Fustian. A stout twilled cotton stuff
worth, in 1640, a shilling a yard, and much
used for jackets and petticoats.
Garters. To the planters of the Massa-
chusetts Bay Colony were furnished "10
dussen peare of Norwich garters, about 5^-. a
dussen pr. " At an early date in the affairs
of the colony, silk garters were prohibited
as an extravagant vanity. Susannah Oxen-
bridge, the widow of the rich Boston minis-
ter, specified and bequeathed in her will in
1695, " My best Silke Stockins & Garters."
In the Boston Independent Advertiser of 1748
"Gartrings" appear, and in 1769, in the
Boston Evening Post, were named " Cord
Chain Thread & Knee Garters," and also
113
Costume of Colonial Times
" London Turkey & Scotch Gartrings," and
" Lettered Garters." So it is evident that
garters were quite an important addition to
dress, and possibly an expensive one too.
In the list of household goods and clothing
which the Governor of Arcadia asserted that
*'Mr. Phips," the Governor of Massachu-
setts, had stolen from him, or deprived him
of, were four pair of silken garters; with
which borrowed finery possibly Governor
Phips cut a fine figure. Judge Sewall had a
rare pair of garters given to him in 1688 —
" a pair of Jerusalem Garters which cost
above 2 pieces 8 (Spanish dollars) in Al-
geria. ' ' Snakeskin garters were worn to ward
off ^-ramp in the leg.
GiNGERLiNE. Among the stuffs supplied
to the Indians we find gingerline. The
traders paid one yard and a half of gingerline
for a bearskin, so doubtless many a brave
wore gay gingerline breeches, and many a
squaw a gingerline jacket. In the Duke
of Newcasde's comedy. The Triu7npha7it
Widow, 1677, one character wears a ** gin-
gerline cloth cloke with olive plush cape."
X14
Costume of Colonial Times
The word occurs in the Massachusetts
Archives as late as 1703.
Girdle. Gold and silver girdles were
among the articles of dress forbidden by the
Massachusetts General Court in 1634. In
1628 " lether girdles " were assigned to each
male emigrant. In later days they appear
frequently in inventories, usually of buff
leather. Susannah Oxenbridge had a ^ ' large
Silke Girdle " in 1695. It was not till 1755
that silver girdles and girdle buckles were
advertised for sale. The Weekly Rehearsal,
of Jan. 10, 1732, says, *'in the Present
Custom no Girdle terminates the Wast," and
seems to regard the absence of that confining
adornment as very indiscreet and almost im-
moral. In New York the girdle was univer-
sally worn by women of Dutch descent or
birth. It was usually a rich ornament, being
made of silver — sometimes of gold — and to
it were hung the housewife's bunch of keys,
her silver-clasped Bible, and frequently an
** equipage."
Gloves. Nearly all the portraits of the
settlers, — Puritans, Cavaliers, and Quakers —
"5
Costume of Colonial Times
display gloves. Governors Endicott and
Rawson wear rich gloves with deep embroid-
ered cuffs or gauntlets. Zerubbabel Endicott
left fringed gloves by will in 1683. They
were imported in large numbers even in early
days, and were of various materials; *'cor-
devant, buckskin, shammy, sattin, Irish lamb
and glazed lambs-wool." Silver and gold
fringed gloves also were worn, and " Pom-
pedore" gloves. In 1628 gloves were fur-
nished to the planters. One hundred men
had "16 dussen of gloves of which 12 dussen
of calfs leather, 2 dussen of sheeps leather, 2
dussen Kyd." Gloves for women and chil-
dren appear in all lists of wares in the news-
papers. One great expense of a funeral was
the gloves. In some communities these
were sent as an approved and elegant form
of invitation to relatives and friends and dig-
nitaries, whose presence was desired. In
the case of a funeral of any person promi-
nent in state, church, or society, vast num-
bers of gloves were disbursed; ''none of
'em of any figure but what had gloves sent
to 'em." At the funeral of the wife of
Governor Belcher, in 1736, over one thou-
116
Costume of Colonial Times
sand pairs of gloves were given away ; at
the funeral of Andrew Faneuil three thou-
sand pairs ; the number frequently ran up to
several hundred, as at the funerals of some
of the New York patroons. Different quali-
ties of gloves were presented at the same
funeral to persons of different social circles,
or of varied degrees of consanguinity or
acquaintance. Frequently the orders for
these vales were given in wills. As early
as 1633 Samuel Fuller, of Plymouth, di-
rected in his will that his sister was to have
gloves worth twelve shillings ; Governor
Winthrop and his children each ''a paire
of gloves of five shillings ; ' ' while plebeian
Rebecca Prime had to be contented with a
cheap pair worth two shillings sixpence.
The under-bearers who carried the coffin
were usually given different and cheaper
gloves than were the pall-bearers. We find
seven pairs of gloves given at a pauper's
funeral. Of course the minister, clergyman,
or dominie always was given gloves ; they
were showered on him at weddings, christen-
ings, funerals.
Various kinds of gloves are specified as
117
Costume of Colonial Times
suitable for mourning; for instance, in the
Boston Independent Advertiser in 1749, and
in New York newspapers of the same date,
'' Black Shammy Gloves and White Glazed
Lambs Wool Gloves suitable for Funerals."
White gloves were as often given as black,
and purple gloves also. Good specimens
of old mourning gloves have been preserved
in the cabinets of the Worcester Society of
Antiquity.
By Liberty Days, in 1769, even mourning
gloves showed the influences of the times, and
were made in America of American materials,
and it was proposed that they be stamped
with a suggestive design such as the Liberty
Tree.
Glove Tightens. The long gloves worn
by women were held up at the elbows by
various devices. Glove-tightens made of
plaited horse-hair were a favorite method.
Glove strings were of enough importance and
value for the sister of wealthy Peter Faneuil
to send her discarded ones to London to be
sold. Roses and ties of narrow ribbon were
also worn at glove-tops. ** Elastick glove-
118
Costume of Colonial Times
tops " were advertised in the Salem Gazette
of July 29, 1789. These glove fasteners
were also called glove-bands, and in the
Charleston Gazette (S. C.) of July 9, 1760,
we read of hair glove-tops, probably made
of braided horse-hair.
GoLBERTAiNE. See Lace.
Golosh. A ''galage" was a shoe
** which has nothing on the feet but a
latchet." A golosh was a shoe with soles of
wood or leather, with straps to keep it on
the foot. It was worn over an ordinary shoe
or slipper in bad weather. They were used
at an early date, for in February, 1687,
Judge Sewall notes : '^ Sent my mothers
Shoes & Golowshoes to carry to her." In
1736 Peter Faneuil sent to England for
^ ' Galoushoes ' ' for his sister. I find them
advertised in the New England Weekly
Journal in 1739, ^^^ i^oia that date in vary-
ing intervals in various papers, till 1776.
The popular spelling was ''golo-shoe" pro-
nounced as written, not in a single word,
golosh. Occasionally it was written '^ golos-
sians." See Clogs and Pattens.
119
Costume of Colonial Times
Gorget. An ornamental neckband
which was very full and broad in front. The
word is found but seldom in colonial records,
and only in Maryland and Virginia. In
1642, one wealthy Maryland planter left be-
hind him at his death a large number of
laced gorgets.
Grain. A color — scarlet. The word is
so used by Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton.
It was derived from the grain-like insects of
the cochineal. I read in New England in-
ventories of waistcoats of grain.
Grazzets. a dress-stuff appearing in
lists in the News Letter from 171 2 to 1768,
often specified as '* changeable grazzets."
Gridelin. Also gresdelin, gredolin,
grisetin. From the French gris de lin — flax-
gray. A gray-violet color which was fash-
ionable in the eighteenth century.
Grogram. Govenor Winthrop wrote thus:
" I purpose to send by the bearer a piece of
Turkey Grogram, about ten yards, to make
you a suit." It was a stiffened stuff of silk
Costume of Colonial Times
and wool, much like heavy mohair, and had,
it is said, a diagonal weave. Captain Clay-
borne of Palmer's Island, Maryland, had a
" stitcht Grogram doublett " in 1638. We
read until Revolutionary times of grogram
waistcoats and cloaks, and sometimes of gar-
ments of silk grograham. We find Governor
Belcher writing to his London tailor, in 1733,
about a " yellow grogram suit work't strong
as well as neat and curious. ' '
Hair- Clasps. These ornaments for the
hair — clasps to hold up the braided back
hair — were advertised for sale in the New
York newspapers and in the Connecticut
Courant of January, 1791, and were worn
until a simpler form of hair-dressing appeared
about the year 1800. They were usually
rather a cheap ornament, set with paste jew-
els, as was the fashion of the day, with mar-
casite, garnet, pearl and mocho stones; or
made of silver-gilt. I have also seen them of
cut-steel, now tarnished and rusty with years.
Hair-Lace. A fillet or ribbon for tying
up the hair. Universally worn by women
Costume of Colonial Times
of all ranks and stations in the eighteenth
century.
Hair-Peg. See Bodkin.
Hair-pin. In November, 1755, I find
the first notice of hair-pins for sale — at Har-
riot Paine's in Boston. She was a great
importer of novelties to fair Bostonians.
Previously to that time New England dames
may have skewered the hair, for aught I
know. Indeed, as she advertised ** Double
& Single Hairpins" in June, 1775, the
single hair-pins may have been simply a long
skewer of strong wire. Hairbins and hair-
bines and harepins and black hairpens appear
later, sandwiched in among the names of
woollen goods, so the articles — or possibly
they may be stuffs — thus designated were
doubtless plentiful enough. I do not find
hair-pins on wigmakers' and barbers' lists, in
any colonial newspapers ; and I find some
indications that hairbine was the name of a
woollen material. See Bodkin.
Haling-Hands. These were heavy gloves
or mittens of woolen stuff or felting (for we
Costume of Colonial Times
read complaints of their being moth-eaten),
and were frequently sent to the colonists at
Richmond Island, Maine, for use on the
fishing vessels. The evident signification of
the word points to their being used as hand
coverings for sailors and workmen while
hauling cables or doing other heavy work ;
and they are still sold and thus used. They
were frequently lined in the palms with
leather or heavy cloth. We read of a Maine
workman, in 1639, buying ''six paire hahng-
hands & i yard 3-4 Cape Cloth to lyne
them & to make myttinges. ' ' Another fish-
erman bought ' ' list to lyn halings. ' ' These
haling-hands sold for about sixpence a pair.
Handkerchief. In the inventory of the
goods supplied to the one hundred planters
of Massachusetts Bay, in 1628, were items of
*' 200 hankerchers " and "ells of sheer
lynnen for hankerchers." At that time
they were also called muckinders in England.
In the early wills '' handkerchiefes " were
mentioned among articles of importance,
and they were doubtless handsome and of
rich materials, such as the handkerchief that
123
Costume of Colonial Times
Richard Hull sent from Barbadoes to be sold
in Boston, " one silke Handkerchief with
Gold Edging." They were not all of silk
or Hnen, the "handkerchiefs that India's
shuttle boast ' ' came quickly into the market
with the increased Oriental trade. As early
as 1737 good patriotic Peter Faneuil smug-
gled into port 62 dozen Romall handker-
chiefs at ;^7 a dozen; and in 1755 *'Le-
mone Handkerchiefs ' ' were advertised in the
Boston Gazette. These were of the India
cotton material lemmanee. In the same
paper at the same time were " Scotch and
Paistwork Handkerchiefs." ''Birdsey'd"
and ' ' Sarsnet ' ' are the next names of the
stuffs of which handkerchiefs were made, and
November 18, 1767, one Boston shopkeeper
had '' linen check' d spotted flower'd stamp' d
& border' d Cambrick ; Barcelona, Pullicat,
Lungee, Bandanoe, China, Culgee, Negligee,
Rosett & Sattinet Handkerchiefs ' ' which — ■
with the Bandanoet and Bilboa handker-
chiefs of Jolley Allen's shop form a list we
could hardly equal in modern times. And
these were not all; in the same year in
the Connecticut Courant a lost box was ad-
124
Costume of Colonial Times
vertised. It contained '* One plain gauze
handkerchief lac'd, spotted gauze hand-
kerchief lac'd with a plain blond lace,
two plain gauze handkerchiefs." These
latter and the ''black gauze yard wide
Handkerchiefs ' ' of the same date must, I
fancy, have been used as neckkerchiefs.
Abigail Adams, writing in 1785, to Mrs.
Storer said : ' ' Abby has made you a minia-
ture handkerchief just to show you one mode ;
but caps hats and handkerchiefs are as various
as ladies and milliners fancies can devise."
These handkerchiefs were also ornamental
neckerchiefs.
Rebecca Franks, writing from New York
to Philadelphia in 1778, also sent a handker-
chief to show the pattern.
Hat. Each emigrant was allowed by the
Massachusetts Bay Company, in 1628, one
'' black hatt lyned at the brow with lether."
This was apparently the best head -gear of
the colonists, perhaps used only for Sunday
and funeral wear. In 1634 a law was passed
in Massachusetts against the wearing of
beaver hats save by wealthy men. It ap-
125
Costume of Colonial Times
parently availed little, though men were
prosecuted under it, for beaver hats were
worn from that day as long as beaver hats
were made — and nominally much longer.
The colonists apparently believed, like the
author oi Merry Drolleries in 1661,
Of all the felts that may be felt
Give me the English beaver.
Doubtless the high price of such head cover-
ings was the chief objection in the mind of
the frugal magistrates. Beaver hats cost
from four to six pounds apiece in England,
as we learn from Pepys and other contem-
porary diarists. Hence it is no wonder that
when owned at all in a frontier province, like
New England or even Virginia, they were
valuable enough to be left by bequest and
given as tokens of friendship and respect.
In 1694 black beaverettes were worth two
pounds apiece in America, while castor hats
cost but thirty-one shillings. A demi-cas-
tor was worth £1 6s. in Springfield in 1658.
In Maryland and Virginia rich head-gear
was worn ; hats with gold hat-bands and
feathers.
126
Costume of Colonial Times
In 1650 Robert Saltonstall left a '' black
beavor hatt" by will; in 1633 Samuel Ful-
ler left his ''best Hatt " to his minister,
Elder Brewster. Hats were also made of
cloth. In the tailor's bill of work done for
Jonathan Corwin, of Salem, in 1679, we
read, " To making a Broad cloath Hatt 14s.
To making 2 hatts & 2 jackets for your two
sonnes 19^-." In 1672 an association of
Massachusetts hatters asked privileges and
protection from the colonial government, to
aid and encourage American manufacture,
but they were refused until they made bet-
ter hats. Shortly after, however, the ex-
portation of raccoon fur to England was for-
bidden, or taxed, as it was found to be
useful in the home manufacture of hats.
Castor hats were largely imported ; Pep-
perell ordered six dozen from England in
one invoice. They appear on the heads of
runaways in many an advertisement. Cocked
hats came in vogue in New England when
they did in England, and varied widely in
shape as they did in looping, sometimes
being turned up only in front with a button,
at other times having three laps. In 1670
127
Costume of Colonial Times
hat brims were about six inches wide. Dr.
Holyoke said that in 1732 his father wore
one seven inches wide. In 1742 it became
. . . a fashionable whim
To wear it with a narrow brim.
Cocked hats were richly trimmed with
metal laces, cords, caddis, ferret, buttons,
ribbons, cockades, rosettes, and were also
painted. In 1738 in the Boston News Let-
ter runaways were advertised, one wearing a
*' hat painted of several colours ; " another
a hat * ' painted red. ' ' The words colored
and painted appear to have been used inter-
changeably in the eighteenth century ; and
*' colour' d hats" are frequently named.
Cocked hats were worn by civilians until
this century, and by the army also. During
the Revolutionary War the sentence of whip-
ping with five lashes was imposed on any
soldier whose hat was found carelessly un-
looped — '^uncockt" — as it ** gave him a
hang-dog look. ' '
Puritan women also wore felt and beaver
and castor hats, and bequeathed them by
will, as did the men. A letter written in
138
Costume of Colonial Times
Dorchester by a lover to his lass, in 1647,
tells of " thinking upon you for a hat &
chose out ye comelyest fashion hatt yt they
could find avoiding fantastick fashions. Ye
hatt was a demi-castor the priz was 245-."
Though Mary Harris, of New London,
named a *' straw hatt " in her will in 1655,
such mention is unusual, and would have
been in England at the same date. On June
18, 1727, the New England Weekly Journal
advertised "Women's Hatts made of fine
Bermuda Piatt." An affectation of country
innocence made straw hats fashionable at
about this time in England, where they were
called " Churchills." In 1732, a writer in
the Weekly Rehearsal^ speaks thus of* High-
Croun'd Hats," '* After being confin'd to
Cots & Villages so long a time, they have
become the Mode of Quality & the politest
Distinction of a Fashionable Undress." In
1742, in April, in the Boston Evening Post ^
fine Leghorn straw hats for women were ad-
vertised at sixteen to fifty shillings apiece,
and a *' parcel of fine Ruff'd hats " for ladies.
In 1737 Boston milHners had ** New Fash-
ion'd Nonpareil'd feather'd Hatts for ladies,"
129
Costume of Colonial Times
which miist have been mighty fine. In 1751
Harriot Paine had for sale ** Saxon bUie silk
and Hair Hatts, black horsehair & Leghorn
hatts," and in 1753 *' Black & white &
Black Horsehair Hatts emboss' d and stampt
Sattin Hatts." ''Fine beverett hats with
tabby linings, " ' ' tissue sattin & chipt hatts, ' '
were also sold in South Carolina as well as
the more northern States. We gain a little
suggestion of contemporary historical events
by the names, ' ' Quebeck Hats and Garrick
Hats." We know prices also: '* Womens
chipt Hats 60s. O.T. per doz." in 1764,
and '^ 4s. 6^ apiece O.T." in 1767. In the
latter year plain-trimmed and skeleton hats
appear; on April 16, 1773, "Ladies New-
est Fashion White Beaver Riding Hats."
These riding hats had previously been de-
nounced as an exceeding affectation in a
*' riding equipage."
The Sa/em Gazette advertised in July,
1784, "■ Air Balloon " and *' Princess " hats.
These were French fashions. A large brimmed
hat was fashionable for some time at this date ;
it had a low soft silk or gauze crown and a
broad ribbon bow with long ends at the back,
130
Costume of Colonial Times
and was trimmed with three ostrich feathers.
Emily and Marlborough hats appeared in
1 786. Another modish hat had a brim with-
out a crown. In 1796 Sally McKean (after-
ward Marquise d'Yrigo) wrote thus, to the
sister of Dolly Madison, of the fashions of her
day :
The hats are quite different shape from what they
used to be ; they have no slope in the crown ; scarce
any rim, and are turned up at each side and worn
very much on the side of the head. Several of them
are made of chipped woods commonly known as cane
hats ; they are all lined. One that has come for Mrs.
Bingham is lined with white and trimmed with broad
purple ribbon put around in large puffs, with a bow
on the left side.
Hive. In milliners' lists in Massachusetts
and Pennsylvania the word is seen, and it was
applied to a straw head -covering shaped like
a bee-hive for women's wear. Shakespeare,
in the Lover' s Complaint, wrote ;
Upon her head a platted hive of straw
Which fortified her visage from the sun.
In Durfey's Wit and Mit'th, or Pills to
purge Melancholy, he speaks, in a ballad
131
Costume of Colonial Times
on caps, of a *' satin and a velvet hive for
men's wear." I have also read in American
newspapers of the eighteenth century, in the
tedious romances that occasionally may be
found in their columns, of fine young coun-
try maids wearing hives on their heads.
Hood. Though English prints of the
seventeenth century usually represent Puritan
women in steeple-crowned, straight-brimmed,
untrimmed woollen hats, as ugly and unbe-
coming as those of their sober spouses, I
firmly believe that our Pilgrim mothers made
their ocean journey and landed on Plymouth
Rock in hoods ; and hoods did their descend-
ants constantly wear in spite of the meddle-
some prohibition of silk and tiffany hoods
by the early magistrates. Throughout the
other colonies they were also worn by wom-
en of every station. Through the two cen-
turies following came a brilliant inflores-
cence of hoods; though sometimes under
other names. In 1666 Ann Clarke and Jane
Humphrey, of Dorchester, left hoods by will.
In 1695 Susannah Oxenbridge specified in
her will her " Scarlett colour' d hoode & a
132
Costume of Colonial Times
black hoode." These hoods were not al-
wa)^ of heavy materials. In New York,
women had '' love-hoods " of silk and gauze
— a pretty name and I am sure a pretty
covering. In 171 2 Richard Hall sent, from
Barbadoes to Boston, a trunk of his deceased
wife's finery to be sold, among which was
' ' one black Flowered Gauze Hoode, ' ' and
he added rather spitefully that he ''could
send better but it would be too rich for
Boston." Servants wore hoods also ; many
runaways were advertised as wearing that
head-gear ; on May 6, 1 7 1 7, the Boston News
Z^//^r contained a description of a gayly at-
tired Indian runaway, who wore off a
'< Camblet Ryding Hood fac'd with blue ;"
while another wore a dark brown riding-
hood lined and faced with crimson. A rid-
ing-hood had apparently a deep cape, for
in the Weekly Rehearsal oi April 10, 1732,
a runaway slave is advertised as wearing off
an ''Orange colour'd Riding Hood with
Armholes." In old embroideries and prints
we see good examples of riding-hoods.
In 1724 Mr. Thomas Amory wrote to
England for a '* good fashionable fine riding-
133
Costume of Colonial Times
hood or a cloak with a hood to it embroid-
ered. Any color would do except red or
yellow." The following year, in Madam
Usher's wardrobe were ** Nine hoods of Sev-
eral Sorts." Mistress Estabrook, wife of
the parson at Windham, Conn., had many
hoods of silk and gauze and serge and camlet.
In 1737 "Fine, cource, and Pug Hoods"
were advertised by Boston milliners in Boston
papers, and * ' Tossells for Hoods ' ' also.
*'Pugs" were in fashion for many years.
Velvet hoods, and gauze hoods appeared in
season. Gypsy hoods, too, had their day.
Then came muskmelon hoods and pump-
kin hoods — the latter perhaps the hottest
head-coverings ever invented outside an
Esquimau igloo — a hood that, as Tom Brown
said, * * would make a Laplander sweat at
the North Pole." These clumsy pumpkin
hoods were made of great rolls of wool pad-
ding placed between double woollen cover-
ing, and held in place by quiltings or cords.
It would appear also that men wore some
form of head-gear like a hood and also called a
hood. Judge Sewall donned one, probably
to protect his neck, since he wore no wig.
134
Costume of Colonial Times
Hoops. When Margaret Winthrop and
Priscilla Molines landed on the unknown
shore of New England, their clinging gar-
ments were not distended and disfigured by-
hoops. Nor do I find any signs of the reign
of hoops or " vardingales " in New England
until the eighteenth century, save in the
will of one EHzabeth Cutler in 1663, where
she mentions a '' Morone coulour'd Carsey
Houp " worth sixteen shillings. With the
opening of the century, hoops came in fash-
ion, for in 1 70 1 Solomon Stoddard wrote to
Judge Sewall, mentioning ^'hooped petti-
coats ' ' as trenching on morality. Indeed
the tradition assigned for their assumption
seems to have put them in bad repute every-
where ever since 1596, when the author of
Pleasant Quippes for Upstart New - Fan-
gled Gentlewomen thus wrote :
These hoops that hippes and haunch do hide
And heave aloft the gay hoyst traine,
As they are now in use for pride,
So did they first beginne of paine.
But hoops were quickly tolerated, even by
very godly Puritan folk, for when William
135
Costume of Colonial Times
Pepperell married Judge Sevvall's grand-
daughter, Mary Hirst, in 1723, one of the
bridegroom's valued wedding gifts was a
hooped petticoat ; and I doubt not Mistress
Mary Pepperell walked proudly to the North
Church on the following Sabbath with dress
spread out over her new hoop as she " came
out bride ' ' observed of all in the narrow
Boston street and in the Puritan meeting-
house.
In 1 7 13 there was printed in Boston "A
Satyr, in Verse : Origin of the Whalebone
Petticoat," showing by the advent of carica-
cature that the reign of hoops had begun.
The ban of religion was also placed on the
unwelcome fashion. The New England
Courant offered for three pence, in 1722, a
little book ** intituled " — *' Hoop-Pettycoats
Arraigned and Condemned by the Light of
Nature and Laws of God." On April 19,
1728, ** Womens Hoop Coats" were adver-
tised in the New England Weekly Journal^
and at the same time Mr. Amory, a rich Bos-
ton merchant, condemned and returned a lot
of petticoats consigned to him from England,
because they were too scanty for wear with
13^
Costume of Colonial Times
the hoops then in vogue. In 1740 '' Quilt-
ed and Hooped Petticoats" were imported,
and petticoats suitable to large or small
hoops. Hooped coats appeared, — '' Long
& Short Bone Hoop Coats, ' ' and ' ' Hoop-
ing Holland ; ' ' the latter evidently to make
strong linen petticoats into which reeds or
bones could be run, as Pope said, " arm'd
with ribs of whale." Whalebone and reeds
were also plentifully sold, and cane and
' ' quhaill-horne " — which was only another
name for whalebone. The size and spread
of hoops at this date may be fancied, when
it is told that there were advertised in 1748,
in the Boston Independent Advertiser, *' Fine
Newest Fashion Hoop Petticoats from 3
yards to 5 yards made with fine Long Bone."
The shapes of hoops varied in New England,
as in England and France. Fly hoops were
worn in 1755. J^^^ Eustis, a fashionable
Boston mantua-maker and shopkeeper, had
** Fan Hoops" for sale in 1758. In 1721
came ' ' Bell Hoops ' ' of pyramidal shape,
very large at the base ; and ' ' Pocket Hoops ' '
— great panier-shaped humps, one on each
hip — the ugliest and most cumbersome fashion
137
Costume of Colonial Times
ever in vogue, were worn in 1750 and also in
1 780. The portrait of Juliana Penn, daughter-
in-law of William Penn, shows pocket hoops
standing out a foot and a half horizontally
from the waist. In an old piece of tapestry
embroidered in 1756, portraying a wedding
procession in Boston, the women all wear
pocket hoops. The portrait of Mrs. Nicholas
Boylston (1765) displays a big hoop. The
advertisement of children's hoops and hoop-
coats proves that little girls ballooned
through Boston, New York, and Philadelphia
streets as universally and unbecomingly as
did their modish mothers. The shapes of all
these hoops followed closely those of Eng-
land ; swelling at the sides in vast '* rumps "
in Boston within a year after that ugly fashion
obtained in London ; standing out in a vast
circle around the feet of the sensible wives
of the Salem merchants and Charleston and
Annapolis ship-owners, just as similar ones
proudly surrounded the limbs of patrician
English duchesses. The classic garb of the
court of Josephine banished hoops for a time,
only to return until our own day in constant-
ly recurring waves of fashion.
Costume of Colonial Times
Hose. The words hose and stockings
seem to have been, from earliest New England
days, interchangeable. When doublet and
hose were worn, the latter were of course the
long Florentine hose, somewhat like our
modern tights. In the list of goods fur-
nished to the colonists in 1628, by the Massa-
chusetts Bay Company, both are named.
*' 300 peare of stockings w'of 200 pere
Irish about ii'^or 13^^ a p. 100 peare of
knit stockings about 2^ 4"^ apr., 200 sutes
dublett and hose of leather lyned w'th oil'd
skyn Lether, ye hose & dublett with hookes
and eyes. 100 sutes of Norden dussens or
hampheere kersies lyned the hose with
skyns." The Piscataquay planters had in
1635 "40 Doz Coarse Hose, 204 Pair
Stockins, 149 Pair Small Hose," which
were all, I think, stockings. I judge from
the number of pair of breeches supplied to
these Piscataquay settlers that long hose
were in 1635 no longer in vogue.
Gayly colored stockings appear to have
been worn. We find John Eliot ordering
*'greene & blew Cotton Stockings" in
165 1. In 1667 a Hartford gentleman had
139
Costume of Colonial Times
sent to him from England a pair *' Pinck
colour' d mens hose " worth a pound, and a
'* paire of womens green hose worth thirteen
shillings, and ten paire mens silke hose."
Yellow stockings were ordered from England
in 1660 for one who wished to appear
irradiated like Malvolio. In 1739 russet
and green were the favorite colors. By-
Revolutionary times white silk hose were
worn by modish beaux.
Cloth stockings, such as Queen Elizabeth
wore, are frequently named in lists. In 1675
eighteen dozen sold for ;£i4 8s. The Irish
stockings so often imported must have been
of cloth or felting, for in New EnglamV s
First Fruits we read instructions to bring
over ''good Irish stockings, which if they
are good are much more serviceable than
knit ones." There appears to have been
much variety in shape, as well as in
material. John Usher, writing in 1675 to
England, says, ''your sherrups stockings
and your turn down stockings are not salable
here." Judge Sewall orders in 1723, " two
pair good Knit Worsted Stockings of the
colour of the inclosed Cloth ; not to roll,
14a
Costume of Colonial Times
not Picked Snouts, but Round Toes. Two
pair of good Mill'd Stockings of a dark
Colour, round Toes." Roll-up stockings
were worth lo shillings a pair in 1691.
**Indean Stockings" were bequeathed.
They were probably leather leggins.
Leather stockings were also worn, even by
such a dignitary as William Penn.
Stirrup stockings and socks were advertised
in the Boston News Letter of January 30,
1 731. Stirrup-hose are described and drawn
by Randle Holme in his note-book, dated
1658, which is preserved in the British
Museum. They were very wide at the top —
two yards wide — and edged with points or
eyelet holes by which they were made fast
to the girdle or bag-breeches. Sometimes
they were allowed to bag down over the
garter. They are said to have been worn
on horseback to protect the other garments ;
but Holme speaks of other hose being worn
over them.
" Diced Hose, masqueraded hose, silk
cloked & chevered hose. Fine four-thread
Strawbridge knit hose, yarn hose, ribbed
pointed chivelled worsted hose, Jersey knit
141
Costume of Colonial Times
hose," all were sold in Boston previous to
1740, showing that ''many dispositions of
hose" were known.
Hum-hum A plain coarse-meshed Indian
fabric made of cotton, much advertised in
the middle of the century. We read of
* ' blue Humhums ' ' and ' ' Humphumps for
Sacks ' ' for sale in various Boston news-
papers, from 1750 to 1770.
Inkle. A woollen tape or braid formerly
used by simple folk as a trimming, being
sewed on in patterns. Autolycus had inkles
in his pack to sell to the shepherds. John
Pyncheon charged thirteen pence for ''a
bunch of Incle " in his Springfield shop in
1 65 1. Inkles were sometimes striped. I
find them advertised till Revolutionary times
in New England papers, in this wise : ''Rich
inkle lustring," "striped inkle," "stay
inkle," etc. In England the name is now
applied to a broad linen tape.
IzAVEES. Elizabeth Murray had " Izavees
for Sacks " in 1752. This may have been
a New England spelling of Vis-a-vis.
143
Costume of Colonial Times
Jacket. Edward Skinner had a jacket
in 1641 ; and after 1720 jackets seem to
have been worn much by servants, for they
appear in the inventories of the garb of run-
aways : a swanskin jacket in 1720; ''dark
almost black Double Breasted Frieze Jacket ' '
in 1720 ; ^' Pee Double-Breasted Jacket with
Brass Buttons " in 1730 ; and a '' cinnamon-
coulour'd Jacott " in 1733. Linen jackets
were worn by southern slaves.
Jerkin. Strutt says that a jerkin, a jacket,
and a coat were the same thing. In Mer-
i ton's Clavis, 1697, the compiler says a
''jerkin is a kind of jacket or upper doub-
let with four skirts or laps." In Two Gen-
tlemen of Verona, act 2, sc. 4, we read,
" My jerkin is a doublet :" and both names
appear to have been applied to the same
garment, and also to a buff-coat. The
name is not frequently seen in America, even
in early colonial inventories. Edward Skin-
ner of Boston had " i Ircken " in 1641. '/
Governor Winthrop had a " two tufted vel- /
vet jerkin." Maryland planters had erkyns. '
It was also spelt jorgen and jergen, and, as in
143
/\
Costume of Colonial Times
old Dutch, jurkken. A jerkinet was a similar
garment for women's wear.
Jimp. See Jump.
Joseph. A name given in the eighteenth
century to a lady's riding habit or great-
coat buttoned down the front, and with a
broad cape. It is said to have been named
in allusion to Joseph's coat of many colors.
We know that Olivia, in the Vicar of Wake-
field, was to have her portrait painted
* 'dressed in a green Joseph."
A curious diminutive or degraded form
of the word and garment was used in the
Middle States. In the New York Mercury of
June 1 6, 1760, we read of a runaway maid-
servant wearing off *'peniston Josey," and
another a "blue and white Cotton Josey."
JoRGEN. See Jerkin.
Jump. ' ' A loose stays or waistcoat ' '
used in negligee dress. We read in the
Universal Magazine of 1 780 :
Now a shape in neat stays,
•Now a slattern in jumps.
144
Costume of Colonial Times
And again, *' Bless me, don't mind my shape
this bout, I'm only in jumps." In Novem-
ber, 1754, in the Boston Evening Post
" Womens and Maids stays and Jumps " ap-
pear ; and also in New York papers of the
same date. From the entries in early wills
of the seventeenth century, it would seem
that the word '* jump " was then appHed to
waistscoats and bodices worn for outer gar-
ments, not to a loose stays worn as an under-
garment. Randle Holme describes it as ''a
jacket, jump, or loose coat reaching to the
thighs." Jumps were also called jimps and
may have been derived from jupe. We
read in Burns, *'My ladies jimps and jer-
kinet." I think our word in modern use,
jumper, a loose overall jacket, is derived
from jump.
Kerchief. See Handkerchief.
Kersey.
Be thine of Kersey firm though small the cost
Then brave unwet the Rain, unchill'd the Frost.
Kersey was a firm woollen cloth made of
long-fibred wool, and was known in Eng-
145
VlBRA^
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
Costume of Colonial Times
land as early as the time of Edward III.
It was spelt in America in the usual ingen-
ious assortment of ways, carsey being the
favorite form. From it were made the gar-
ments of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower,
those of the Massachusetts Puritans, the
Virginian Cavaliers, and the Maine fisher-
men. In 1640 seven yards of kersey were
worth j£i Ss. By an inventory of one
Leadlaw in Saco, Me., in 1662, we learn
it was then and there worth ten shillings a
yard. By 1692, settler Foxcroft, writing to
England with regard to future importations
to the new land, said, " Kerseys & Cource
Linens are a Drug." Devonshire carsey is
mentioned in early wills, and appeared in
newspaper advertisements from 1704 until
the latter part of the last century, especially
in the description of the dress of runaways,
in the Boston News Letter oi September, 1704,
as when an eloping servant wore '■ ' Gray home-
spun Devonshire Kersey breeches," and
again, when an Indian maid wore off a
<* Kersey Peticote."
Khantsloper. See Slops.
146
Costume of Colonial Times
Kit-Packs. See Buskin.
Lace. The word lace was applied in
early days both to a lacing cord and, as we
now use it, to an open-work trimming lace.
A lace was originally the cord that held
garments in place, and as it was crossed
backward and forward it formed open-work
meshes, the prototype of the lace meshes.
When Sir William Pepperell wrote abroad
in 1737 for ^'Agold Lace for a Hat and
Botten for my Selfe and a Lace for ye knees
and a paire of Breeches, ' ' he meant probably
gold cords.
In 1634 the Massachusetts General Court
made many rigid laws forbidding the wear-
ing of "any app'ell either wollen silke or
lynnen with any lace on it, Silver, golde,
silke or thread." These laws did not, how-
ever, work the desired end; many women
and men were prosecuted and fined for wear-
ing lace, *' Ester wife of Joseph Jynkes Jr.
of Lyn " being among the number. In
Connecticut a similar law existed. ''What
person soever shall weare gold or silver lace
or any bone lace above 3 sh a yard, shall be
147
Costume of Colonial Times
assessed at one hundred and fifty pounds
estate."
Bone lace was used by the earliest colo-
nists— the Pilgrims themselves and the James-
town settlers, and also in England in the
sixteenth century.
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun
And the free maids that weave their thread with
bones.
Thus wrote Shakespeare in his Twelfth
Night. Fuller in his Worthies says this
lace was called bone lace because made with
bone bobbins ; and he defended its use be-
cause its material was not expensive, be-
cause its manufacture employed children and
infirm persons, and because it saved the
spending of many thousands of pounds yearly
by Englishmen for lace in Flanders.
In the printed notice of the prize of a
privateersman, in colonial days, we find
''bone lace," and it was advertised for
sale for many years in New England news-
papers— in 1736 in the New England
Weekly Journal, ' ' Black Bone Lace ; ' ' and
in 1749 in the Boston Independent Adver-
148
Costume of Colonial Times
tiser. And it was used to trim gowns and
smocks, and capes, and petticoats, as inven-
tories show. And industrious New England
maids, Judge Sewall's daughters among the
number, were taught to make it on their lace
cushions.
New England dames had imported laces
also to choose from. The portraits of the
times show many frills and collars of various
laces. In 1712 **Gymp'r Lace" was im-
ported, worth twelve shillings a yard. It
was also called "Gimp Lace." ''Dutch
Lace, Blond Lace, Black Silk Lace ' ' came
next. In 1727 came ''Fine Mechlon Silk
Laces & Edgings ; " while Magdalen Wroe
had Machhn Lace. "Scarlet & Crimson
Silk Lace with Mantle Tossels ' ' were adver-
tised in the New England Weekly Journal
in 1736. Flanders lace came frequently,
and snail laces. Campane lace, a very
narrow pillow lace used as an edge, was, I
suppose, campaign lace. It was made in
gold and colored silk as well as in white.
Blo^vn lace was the commonest of all.
Colverteen, also spelt golbertaine, coller-
tine, collertain, and colbertine, was a lace
149
Costume of Colonial Times
with square meshes, so called from Louis
XIV. 's minister, Colbert, who promoted the
lace industry. It was used to trim bands
and caps. We read in Swift's Bauds and
Philemon of *<good pinners edged with
colberteen." Curiously enough the name
was not used in France. In 1755 Bath lace,
Mechlin, ** bonseel," Flanders, Brussels,
minott, coxcomb, *'traly," ** taste," blond
and bone laces were all imported. Traly or
trolley lace was made in Devonshire. It
had a double ground of hexagonal and tri-
angular meshes. The pattern was outlined
with a heavier thread. Minott, or minuet,
or minuit, or mignonette lace was a narrow
bobbin lace resembhng tulle, or our modem
footing ; it was made chiefly at Arras and
Lille. Five years later "thread inlet,"
**cheveau du friz" (which I think was fly-
fringe) and *' spider" laces were imported.
It is impossible to definitely describe these
laces. Mrs. Bary-Palliser's book on laces
gives some information. They were doubt-
less much like our hand-made laces of the
present day ; our blond, Mechlin, thread,
and Brussels laces.
150
Costume of Colonial Times
Gold and silver laces were worn by men,
and occasionally lace-edged ruffles at the
shirt front and wrists, and a few lace-edged
cravats were seen in Virginia ; but ' ' true
New England men " and Quakers followed
no extreme cavalier fashions, nor did the
Dutch. See Net.
Lappet. The lace pendant of a lady's
cap or head-dress. Horace Walpole called
them ''unmeaning pendants." In the Bos-
ton Gazette of November 13, 1750, we read
of " Lappitt Heeds," and in Xht Boston Even-
ing Post of September, 1758, Jane Eustis
advertised ''Blown Lace Lappet Heads."
In 1772 came "Very Neat Flanders and
Brussels Lappet Heads." In many of the
portraits of the times we see long lace lappets
on the caps.
Lellokans. See Pins.
Lend. A thin gauzy linen made in imita-
tion of muslin, and much used for caps and
head-dresses a hundred years ago.
Levite. Lady Cathcart — an American
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Costume of Colonial Times
by birth — writing to her aunt in 1781, gave
thus the London fashions :
They wear for morning a white poloneze or a
dress they call a Levete, which is a kind of gown
and Peticote with long sleeves made with scarcely
any pique in the back, and worn with a sash tyed on
the left side. They make these in winter of white
dimity, and in Summer of Muslin with Chints bor-
ders.
This explains the advertisements in the
Boston Evening Post oi 1783, of *' callicoes
for Levites."
The levite was originally a long straight
frock-coat somewhat like that worn by a
priest. Horace Walpole satirized it as re-
sembling ''a man's nightgown tied round
with a belt." The robe-levite imitated it
with a train added. A ''monkey-tailed
levite ' ' had a curiously twisted train, and
was a French fashion. In the translation, by
Mrs. Cashel Hoey, of Robida's Ten Cen-
turies of Toilette there is shown on page 177a
levite robe — and a very modish-looking gar-
ment it is. The word Levite, like the robe,
is now obsolete.
LiLLiKiNS. See Pins.
Costume of Colonial Times
LiRiPiPES. Pendent streamers to a hood
or head-dress, often long enough to hang to
the feet. These liripipes were of gauze or rib-
bons and were not used as strings, but were
simply ornamental. Also spelt lyripups and
lerrypups. The word was derived from liri-
pipiu7n, a hood of a particular form formerly
worn by graduates. See Lappet.
Lockets. Michael Wigglesworth, author
of the dreadful Day of Doom was a warm
lover ; he gave to his third wife, while he
was wooing her, a dainty little heart-shaped
locket, which is still owned by one of his
descendants. Other colonists owned these
pretty trinkets ; John Oxenbridge had two.
The widow of Colonel Livingstone, of New
London, had a '^ stone drop for the neck and
a red stone for a locket." '* Stone heart
lockets for hair sett in gold " were adver-
tised in 1762, and "mocus lockets" and
* '■ silvered lockets. ' ' Lockets were worn on
both the arm and the neck.
LoRETTO. A silk material much used for
fine waistcoats in 1767.
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Costume of Colonial Times
Lustring. A soft plain silk universally
worn. It was neither corded nor figured nor
had it a satin surface. We find Judge Sew-
all, writing to England in 1697, for '' forty
yards of Flower' d Lustring not to exceed
5 sh per yard," for petticoats, and also for
silk fringe to trim these lustring petticoats.
Thomas Amory, writing to England in 1721,
said ''Lutstrings are staple commodities."
The fashionable colors in lustrings in 1783
were, " Plumb, Pink, Flystale, Cinnamon,
and Laylock," so said the Newport Mercury.
The name appears till the middle of this
century in common use.
Mandillion. a man's garment some-
thing of the nature of a doublet and also
spelt mandilian. It was first worn in France
in the sixteenth century, and was for many
years a soldier's wear, and was frequently
sleeveless. Chapman, in his translation of
the Iliady writes thus of a mandillion : —
About him a mandillion that did with buttons
meet,
Of purple, large, and full of folds, curl'd with a
warraful nap.
154
Costume of Colonial Times
Mandillions were among the articles of cloth-
ing given to each Bay and Piscataquay
planter.
The mandillions of the New England col-
onists were fastened with hooks and eyes,
and lined with cotton.
Manteau. See Mantua.
Mantelet. See Mantle.
Manto. See Mantua.
Mantle. In 1662 Mary Lake, of Ips-
wich, had a scarlet mantle appraised at ^4.
Penelope Winslow, the wife of the governor
of Plymouth Plantations, had her portrait
painted at about that date in a similar scar-
let mantle. In the JVew England Weekly
Journal, of 1739 we read of the sale of
" Manteels," and in 1743, in the Boston
News Letter, that '^ Ladies may have their
Mantelets made." The words mantle and
mantelet were closely akin to the word
mantua, q. v.
Mantua. Originally a gown or sacque
open to display the petticoat ; then the out-
iSS
Costume of Colonial Times
er mantle or cape, and finally a stuff for the
making of mantuas. So universal was the
wear of mantuas that they gave their name
to the maker of cloaks — a mantua-maker.
Silks for mantues, manteaus, and mantuas
appear in all the eighteenth century news-
papers. In the Boston News Letter of
April 5, 1729, we read of the setting-up of a
milliner who " designed the making of Man-
tos and Riding Dresses." In 1741 came
yellow mantua silk. In 1755 Elizabeth
Murray had * '■ Enamelled Mantuas ' ' for sale.
Marcasite. Marcasite, spelled also mar-
cassite, marchasite, marquesett, or mar-
quaset, was a mineral, the crystallized form
of iron pyrites. It was largely used in the
eighteenth century for various ornamental
purposes, chiefly in the decoration of the
person. It could be readily polished, and
when cut in facets like a rose-diamond, formed
a pretty material for shoe and knee buckles,
ear-rings, rings, pins, and hair ornaments.
Scarce a single advertisement of wares of
milliner or mantua-maker can be found in
eighteenth century newspapers, that does not
156
Costume of Colonial Times
contain (in some form of spelling) the word
marcasite, and scarce a rich gown or
head-dress was seen without some ornament
of marcasite.
Masks. For many years the fair colo-
nists, Quakers, Huguenots, and Puritans, had
a fashion of wearing ' ' sun-expelling masks, ' '
to protect the complexion against the wind,
sun, and cold. Children wore them also.
George Washington sent abroad for masks
for his wife and for his little step-daughter,
** Miss Custis;" and *' childrens masks"
are often named in bills of sale. Loo-
masks were small half masks and were also
imported. Sometimes these masks were held
in the hand; but riding masks were often
fitted with a silver mouthpiece, by which the
close-set lips or teeth of flie wearer could
hold the protecting mask in place, since her
hands were otherwise occupied with the reins
or holding herself on the pillion. Some-
times, following an old-time French fashion,
the mask had fastened to the mouth-opening
two short silken strings with a silver bead or
button at the end of each. With a bead
157
Costume of Colonial Times
placed in either corner of her mouth, the
mask wearer could talk and still hold her
mask firmly in place. For a while it was
fashionable to wear the mask or vizard hang-
ing by a ribbon or cord at the side. In
1645 masks were forbidden to be worn in
Plymouth, Mass., for ^' improper purposes,"
and I have puzzled long over what those im-
proper purposes could have been in that staid,
pious, and small community. In 1654 one
Burril, of Lynn, mentioned two masks in
his inventory of property. In the following
year one dozen black velvet masks were in-
ventoried as worth ^1 4s. As early as 1685
New York dames had masks, and they were
sent to the South Carolina settlers. In 1729
they were advertised for sale in Philadelphia.
For many years all invoices of English goods
exported to America contained masks. From
1760 to 1790 they were mentioned in almost
every list of goods offered to New England
shoppers, and must have been universally
worn. They were of black velvet, white
silk, green silk, and "natural coloured,"
which latter kind must have been specially
disfiguring and ugly.
158
Costume of Colonial Times
Match- Coat. The definition given two
centuries ago by Governor Beverley of Vir-
ginia was this :
The proper Indian matchcoat is made of skins
dressed with the fur or sewed together. The Duf-
field matchcoat is bought of the English.
The name match-cloth was given to a coarse
woollen cloth used for these coats, but duffels
were chiefly employed in their manufacture.
The derivation of the word seems uncertain.
In Baroga's Chippewa Dictionary the word
matchigode is given for petticoat.
Mercury. A mercury was a cap or
head-dress for women's wear, often mentioned
in public sales. From the Boston Evening
Post, of 1760 and 1761, we gain an idea of
the materials used in these mercuries — gauze,
net, trolly, beads, bugles, lace, etc.
MiLLY. The name of a color which ap-
parently was nearly meal-colored. I have
often read ofmilly, tuly, and murry woollens
being ordered.
Minikins. See Pins.
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Costume of Colonial Times
Mittens. Wadmoll mittens were among
the supplies furnished to the Bay planters.
Knit mittens and those made of heavy cloth
and fur were constantly worn. We read of
runaways wearing off '^ jarning " and *' yarn
mittens." The knitting of mittens was for
many years a lucrative household industry,
and much ingenuity was displayed in the
various ornamental stitches employed and
pride in the short time employed in knitting.
Many girls could knit a pair of double mit-
tens in a day. Thrummed mittens were
knit from the thrums of wool, ^nd were
much cheaper. Mittens were also made of
heavy cloth, and of the skins of various ani-
mals.
Mitts. Little fingerless gloves were for
many years much worn and went by the name
of mitts. They were made of kid or silk
and frequently of open lace-work, and were
a favorite summer wear. We find them ad-
vertised in the Boston Evening Post, of
November, 1750, of various gay colors —
pink, blue, and yellow, which were probably
for evening wear. I have seen old mitts of
160
Costume of Colonial Times
woven silk with handsome medallions of
lace set in on the back of the hand. A cu-
rious kind of mitts was worn just after the
Revolution. Fingerless covers, like sleeves,
for the arms, with a short separate thumb
covering, but no finger divisions, were made
of cotton or linen material like the dress, and
were freshly starched and ironed for Sunday-
wear. They were buttoned to the shoulder
of the dress. Such mitts were often made of
yellow nankeen to wear with a short-sleeved
nankeen gown. I think the '' Womens &
girls Jane and Linen Mitts" and ** White
Holland Gloves," which were advertised in
Boston in 1784, must have been these un-
comfortable sleeve - mitts. And when the
wife of Colonel John May, of Boston, wrote
in her diary on June 5, 1789, '' Cut my girls
gloves, set them to work, and left them to
take care of the house," the gloves named
doubtless were these linen mitts.
Mob. See Cap.
Mocus. Mocus, mocho, morko, or mo-
chu was what is now known as moss -agate or
161
Costume of Colonial Times
dendritic agate. These '* mocuses " were
vastly modish in England in Queen Anne's
day, set in rings, seals, brooches, buckles, and
necklaces and were in high fashion in the
colonies. I find them largely advertised in
New York and Pennsylvania newspapers.
Modesty-Piece. Addison thus describes
it: **A narrow lace which runs along the
upper part of the stays before, being a part
of the tucker, is called the modesty-piece. ' '
It was also called modesty-bit. See Gorget
and Stomacher.
Monmouth Cap. See Cap.
MucKENDER. See Handkerchief.
Muff. Muffs are said, by some English
authorities, to have been introduced into
England in the reign of Charles II. This
is obviously incorrect, since Thomas CuUa-
more, of St. Marys, Maryland, had a muff
in 1638, and AHce Ferrance of Boston left
a ** muffe " by will in 1656, and Jane
Humphreys of Dorchester one with a winter
hood in 1668. Judge Sewall bought, in Eng-
162
Costume of Colonial Times
land, muffs of Yarman Serge, and four other
*' good muffs " that he bought for his family
— his wife and daughters — cost ^2 6s. He
also ordered muffs from abroad at later
dates. Cloth as well as fur muffs were
made. The Connecticut Coiirant had this
startling advertisement. "■ Ladies will ob-
tain muffs much cheaper by bringing their
own skins." A few of the different ma-
terials that I have noted in advertisements
are here named : '' Martin Muffs & Tip-
pits," ^' New Feather' d Muffs," ''Swan
feather 'd muffs," ''Blue & colored velvet
muffs," " Mouse colour'd muffs of a peculiar
kind ; ' ' which were apparently all for wom-
en's wear. Muffs grew to an enormous size
and were carried for many years by both
men and women. On March 5, 17 15, the
Boston News Letter contained this adver-
tisement :
Any man that took up a Mans Muff drop't on the
Lords Day between the Old Meeting House & the
South are desired to bring it to the Printers Office
and shall be rewarded. '
In 1725, Dr. Prince lost his " black bear-
skin muff," and in 1740 a " sable-skin mans
163
Costume of Colonial Times
muff" was advertised. In this, as in other
fashions, New England beaux followed the
lead of English dandies. Many diaries and
letters — such as those of Horace Walpole —
show the prevalence of the fashion of ' ' mans
muffs " in England. I can easily fancy the
mincing face of Horace Walpole peering out
of a carriage window or a sedan chair, with
his hands and wrists thrust in a great muff ;
but when I look at the severe and ascetic
countenance in the portrait of Thomas Prince
I find it hard to think of him, walking
solemnly along Boston streets, carrying his
big bear-skin muff. Other Bostonians fol-
lowed the fashion until a much later date —
Judge Dana until after Revolutionary times.
In New York Rene Hett had several muffs
which he left by will in 1783.
MuFFETEES. MufTetces were what we
would now call wristlets, and were worn by
men, and possibly by women. The sleeves
of men's coats were made very short in
order to display fine lace or lawn wrist
ruffles. Hence the wrists were thinly clad
and much exposed to the cold. Long gloves
164
Costume of Colonial Times
with gauntlets were worn for protection, and
muffetees. These were of fur or woollen.
In the Boston Gazette and Weekly Journal
of November, 1749, ''Men's fine Worsted
Gloves and Muffetees ' ' were offered for
sale; and in the sanie paper, in 1755,
*' white black and colour'd Muffetees " were
advertised. They were also knit of yarn.
MuRRY. A reddish purple color — mul-
berry color. The livery colors of the house
of York were murry and blue. I have often
seen the word murry in lists of merchandise
of early colonial days. It was a favorite
color for the garments of respectable elderly
gentlemen.
Nabobs. Eliza Southgate Bowne, writ-
ing in 1803 of the fashions, says ''silk na-
bobs plaided, colored, and white, are much
worn." In other letters of ten years earlier
date we read of nabobs for women's wear,
but with no definite descriptions thereof;
and any such signification of the word is not
given in our dictionaries. Nabobs were
probably a thin East Indian stuff.
165
Costume of Colonial Times
Nankeens. Fairholt says nankeens were
introduced into America, in 1825, from
Sicily. His statement is absurdly incorrect,
for I find them advertised for sale in the
CharlestoJi Gazette (S. C.) as early as May
7, 1744, and in 1 761 in the Boston Even-
ing Fostf and read also of runaway slaves
wearing nankeen breeches in 1769. George
Washington bought them in large quantities
as early as 1 769. By 1 780 they were a vast-
ly important article of commerce in the In-
dia trade, and their price was almost a stand-
ard of exchange. They were used by all
classes and both sexes for all variety of outer
gear for both summer and winter wear, but
must have proved rather chilly attire by
Christmas-tide. The name is given from the
place of manufacture, Nanking, in China,
and the peculiar buff color is the natural tint
of the cotton of which the nankeens are
made.
Neck-cloth. Jane Humphreys, of Dor-
chester, Mass., owned in 1668, ''A black
sike (quilled) Neckcloath, a Black Stuffe
Neck Cloath, and a Callico Vnder Neck
166
Costume of Colonial Times
Cloath. ' ' Other colonists had speckled neck-
cloths, lawn and silesia neck-cloths. Men
and women both wore them. They were
also called neck-clothes, neckerchiefs, neck-
ingers, and neckatees.
Necklace. When the venerable Judge
Sewall was courting Madam Winthrop for his
third wife, he ingratiatingly asked her what
kind of a *' Neck-Lace " he should bring her,
showing that these trinkets were then fashion-
able and plentiful — and presumably low-
priced (as were all the Judge's gifts), as well
as proving them a true lover's token. In
England, at the same date. Madam Pepys
had ''pitched upon a necklace with three
rows of pearls which is a very good one, and
so is the price. ' ' From early advertisements
in tlie Boston News Letter, we learn some-
thing of the fashion of the necklaces of those
days. In June, 1712, a " White Stone fine-
cut Necklace set in Silver " was lost — only
two shillings reward was offered. In the
Boston Evefiing Post of March 8, 1736, there
was advertised ''A spangled Gold Chain,
three strings with a large Gold Locket hav-
167
Costume of Colonial Times
ing Abigail Andrews wrote upon it." ^5
reward was offered for their recovery. In
New York richer necklaces were worn, single
and triple strings of pearls.
In 1753 we find ** French and Solitair
Necklaces, " * ' light blue pendalls and Neck-
laces," **Pink and White Pearl colored
Necklaces;" and by 176 1 "Purple, green
and black necklaces with spreaders." The
latter must have been uncommonly ugly and
were probably made of beads or bugles, and
formed an esclavage or festooned necklace —
a French fashion introduced in 1760. In
1 77 1, J. Coolidge, Jr., had for sale in Bos-
ton '' Necklaces, sprigs, solitairs and pends
set with marquasetts. ' ' Many early portraits
show necklaces, usually simple strings of
beads, the latter frequently of gold. Many
New England wives at a later date placed
their hard-earned savings, their *' ^gg and
yarn money," in the portable, safe and
easily salable shape of gold beads. In the
diary of Abigail Kellond, kept from 1685 to
1730, she frequently enters the number of
<* goold beeds" on her and her daughter's
necklaces. The latter had fifty-two in 1686,
168
Costume of Colonial Times
and thirty years later she had ninety-nine
beads. Madam Kellond herself had one hun-
dred and four beads.
Neckstock.
The stock with buckle made of paste
Has put the cravat out of date,
wrote Whyte in 1742. The stock, a made-
up, stiffly folded cravat or neck-cloth, with
a metal spring attached to keep it in place
when on the neck, is not wholly obsolete at
the present day, though wholly old-fashioned
and bucolic.
In 1743, in the Boston News Letter, two
neck-stocks were advertised as lost ; and in
1764 in the Boston Evening Post vfQ find
mention of ' ' Stock-Tapes ' ' and ' ' Newest
fashion' d plaited Stocks." In the Co7inecti-
cut Courant, of May i, 1773, and in New
York journals we find silver plated and pinch-
beck stock buckles '* cypher' d and plain."
These buckles were originally set as an orna-
ment in the front of the stock, but in later
days the stock was fastened on one side by
a strong unornamented buckle, or by two
small buckles and straps.
169
Costume of Colonial Times
Negligee. A loose, full gown, open in
front, which Fairholt says was introduced
about 1757. I find in iht Boston Evening
Post of November, 1755, *' Horsehair Quilt-
ed Coats to wear with Negligees," and they
must have been fashionable at an earlier date
in England than Fairholt stated. A poem
printed in New York in 1756 has these lines :
Put on her a Shepherdee
A short sack or Negligee
Ruffled high to keep her warm
Eight or ten about an arm.
In spite of the signification of the name,
a negligee was worn in full dress. Abigail
Adams, writing to Mrs. Storer in 1785, said :
*' Trimming is reserved for full dress only,
when very large hoops and negligees with
trains three yards long are worn." We find
Benjamin Franklin sending home materials
for negligees for his Deborah in 1765.
Net. Though we still have various ma-
chine-made nets, we have no such variety as
were advertised a century ago, and which
seem to have been frequently a fine, gauze,
rather than an open-meshed net. Some of
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Costume of Colonial Times
the curious names were : picket or piquet
net, whip-net, male or meal net, drop-net,
spider net, balloon-net, warp-net, point-net,
Paris net, bobbin-net, dress-net, undress-
net, patent or pattern net, lace-net, dressed
net, queens net, queens fancy net, caul-net.
All these were used in the manufacture of
caps, scarfs, and head-dresses, and for furbe-
lows for gowns — some of them for the entire
gown. See Lace.
Nightcap. Everyone — men, women, and
children — wore nightcaps as part of the
sleeping attire, until modern times. When
the Governor of Acadia sent to the govern-
ment of Massachusetts the list of goods stolen
from him by *' Mr. Phips " he named *' 4
nightcaps with lace edge ; 8 nightcaps
without lace." Men at one time wore
nightcaps in day-time as part of a negligee
costume. I have seen ancient colored silk
nightcaps richly embroidered in colors and
gold and silver.
Night-gown. The early signification of
the word night-gown was much the meaning
171
Costume of Colonial Times
applied at present to the word dressing-gown.
It was not a garment worn when sleeping.
We have a very good description of a night-
gown from the pen of the old Duchess of
Marlborough, who ordered such a garment
from Paris :
A Night-gown easy and warm, with a light silk
wadd in it, such as are used to come out of bed and
gird round, without any train at all, but very full.
Tis no matter what color, except pink or yellow —
no gold or silver in it ; but some pretty striped satin
or damask, lined with a tafetty of the same color.
When Madam Usher died in Boston in
1725, her wardrobe was sent to her daughter
in London. It contained one satin and one
silk night-gown, but the night rails were of
linen. Men had velvet night-gowns with
caps to match of the same material, and
fustian night-gowns also. In the Boston
Evening Post, in 1760, '' Men's velvet Night
gown Caps " are advertised. In 1754 a law
was passed by the Corporation of Harvard
College that no student should ''wear any
silk night-gowns as being not only an un-
necessary expense but inconsistent with the
172
Costume of Colonial Times
gravity and demeanor proper to be observed. ' '
A letter written to the New England Weekly
Journal, in 1727, speaks of a merchant sit-
ting ** in his Counting-house wrap't up in a
CalHmanco Night-gown." See Rail.
None-so-Prettys. About the year 1770
there began to appear in all the New Eng-
land newspapers advertisements of *' None-
so-Prettys. ' ' The name was in the motley
list which was characteristic of the times,
and which gave no clew to the character
of the articles offered ; hence " None-so-
Prettys " might be ladies' caps, or snuff-
boxes, or tailors' goods. Nor do American
or English dictionaries even now define the
word. But WiUiam Scott, of the Irish
linen store in Boston, advertised in July,
1 77 1, '' None - so - Pretty Tapes," and in
September, 1772, the Boston Evening Post
contained a notice of the sale of * * Blue &
white, Red & white, Green & white Furni-
ture checks with None-so-Prettys to match ; ' '
so it is plain that None-so-Prettys were tapes.
In a little story and a half brick shop in
Wickford, R. I., which retained, until 1886,
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Costume of Colonial Times
all the goods and ways of a village shop of
the early part of the century, there was dis-
plkyed, among boxes of half-melted, coherent
red wafers, sheets of fly-specked foolscap
paper, strin.gs of purple and white beads,
cakes of adamantine beeswax, brass tailors'
thimbles, sailors' ** palms," and other relics
of past decades, a box labelled '* None-
so-Prettys." These were rolls of strong
brown . linen braid about three-quarters of
an inch wide, with little woven figures, white,
red, or black dots or diamonds. And from
their faded, aged appearance, these None-so-
Pretty survivors might well have been cen-
tenarians from the original stock of William
Scott in 1 7 71.
OzNABURG. A linen spelled ozenbridge,
ossenbrigs, osnabrug, originally -made at
Osnabriick, Hanover, and universally used
for shirts, breeches, and jackets. In the
Boston News Letter of June 19, 1704, we
read of a runaway slave's wearing off ** Brown
Ozenbridge Jacket and Breeches." A large
item of value in Sir William Pepperell's or-
ders to England were '' peeces of Ossen-
174
Costume of Colonial Times
brigs. ' ' In the Connecticut Courant of De-
cember II, 1775, Mary Jehonet advertised
*'Oznabrigs" for sale. To the Southern
colonies it was sent in vast bales, and was
used for garments for the slaves. We often
find George Washington writing for '' ozen-
brigs."
Orrice. a kind of lace or gimp trim-
ming woven with gold and silver thread.
It was widely used in the seventeenth cen-
tury as a trimming for handsome sacques
and petticoats. The name was applied at a
later date to upholstery gimps, especially for
those used for saddle trimmings.
Paduasoy. a rich silk of smooth sur-
face, originally made at Padua. '' The
Best Sort Dutch Paduasoys ' ' were adver-
tised in the Boston News Letter in 1727,
and in other newspapers till the end of the
century. It was much used for handsome
gannents for men and women. We find
Governor Belcher wTiting in 1732 to his
London tailor, " One suit to be a very good
silk. I have sometimes thought a rich dam-
175
Costume of Colonial Times
ask would do well, or some thick silk, but
I don't like padisway."
Paragon. A stuff, plain or embroid-
ered, used for common wear in the seven-
teenth century. Madam Pepys had a para-
gon petticoat in 1659. One of the colonists
left a *' paragon coat," and one of the Salem
witches wore a ''red paragon bodice." It
was the wear of country folk. We read,
Give me a lass that's country bred
With paragon gown ; straw hat on her head.
Partlet. a sort of neckerchief or neck-
covering for women's wear, which some-
times was made full like a shirt and worn
under a bodice. The edge around the
throat was frequently plaited or ruffled.
We read in Beaumont and Fletcher's
Knight of Malta y
Unfledge 'em of their tires,
Their wires, their partlets, pins and periwigs.
The name is seen but rarely in early colo-
nial inventories.
Patches. In the Boston Gazette and
Weekly Journal, of 1775, ** Gum Patches "
176
Costume of Colonial Times
were advertised, and after 1760 ''Face
Patches" and "Patches for Ladies" ap-
pear with such frequency that we can be-
lieve patched faces were as common among
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia belles,
as with fashionable London court dames.
Whitefield wrote bitterly and indignantly of
the jewels, patches, and gay apparel worn by
New England women. Still I have seen no
portraits of New Englanders wearing patches.
Patch Box. With all the advertisements
of face patches, there could not fail to be
notices of the sale of patch boxes. The
earliest appears in the Boston Evening Post
of July 17, 1763. A few of these patch
boxes have been preserved to us — oval or
round boxes about an inch and a half or two
inches in diameter — pretty little trinkets of
Battersea enamel on brass, or of china me-
dallions set in silver gilt, or of tortoise shell
and silver ; always with a tiny mirror or disk
of polished steel set within the lid, that in it
the fair and vain owner might peep to place
or rearrange her becoming patches. Fre-
quently they bear on the top little posies :
177
Costume of Colonial Times
*'For Beauty's Face," *'To the Fairest of
her Sex," " When Virtue joins, Fair Beauty
shines." One I have has the sensible ad-
vice, * ' Have Communion with Few, Be
Familiar with One, Deal Justly with All,
Speak Evil of None." Another thus re-
proves, '' Vanity's a Vice — a foe to Virtue."
Sometimes they have the likeness of a
mincing French beauty or a scene with a tiny
shepherdess, or a little design of dots and
rings, or festoons, and a basket of flowers, or
two hearts with a connecting arrow, but more
frequently a verse or posy. These patch boxes
are among the daintiest relics of olden times.
Patten.
The Patten now supports each frugal Dame
That from the blue-eyed Patty takes the name.
— Trivia.
Fairholt says that modern pattens date
their origin to the time of Queen Anne. I
find Sewall, in the time of William and Mary,
referring to his wife's slipping and falling,
through her being on pattens ; and Ben Jon-
son says, " You make no more haste than a
beggar upon pattens."
178
Costume of Colonial Times
Pattens were iron rings four or five inches
in diameter supporting, by two or three at-
tached uprights, a sole of wood to be fastened
to the foot by leather straps.
Though Dickens speaks in David Copper-
field oi^'' women going clicking about in pat-
tens," and in Crauford we read of their
wear, in New England they certainly were
not frequently worn in this century and I
have never found a pair of pattens in any old
New England home. In the Boston News
Letters, of 1721 and 1732, ^'womens and
childrens pattoons" were often advertised,
and similar notices appear in the newspapers
until Revolutionary times. See Clogs and
GOLOSHOES.
Peak. From the connection v.ith sur-
rounding items in advertisements, peaks
would appear to be pointed caps for chil-
dren's wear; but no such definition is as-
signed in any dictionary. This is hardly a
safe inference to draw from the notices in
colonial papers, for most heterogeneous and
incongruous elements go to form a whole ;
and peaks might be toys or books or gowns
179
Costume of Colonial Times
or shoes. In 1737, Sept. 29, in the iVJfze;
England Weekly Journal appeared, * 'Chil-
dren's Quilted Peaks drawn & work'd ; " in
the Boston News Letter in 1736, ** Chil-
dren's Silver Peaks & Flowers, Dutch Pret-
tys; " and in 1740 a similar advertisement.
Pelerine. The derivation given is from
pelerin, a pilgrim. It seems much more
probable that it is from pelured, meaning be-
furred. It was a lady's small cape with long
ends hanging in front, and was invented to
cover the necks bared by the low-cut French
bodices. In 1743, in the Boston News Let-
ter, Henrietta Maria East advertised that
''Ladies may have their Pellerines made"
at her mantua-making shop. In 1749 '' pel-
lerines ' ' were advertised for sale in the Bos-
ton Gazette and a black velvet "pillerine"
was lost. In the New York papers it was
usually spelt pillareen. They are said to
have been invented in 167 1 in France by the
Princess Palatine.
Penistone. This was spelt pennystone,
peneston, penystones, penstow, penesstons,
x8o
Costume of Colonial Times
penston, and the goods were also called
<* Forest Whites." It was a coarse woollen
stuff or frieze made in England in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries and was
much used for coarse garments by the ear-
liest planters. Anne Leverett, of Boston, who
died in 1656, bequeathed a '' Read pennisto
petticoat" to her heirs. In 1659 another
Boston dame bequeathed to each of her
grandchildren forty shiUings '' in kersey
peniston and cotton." Hull, writing abroad
in 1672, asks for " red penystoneand flannel,
no such red cloth as you sent me. ' ' I find the
name used till 1780 especially in the South,
and very frequently specified as red, and at
other times evidently applied to red flannel.
Periwig. See Wig.
Perpetuana. More frequently spelt
*' ppetuna." A glossy woollen stuff deriving
its name, like sempiternum and lasting, from
its alleged durable nature. It much re-
sembled the latter named fabric. Bradford
in his Plyjjiouth Plantation wrote, '* They
had diverse kinds as cloth perpetuanes and
z8i
Costume of Colonial Times
other stuffs. ' ' We find, by a letter of Gover-
nor Endicott's, that twelve yards of red ppet-
iina were worth sixteen shillings in 1629. In
the Boston News Letter of October 12, 1 7 1 1 ,
*VPerpets" were advertised, which were
also perpetuana.
Persian. A thin silk chiefly used for
cloak and hood linings, and for facings for
other garments, or for summer wear. In
1737 Sir William Pepperell ordered from
England several * ' ps Blue and Red Per-
sian." It was offered for sale in New Eng-
land newspapers throughout the eighteenth
century. The only mention made by Judge
Sewall of his wife's attire is when he speaks
of her attending church, clad in her *' gown
of Sprig' d Persian. ' '
Peruke. See Wig.
Petticoat. This word was originally
petty-coat, literally a small coat. In a
tailor's bill are these items :
To new plaiting a petty Coat, \s. td.
" sewing " " " 6^.
Judge Sewall wrote it *' Petit Coats."
Costume of Colonial Times
Of course this world-wide worn garment
was donned in earliest colonial days, and the
name appears in every list and inventory of
feminine belongings. **Red Tamminy and
Moehaire petticotes ' ' had Martha Emmons
of Boston, in 1666. Susannah Oxenbridge,
wife of the wealthy Boston minister, had
them of richer material — ' ' changeable
silke," *' Finest tufted Holland," and
'' Blacke Cloth. ' ' Elizabeth Gedney had no
less than thirteen petticoats; and Dutch
dames counted their petticoats their richest
belonging. I have seen the inventory of
one Dutch woman's wardrobe that contained
sixteen petticoats.
Quilted silk petticoats appeared for sale
about 1720. *' Women's Sarsnet Quilted
Patticoats 4 yards wide, Persian and Taminy
Ditto." '' Long & Short Bone Hoop petti-
coats ' ' are advertised in the Boston Evening
Fosto{ iT^2>-
Of course when the open sacques, negli-
gees and poloneses were so much worn,
and the petticoat was consequently so ex-
posed to view, it became a most important
and costly article of attire, was furbelowed,
183
Costume of Colonial Times
fringed, festooned, piiffed, looped, rosetted,
flowered, laced, and quilted in a hundred
different fashions, and was made of every
rich material.
Philomot. See Filomot.
Pilgrim. A cape or plaiting of thin silk
affixed to the back of a bonnet to shield the
wearer's neck when out of doors. It was in
use from 1760 to 1770.
Pincushion. Many newspapers contain
notices of the sale of ^' pincushion hoops and
chains." Usually they are printed in com-
pany with those of etuis or equipages, and I
hence infer that ladies wore these swinging
pincushions at their sides as a part of their
chatelaines. These chains w^ere of steel and
silver. Dutch housewives constantly wore
them.
Pins. The Pilgrim mothers brought over
pins in the Mayflower, but not in lavish
numbers. I find at a very early date that a
woman was excommunicated for ' ' suspitions
184
Costume of Colonial Times
of stealing pinnes;" and in 1643 ''Will
Fancies wife " was tried in New Haven for
stealing five thousand pins. Pins were worth
at that time is. 4^/. a thousand. We know,
too, what important instruments they proved
in the tragedy known as the Salem Witch-
craft. Henry M. Brooks, Esq. , of the Essex
Institute in Salem, has made a collection of
pins taken from old documents and letters
of past centuries. He has some which date
positively to within a few years of the time
of Salem witches, and may be quite as old
as Ann Putnam's and Giles Corey's day.
' ' Pinns ' ' were sent to John Eliot by the
Corporation in England in 165 1. In the
Boston News Letter of October, 171 1, pins
were advertised for sale. In the same pub-
lication of May 6, 1717, appeared this ad-
vertisement of what was apparently a Boston
pinmaker, * ' All sorts of Pins also Black
Pins for Mourning Either by Wholesale or
Retail. Brass Wire Large & Small. Also
any Person that has brass wire may have
money for it." In 1737 Sir William Pep-
perell sent to England for ''40 shillings in
Pinnes of Different Sizes." In 1738 Ebe-
18S
Costume of Colonial Times
nezer Waldo advertised that he '^ made and
sold choice Pins of all Sorts for ready money
at lowest prices." In 1744 they came *' as-
sorted in small boxes," and though '* papers
of pins of two sorts" were named, these
were only loose pins wrapped in papers, not
stuck in rows in paper as we buy them now.
By 1775 pins began to have names — *' Pins
No. 4 & 12," ''Durnford Pins;" and
Harriot Paine at the Sign of the Buck
and Glove had * ' corkins, middlings, short
whites, lillikins, and lace pins.". Others
had Lellicins and Lellokans, which were all,
I fancy, Mi-s. Paine's lillikins, and Pound
Pins and Pocket Brass Pins. In June, 1783,
appeared in the Boston Evening Post the
notice of Sheet Pins, which were, I suppose,
sold stuck in sheets like our modern pins.
We find George Washington ordering pins
from England, ''minikins," which were the
smallest size, and were also called minifers.
Pinners. This word has two meanings.
The earlier use was precisely that of pina-
fore, or pincurtle, or pincloth — a child's
apron. Thus we read in the Harvard Col-
x86
Costume of Colonial Times
lege records, of the expenses of the year 1677,
of '^ linnen Cloth for Table Pinners," which
makes us suspect that Harvard students of
that day had to wear bibs at commons.
The second meaning was usually, when used
in the plural, a woman's head-dress having
long tabs or lappets that hung down the
sides of the cheeks. We find Governor
Berkeley of Virginia ordering, ifi 1660, ** i
Yard of fine Lace for a piner," which was
to cost £1 I ox. In the Boston News Letter
of August, 1728, a runaway slave-woman was
advertised as wearing off a *'suit of Plain
Pinners," which was probably a cap or
head-dress without the streamers or lappets.
In 1737 the same paper advertised ^^ Pinners
or Dresses Just Arrived from London & Set
in the Pink of the Mode."
Plaster Box. A box in which medicinal
plasters were carried. It not only formed
part of the outfit of physicians, but was an
ornamental trinket in the dressing-case of
gentlemen. Thus Isaac Addington, of Bos-
ton, who died in 17 13, enumerated **my
plaister-box ' ' among his silver.
187
Costume of Colonial Times
Plush. In 1695 Susannah Oxenbridge
left a *' Plush Gowne " to her parson's wife.
Plush was advertised in the Boston News
Letter of October 22, 1711, and of June 3,
1740 — both silk and **hair and worsted"
plushes.
Pockets.
" Lost a Pocket with a worked Handkerchief,
part of the Muslin was cut off & the Lawn begfun
to be sewed to the Work. There was a green
Purse with about Five Pounds of Silver in it which
the Finder is very welcome to if he will bring the
Handkerchief to the Printer."
These pockets were ornamental bags, which
were fastened on the outside of the gown.
On them the fair wearer spent much time
and skill. Elaborate designs in cross-stitch
on canvas, bead and bugle work on velvet,
are shown on these old pockets. The old
song, ''Lucy Locket lost her pocket," be-
comes easily comprehensible when we see
these old-fashioned bags of pockets, which
were wholly detached from the gown.
They were apparently sometimes made in
pairs ; as several '' pairs of pockets " formed
part of Madam Usher's wardrobe.
188
Costume of Colonial Times
Points. Points were ties or laces of rib-
bon, or woollen yarn, or leather, decorated
with tags, or aiglets at one end. They
were employed instead of buttons in secur-
ing clothes, and were used only by the ear-
liest settlers, and in New England, I think,
solely as ornaments at the knee or for hold-
ing up the stockings. They were there re-
garded as but foolish vanities, and were one
of the articles of finery tabooed in early
sumptuary laws. In 165 1 the General Court
of Massachusetts expressed its ' ' utter detes-
tation and dislike that men of meane con-
dition, education and calling should take
upon them the garbe of gentlemen by the
wearinge of poynts at the knees." We
learn from the accounts of John Pyncheon
in 1653 that *' 3 yds. garty points" were
worth sixpence. These must have been
cotton points. In the southern colonies
silken points were worn. Justinian Snow, of
St. Marys, Md., bought, in 1639, twenty-
four dozen silk points worth nine shillings a
dozen. These were probably of rich ribbon.
PoLONESE. Fairholt says it was '* a light
189
Costume of Colonial Times
open gown which came into fashion about
1770 and was worn looped at the sides and
traiHng behind." This date must be en-
tirely wrong. In November, 1755, *' Cardi-
nals & Polonees ' ' were advertised in the Bos-
ton Evening Post. In September, 1756, in
the same paper, ** Figured Satin Dauphiness
Cloaks & Polonese & Capuchins ; " and in
1758, '^ Collored PuUanees." Of course
they must have been worn in England much
earlier than in the New World. The gar-
ment is said to have been so called from a
Polish article of dress, and has at varying
intervals been in vogue up to the present day.
We can gain some idea of the shape of an
early polonese from the pages of the English
Lady's Magazine. In 1774 it announced
that .
Lady Tufnell has the genteelest fancy in an un-
dress now in London. ^She chiefly wears a white
Persian gown and coatonade of Irish polonese and
covered with white or painted spotted gauze which is
very much the taste. The Irish polonese is made
very becoming ; it buttons half down the arm, no
ruffles, quite straight in the back, and buttons down
before and flies off behind, till there is nothing but a
kind of role behind except the petticoat ; a large
190
Costume of Colonial Times
hood behind the neck ; short black and white laced
aprons or painted gauze.
It was also asserted in the same period-
ical, in 1776, that the Italian polonese was
**much the most smart and becoming."
Pomander. A pomander was derivative-
ly a little ornamental pouncet-box of metal
— usually silver, pierced with holes. In it
was placed a ball of spices and scents.
Through the holes the sweet perfume es-
caped. The pomander was sometimes swung
at the side, but more frequently carried in
the hand. The word pomander was origi-
nally applied to the spice-ball, and not to its
inclosing box. The composition of a po-
mander was thus given : '' Your only way
to make a good pomander is this : Take an
ounce of the purest garden mould cleans' d
& steeped seven days in change of mother-
less rose water, then take the best labdanum,
benjoin, both storaxes, ambergris, civit &
musk. Incorporate them together and work
them into what form you please."
Pompon. The London Magazine, of
1748, described a '^pong-pong" (which
191
Costume of Colonial Times
was a pompon) as '' the ornament worn by
the ladies in the middle of the forepart of
their headdresses. Their figures, size, and
compositions are various, such as butterflies,
feathers, tinsel, cockcomb, lace, &c." In
a poem of same date I find this line, " A
flower vulg. diet, a pompoon." In 1752
Elizabeth Murray had ' ' pompeons ' ' for
sale in Boston. In November, 1755, in a
rich invoice of fashionable novelties, came
** Chinese pampoons," and a little later
* ' pomparoons ; " so New England dames
were not one whit behind English ones in
the wear of the article, though possibly a
little so in the spelling of it. Pompons were
worn in Virginia and South Carolina.
Prunella. A stuff like lasting. Gov-
ernor Endicott, of Salem, left prunella by
will in 1663. Susannah Oxenbridge, who
died in Boston in 1695, left a *' Blacke
Prunella Gowne and Petticoat."
By 1740 it was largely used for the manu-
facture of women's shoes, and in 1772 we
find " Strong rich black silk and Hair Pni-
nella for Clergymens Coats and Waistcoats,"
19a
Costume of Colonial Times
and to women's shoes and clergymen's waist-
coats and gowns it has since been relegated.
Pumps. New England dandies wore, as
did Monsieur A-Ia-mode :
A pair of smart pumps made up of graiii'd leather,
So thin he cant venture to tread on a feather.
And not dandies only, but servants. A
runaway negro slave was advertised in the
Boston News Letter of 1726 as wearing off
a "Pair of Pumps with Silver Buckles; "
and Indians had " Peaked To'd Turn'd
Pumps with white metal Buckles." Gover-
nor Belcher's negro Juba ran off shod in '' a
pair of trimmed Pumps with a very large
jDair of Flowered Buckles." If these pumps
were as thin-soled as modern pumps, the
wearers could not have run far. Women
also wore pumps, made of morocco, lasting,
and prunella ; some pumps were double-
channelled and turned ; and children's
pumps came to Boston and Hartford mar-
kets.
Purl. A species of edging for ruffs, ruffles,
cuffs, etc. Mrs. Palliser says it is difficult
193
Costume of Colonial Times
to exactly define the difference between lace
and purl. We read of " fine piirle to set on
a pinner. ' ' Wait Winthrop sent several times
pieces of purle to his nieces at New London
about the year 1690.
Qualities. A coarse binding tape ad-
vertised in the Virginia Gazette, the Charles-
ton Gazette, and New England papers in
the eighteenth century. The name is still
in use.
Queen's Nightcap. See Cap.
Queue. EHzabeth Cutter had, in 1663,
"six neck-clothes and six quieues " worth
four shillings. Jane Humphrey, in 1668,
named together " one of my best neck-
cloths and one of my plain quieues."
These were evidently not the cues or wig-
tails of the succeeding century, but were a
neck covering. I do not find the name, in
the latter signification, in use after 1680.
QuiFE. See Coif.
QuoiFE. See Coif.
194
Costume of Colonial Times
Rabato. Also spelt rebate and rebatine.
A falling collar or band turned over upon the
shoulders. " Stiff-necked rebatoes that have
arches for pride to row under. ' ' The word
was apparently used to distinguish any
turned-down collar from a standing ruff, and
was rarely used in America.
Rail. The fashion of wearing ' ' immod-
erate great rayles " was prohibited by law in
Massachusetts in 1634. The garment at that
date must have been a woman's loose gown
or sacque worn in the daytime, for we cannot
imagine even the meddlesome Massachusetts
magistrates would dai-e to attempt to order
what kind of a nightgown a woman should
wear. But the name quickly was applied to
a night garment. We read in a Boston news-
paper of the loss of a '* flowered callico night-
rail with high collared neck; " and in in-
ventories where cloth and velvet nightgowns
appear, the rails are of linen and calico, thus
proving it a garment worn when sleeping. I
have seen the words bed-coat, and bed-gown,
and bed-waistcoat used instead of night-
rail. See Nightgown.
195
Costume of Colonial Times
Ramilies. See Wig.
Ranelagh Mob. See Cap.
Rash. A loose-meshed silk or wool stuff
of inferior quality. We find one colonist
complaining that, having sent to England for
fine Spanish broadcloths at 17 shillings a
yard, he was sent nothing but cloth rash
worth 9 shillings a yard ; and another wrote,
in 1698: "Black Rashes are not Vendable
here." In 1655 Robert Daniell, of Cam-
bridge, Mass., had a " black Sut of Rash "
worth a pound. It was evidently a stuff of
smooth surface, for Donne, in his '^ Satires ^^
wrote :
Sleeveless his jerkin was, and it had been
Velvet, but 'twas now (so much ground was seen)
Become Tufftaffaty ; and our children shall
See it plain Rash awhile, then nought at all.
Ratteen. A heavy stuff resembling
drugget, advertised in March, 1748, in the
Boston Independent Advertiser. Rattinet,
also frequently imported, was a similar stuff,
somewhat thinner.
Rayl. See Rail.
196
Costume of Colonial Times
Rebatine. See Rabato.
Ribbon. ' * Silken ribens ' ' were of enough
account in early days to be left by will, and
denounced among superfluities by the Con-
necticut magistrates. They were a favorite
gift on St. Valentine's Day. Among the
ribbons advertised in the middle of the
eighteenth century were paduasoy ribbons,
love ribbons, Dettingen ribbons, Prussian
ribbons, silvered ribbons, and in 1767, in the
Newport Mercury, liberty ribbons.
Riding petticoat. See Safeguard.
Ring. Finger-rings were not rare at the
date of the settlement of the New World, and
the early colonists, who were men of dignity
and position, nearly all possessed them, as
did all well-to-do and dignified Englishmen.
In the earliest colonial wills of the seven-
teenth century that have been preserved to
us in court records and in private deposito-
ries we find frequent mention of them —
usually, however, mourning rings.
Rings were given at funerals, especially in
wealthy famihes, to relatives and to persons
197
Costume of Colonial Times
of note, wealth, or public office in the com-
munity. Sewall records in his diary, in the
years from 1687 to 1725, the gift of no less
than fifty -seven mourning rings. The story
is told of Doctor Samuel Buxton, of Salem,
Mass., — who died in 1758, aged eighty-one
years, — that he left to his heirs a quart tank-
ard full of mourning rings which he had re-
ceived at funerals. At one Boston funeral,
in 1738, over two hundred rings were given
away. At Waitstill Winthrop's funeral sixty
rings, worth over a pound apiece, were given
to his relatives and friends. Often fifty or
a hundred rings would be given at a minis-
ter's or domine's funeral.
These mourning rings were of gold,
usually enamelled in black. They were fre-
quently decorated with a death's - head or
a coffin with a skeleton lying in it, or a
winged skull. Often they held a framed lock
of hair of the deceased friend. Sometimes
the ring was shaped like a serpent with his
tail in his mouth. Many bore a posy. In
the Boston News Letter, of October 30,
1742, was advertised : ** Mourning Ring lost
with the Posy Virtue & Love is From Above. ' '
198
Costume of Colonial Times
A favorite motto was : '' Death parts United
Hearts." Others bore the legend: ''Pre-
pare for Death;" another, ** Prepared be
to follow me." Some funeral rings bore a
family crest in black enamel.
Goldsmiths kept these mourning rings
constantly on hand. '' Deaths Heads
Rings" and '* Burying Rings" appear in
many newspaper advertisements. The name
or initials of the dead person and the date
of his death were engraved upon the ring
to order. This was called fashioning.
It is very evident that the colonists
looked with much eagerness to receiving a
funeral ring at the death of a friend ; and in
old diaries, almanacs, and note-books such
entries as this are often seen : " Made a ring
at the funeral," " A Death's-head ring made
at the funeral of" so and so. The will of
Abigal Ropes, in 1775, gives to her grand-
son *'a gold ring I made at his father's
death;" and again, ^' a gold ring made
when my bro. died."
I do not know how long the custom of
giving funeral rings obtained in America.
Some are in existence dated 181 2, but
199
Costume of Colonial Times
were given at the funeral of aged persons,
who may have left orders to their descend-
ants to cling to the fashion of their youth.
A very good collection of mourning rings
may be seen at the rooms of the Essex Insti-
tute, in Salem, and that society has also
published a pamphlet, written by Mr. Cur-
win, giving a list of mourning rings known
to be in existence in Salem.
Wedding rings were seldom named in
New England inventories. Jane Humph-
reys, of Dorchester, Mass., had one in 1667.
Mather said the Puritans made no use of
rings at weddings ; and one writer said they
thought rings " a Relique of Popery and a
DiaboUicall Circle for the Divell to daunce
in."
Robert Keayne, a wealthy citizen of Bos-
ton, was an early owner of what was called a
*< stoned ring." He left, in 1653, a *' Great
Gold Emerod Ring," which seems to still
shed, with its great capital letters, a richly
glittering green light. Other colonists had
handsome rings ; Parson John Wilson left, in
1688, a *'gold ring with seal & an Enamelled
ring." Governor Endicott's portrait has a
Costume of Colonial Times
handsome ring on the little finger. A ring
presented to a member of the Winthrop
family by Charles I. played an important
part in history when re-presented to Charles
II. by a New England Winthrop. Major
John Pyncheon, of Springfield, Mass., had
'' 6 gold rings and i Rubie ring." Mrs.
De Lange, of New York, had two great
diamond rings. Governor Caleb Carr, of
Providence, R. I., named in his will in
1693, *' Three gold Rings, my Seal ring and
the gold ring I now weare commonly called
hand in hand & heart between." The lat-
ter form of ring was fashionable for many
years. I have often seen references to
** heart and hand rings."
Parson John Oxenbridge died in Boston
in 1673. Though he bemoaned his strait-
ened circumstances, he owned and bequeath-
ed " 2 Carnelian Rings, i Ring beset with
Blew Specks. [To his daughter Theodorah,
who married Parson Thatcher.] My gold
Ring with her name in it. My green Emer-
aud Ring with Diamond Sparks, and a Dia-
mond Ring." He also left ''A White
Amethyst Ring. A Dozen Mourning Rings.
Costume of Colonial Times
A Scale Ringe." All these save the latter
were left to his daughters ; but his widow,
Susannah, must have had a pretty store of
her own ; for at her decease in 1695, she left
a ring to nearly every minister in Boston.
*' My diamond ring" to Mr. Allen, and a
gold ring to his wife; a ring to Joshua
Moody ; an emerald ring and gold ring to
still another parson — ten rings in all.
When Judith Sewall was betrothed, her
lover gave her a ** stoned ring, a fan and a
noble letter," yet I find no definite notices
of a fixed fashion of ''betrothal rings."
Cotton Mather was given a ring by the
University of Glasgow, bearing the legend,
''Glascua rigavit ;" and Judge Sewall
made frequent gifts of rings to friends, al-
ways with appropriate Latin mottoes.
As years passed on, advertisements ap-
peared in the newspapers of rings lost, rings
found, rings for sale. *' Fine diamond rings,
stoned rings, fashionable heart rings, carnel-
ian rings, and mociis rings."
In the estate of one Jacobs, which was con-
fiscated by a witch-hunting Salem sheriff in
1692, was '* one Large Goold Thumb Ring
Costume of Colonial Times
worth twenty shillings;" and in 1729 the
New England Weekly Journal advertised
a large thumb-ring picked up in Rumney
Marsh.
RoBiNGS. Round robins or robings were
narrow ruffs about the collar or neck of the
gown. I find them usually offered for sale
with cuffs and frequently also with stomach-
ers. In 1 75 1, in the Boston Evening Post,
were named ' * a Variety of Robins & Cuffins
fer Gowns." By June, 1753, Harriot Paine
had ''Snail Bugle & Silver Facings &
Robings for the Ladies" for sale. Then
came ' ' Bugle Cuffings Robings & Stomach-
ers. ' '
Rocket. I think no better description
of a rocket can be given than that of Celia
Fiennes : —
You meete all sorts of countrywomen wrapped up
in the mantles called West Country Rockets, a large
mantle doubled together, of a sort of serge, some
are linsey-woolsey and a deep fringe or fag at the
lower end ; these hang down, some to their feet,
some only just below the waist ; in the summer they
are all in white garments of this sort, in the winter
they are in red ones.
203
Costume of Colonial Times
These English rockets were brought over
by many a Devonshire or Cornish woman to
New England. They were also spelt rochet.
ROQUELAURE.
" Within the Roquelaures Clasp thy arms are pent
Hands that stretch't forth Invading Harms prevent."
In A Treatise on the Modes ^ 1715? ^
roquelaure is said to be a " short abridge-
ment or compendium of a cloak, which is
dedicated to the Duke of Roquelaure."
These garments were worn . by both men
and women. The first mention I have
chanced to see of one in New England is in
the Boston News Letter in 1730, when one
of Boston's citizens lost his *' Blue Cloak or
Roculo with Gold Buttons." Sir William
Pepperell, who was a little shaky in his
spelling, but possibly no more so than his
neighbors, sent in 1737 from Piscataqua to
one Hooper in England for *' A Handsom
Rockolet for my daughter of about 1 5 yrs.
old, or what is ye Most Newest Fashion
for one of her age to ware at meeting in ye
Wint' Season." From 1736 to 1764 ap-
peared, in the Boston News Letter and Bos-
ton
Costume of Colonial Times
ton Evening Post, such advertisements as
these : '' Cloth & Silk Roqualos," '' Camb-
lets for Roquelos of a peculiar color & Fa-
brick. ' ' The following roquelaures were all
lost by careless folk: " Light colour' d cloth
Roccelo that has a Double Cape; " ''Blue
Drab Roquelo napp'd within, has two capes
to it ; " '' The person who borrowed some
time since a Light colour' d Roquello of Mr.
Richard Billings on the Town Dock is de-
sired immediately to return the same to
him." It may be noted that the correct
spelling — roqnelaure — is never once hit upon
in all these liberal variations.
The variety of colors and materials de-
scribed as worn in these outdoor garments
give one a vivid idea of the gay appearance
of town streets in New England throughout
the middle of the eighteenth century. I do
not find any universal use of the word in
the South.
Roses. See Shoes.
Ruff. We usually associate bands,
straight or falling, with the stiff-necked Puri-
205
Costume of Colonial Times
tans ; but ruffs were occasionally worn.
The portrait of Winthrop shows a very neat-
ly plaited one ; and he left fourteen * ' ruffes ' '
by will. The. portrait alleged to be that
of Miles Standish, and dated 1625, shows
also a ruff of fine proportions.
Ruffles. When Richard Richbell, of
Boston, died in 1682, he had seven pair of
ruffles and ribbons worth seven pounds.
Ruffles on shirt-fronts and at wrists did not
go out of fashion for Boston beaux for a
century after Richbell's death. In 1755
''Flowered Lawn Ruffles" and "Lace &
Millinet for Gentlemens Ruffles ' ' were ad-
vertised ; and the following year treble ruf-
fles. Many portraits of this date show bosom-
ruffles. Thomas Hutchinson's fine waist-coat
has a ruffle from extreme top to bottom.
The wrist-ruffles of Thomas Boylston's por-
trait (about 1760) nearly cover his hand.
The portrait of Peter Fanueil shows him in
velvet ruffles.
RussEL. A woollen cloth like baize much
used in New England. It had a close-
206
Costume of Colonial Times
grained twill and was very durable. Manu-
factured originally of various weights, and
made into various garments, it finally seemed
to be assigned wholly to the manufacture of
women's and children's shoes. See Shoes.
Sacque. Fairholt says the sacque was a
woman's garment introduced into England
about the year 1740. This date seems to be
widely incorrect, since Madam Pepys had
^'a French gown called a Sac" in 1669.
The sacque worn during the .last half of the
eighteenth century was a flowing garment
open in front, and sometimes drawn away in
loops or plaits on each side. It hung loose
from the shoulders to the ground in great
folds over the hooped petticoat, and was uni-
versally worn by fashionable dames in old
England and New England, and probably
in the Southern colonies. In 1751 there
were advertised in the Boston Evening Post
*' white calico with work'd sprigs for sacks,"
and "Rich Tobine & tissues for men &
women's wear, chiefly Gowns and Sacks &
worn mostly by the Gentry in England and
France." The following year EHzabeth
207
Costume of Colonial Times
Murray had for sale in Boston ''Izavees
Moorees & Humphumps for Sacks ; ' ' and a
little later, "a large Sortment of Cloth col-
oured trimmings for Ladys sacks. " In 1 758
was lost a "Blue Damask Sack Gown with
Close Cuifs laid with White Stuff most to the
top. " At a sale of a " great variety of wom-
ens apparel" in Boston, in August, 1774,
were twelve rich sacks and petticoats. In
the Receipt for Modern Dress, written at
that time, we read :
Let your gown be a sacque, blew, yellow or green,
And frizzle your elbows with ruffles sixteen.
The fashionable colors for sacques in 1774
were **new palish blue or dark lilac satin."
They were trimmed down the sides with
chenille or blonde lace, often put on in waves
or furbelows, and sometimes were richly
lined. The fashionable materials were
striped satin or tobine, but almost all other
light silks or stuffs were used.
Safeguard. The significant name of an
outside petticoat of heavy woollen or linen
stuff, worn by women over other garments
to protect them from mud and mire, while
203
Costume of Colonial Times
the wearer rode on horseback. This was,
of course, before the advent of the riding-
habit. In the year 1600 Queen Elizabeth
had thirty -one cloaks and safeguards, thirteen
safeguards, and forty-three jupes and safe-
guards. New England women were usually
satisfied with one apiece. In 1654 Ellinor
Tresler, of Salem, left by will her " Sad col-
lered Cloake, Wascote, Safeguard & Gouene
to goe together " — an outfit such as we read
of in the Noble Gentlema7i, '' your safe-
guard, cloak and your hood suitable."
Governor Winthrop sent a ''gown, peticote
and saveguard " to his granddaughter in
Stamford in 1648. The name was used in
England until this century ; the garment is
still worn there by farmers' wives ; but I
do not find it referred to in New England
after the middle of the eighteenth century.
Ann Warder wrote of the Quaker women of
Pennsylvania in 1786: ''They are very
shiftable ; they ride by themselves with a
safeguard, which, when done with is tied to
the saddle and the horse hooked to a rail
standing all meeting time as still as their
riders sit."
209
Costume of Colonial Times
Other names for a safeguard were foot-
mantle, as Chaucer wrote, and weather-
skirt. And the ''Manchester riding petti-
coat" seized by a Philadelphia sheriff in
1760 was a safeguard.
Sagathy. Among '' All Sorts of Winter
Goods" advertised in the Boston Neu>s
Letter of December 15, 17 15, appear sag-
gathies. In other notices it is spelt saga-
thees. It was a woollen stuff used chiefly
for men's garments, and was said to be very
durable. We read of a Philadelphia run-
away in 1752 wearing off *' a light cloth-
colour' d Sagathy coat lined with Lead
colour'd AUapine. "
Samare. This garment was said by
Randle Holme to be a sort of jacket for
women's wear, with four tails or side laps
reaching to the knee. Under various spell-
ings— somar, simarre, simar, samarra, cimar,
cymarre, and chymarre — it was applied to
various over garments ; and in a poetical
sense, as by Scott in Ivanhoey to a loose,
flowing robe. Its original meaning was a
aio
Costume of Colonial Times
sanbenito, or garment worn to execution by
persons condemned by the Inquisition.
The garment, called a somar in the Sa-
lem tailor's bill, given on page 21, was a
samare. I find the word used in New York
in 1662, in the inventory given on page
26 of the rich wardrobe of the widow of
Dr. Jacob De Lange. She had one sil^
potoso-a-samare with lace worth ^^3 ; on^
tartanel samare with tucker worth jQi 10s.;
one black silk crape samare with tucker
worth ;£i 10s.] and three flowered calico
samaras worth ^£2 10s. As these samares
were enumerated with the petticoats, and as
no other jackets or doublets are named, it is
evident that they were worn over the rich
petticoats, and they were of materials of va-
rious weights for summer and winter use.
In a Dutch dictionary, published in Am-
sterdam in 1735, a samare is defined simply
as a woman's gown.
Sarcanet. This thin but firm silk, used
under the same name to the present day,
was made as early as the thirteenth century,
and was also called sendal. It was also
Costume of Colonial Times
spelt sarsnet, scarsonett, and sarsinet, and was
much used for cloak linings and for hoods, and
appears in all lists of milliners and mercers.
Say. Originally a silk material — sole.
Spenser says : " His garment neither was of
silke nor say. ' ' It came at a later date to
^be applied to a thin worsted stuff. Benja-
min Franklin enumerated say with woollen
stuffs, such as cloth, kerseys, serges, friezes,
etc. I find '' black Sudbury Say " adver-
tised in the Boston Evening Post as late as
July, 1768; and say appears also in the
earliest New England inventories; twelve
yards of green say were worth one pound
and thirteen shillings in 1629.
Scallop. Pepys wrote in 1662 : '' Made
myself fine with Capt. Ferrer's lace band,
being lothe to mar my own new Scallop, it
is so fine." In a Maryland trial at about
that same date, the washing of a certain lace
scallop bore an important part ; but the word
was rarely used in the colonies. A scallop
was, as its name indicates, a collar or band
scalloped on the edge.
Costume of Colonial Times
Scarf. An article of dress worn by men
and women, and forbidden to poor folk in
Connecticut in 1676. Old Major Pyncheon
had, in 1703, a *' Trooping Scarff with Goold
Lace" worth ;^3 loi-. Furbelowed scarfs
of gauze and net were worth one pound and
thirteen shillings, and were worn by women
of fashion. ^
Sendal. See Sarcanet.
Sergedenim. The name of a material,
probably our niodern denim. Advertised in
the Boston Independent Advertiser of Sep-
tember, 1748, and in the Connecticut Coii-
rant of April 22, 1776, and thus spelled —
searge de-nim.
Sergedesoy. See Desoy.
Shade. In 1755 it was advertised in
colonial prints that '^ capuchins & shades"
would be made to order. These shades
were apparently a head -covering. On June
I, 1738, in the Boston News Letter, '' Wor-
sted Shades; " in 1753, 'Mvhite Paris net
shades;" and in 1755, ''fine Flowered
213
Costume of Colonial Times
Gauze for Shades" — were all advertised.
The word shade in these notices was applied
to a stuff rather than to head-gear or gar-
ments. Thus Eliza Southgate Bowne wrote,
about the year 1800 :
If you see anything that would be light and hand-
some for our summer gowns I wish you would get
them. Why cant you go and see McClellans Lace
Shades. I think there are some for ten shillings a
yard.
I do not find the word shade defined as a
stuff in any dictionary, but in a poem
printed in 1766 I find in a list of mate-
rials—
Painted lawns and cheqer'd shades
Crape that's worn by lovelorn maids,
Watered tabbies, flowered brocades.
Shadow. A shadow was a sunshade,
either worn on the head or carried in the
hand. In 1580, in England, a ** Gale and
Shadoe ' ' were worth five shillings. We
read, in Piirchas' Pilgrimage ^ of '* shadows
to defend in Summer from the Sunne,
in Winter from the raine." In the inven-
tory of the estate of Richard Lusthead, of
ax4
Costume of Colonial Times
Mattapinian, Md., in 1642, we find ** plain
shadows " among other headgear. They
are also named in Viri^inian inventories.
'O'
Shag. A heavy woollen cloth with a
long nap, much used in New England, but
possibly too heavy for Virginia and the
Carolinas. Pyncheon wrote from Spring-
field for ' ' tawny, murry, & liver - culler
shagg." George Vaughan, a New Hamp-
shire settler, received in 1632 ninety yards
of shag at eighteen pence a yard. It was
advertised in the Connecticut Courant as late
as October 15, 1790. It was much used, to
quote Carlyle's phrase, '* for petticoats and
other indispensable garments."
Shalloons. Peter Fanueil ordered, in
1737 shalloons at AfS. 6d. a yard. Phillips
gave, in 1706, this definition of the material :
** Shalloon, a sort of woolen stuff chiefly
used for the linings of coats, and so called
from Chalons, a city of France where it was
first made." It was in texture not unlike
our modern challis. I cannot find that the
words and stuffs, though similar, have any
3IS
Costume of Colonial Times
direct connection. The name shallons ap-
pears in advertisements till this century.
Shape. A shape was originally a head-
covering. In 1753, June 11, in the Boston
Evening Post, '' New Fashion Childrens
Bugle & Silver Shapes ' ' appear. Cotton
shapes also were advertised ; and in October,
*' Flowered Velvet Shapes, ditto in Various
Colours cut & flower'd," which were either
a stuff or a garment. In 1767 " New Taby
Shapes ' ' were '' 25 sh per piece. ' ' This mean-
ing of the word shape, as given in all the
eighteenth century newspapers, is entirely
overlooked by the dictionaries.
Shawl. The first notice that I have seen
of the sale of shawls in America appeared in
the Sa/em Gazette in 1784 : *' a rich Sort-
ment of Shawls." This was at the time of
the birth of the East India trade. The use
of the shawl in Europe is practicallyof this
century.
Sheen-strads. See Spatterdashes.
Sherry-vallies. a sort of pantaloon or
legging worn on horseback, as a protection
216
Costume of Colonial Times
against bespattering mud, over trousers or
breeches, and buttoned up on the outside of
the leg. Rebecca Franks, writing in Rev-
olutionary times, said of General Charles
Lee, that he rode in "old green breeches
patched with leather." He answered her
with asperity that they were ** actually legiti-
mate sherryvallies such as his majesty of Po-
land wears, who let me tell you, is a man
who has made more fashions than all your
knights of the Meschianza put together."
In a note in the United States Magazine, for
January, 1779, it is said that ''sherry-
vallies were a kind of long breeches reach-
ing to the ankle, with a broad stripe of
leather on the inside of the thigh for con-
venience of riding." A Springfield tailor
thus advertised in 1825 :
Shorrevals and Overalls
And Pantaloons he'll make,
Cutting too he'll always do
And will no cabbage take.
These " shorrevals " were sherry -vallies.
Shift. The old English word shift was
universally used by all English - speaking
217
Costume of Colonial Times
folk to denote the feminine under-garment
now known as a chemise. Ann Clark and
Jane Humphreys, settlers in Massachusetts
in 1666 and 1668, left shifts by will. In
1738 Elizabeth Gedney, of Boston, had four-
teen shifts valued at ^8 4s. Madam Usher
had " 7 Holland shifts and i Flannel shift."
Shifts appear in the inventories of men's es-
tates, but were not, I think, ever worn by
men.
Shoes. The Virginian planters stepped
on the banks of the river James in boots ;
but the universal foot-covering of the Pil-
grim and Puritan colonists was shoes.
* * Four hundred peare of shues ' ' were or-
dered for the one hundred emigrants to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628. Part
of an order for these colonists was made
according to this contract : " Agreed with
John Heuson to make eight peare of Welt
neates leather shues closed on the outsydes
with a seam ; to be substanciall good ouer
Leather of the best and 2 soles, the Inner
soale of goode neates Leather, and the outer
of tallowed backs. " ' ' Dekers of the best
218
Costume of Colonial Times
bend Lether ' ' were also carried to the new
land for the purpose of making new shoes
when these stout English ones were worn
out, and a tannery was established at Ips-
wich, Mass., in 1634, to provide new leath-
er.
Many of these shoes that were furnished
to the early planters were thirteen inches
long, and were not made with pointed toes
either ; on such sturdy bases did the found-
ers of the new colony rest.
In Connecticut the leather-tanning and
shoemaking trades were quickly estab-
lished ; and it is painful to know that the
founders of a '* state whose Desire was Re-
Hgion and Religion alone," quickly learned
to cheat in their shoemaking. As early as
1647 a large lot of the shoes made by the
Connecticut colonists proved grievously
poor and unworthy — the thread weak, the
leather weaker ; and lawsuits were quickly
brought by the incensed shoe-buyers. When
the matter was brought before the magis-
trates, Contractor Meigs tried to throw the
blame on his workman. The latter in turn
brought witnesses to prove that " Goodman
219
Costume of Colonial Times
Meigs said to Goodman Gregory, Flapp
them together, they are to go far inoughe,"
and so he (Gregory) did flap them together
as ordered. The leather, too, did not prove
to be as represented, and in order to avoid
further deception the court decreed that
'' every Shoemaker in the town mark all
those shoes he makes of neates leather before
he Sells them with an N upon the lap with-
inside below where they be tied." At the
same date the finest shoes were marked, in
comical contrast to our modern slang, " N.
G."
In delivering final judgment on Good-
man Meigs the court said: '*In a single
pair of shoes several evils appear : such as
contempt of court, continewed unrighteous-
ness, and other similar evils ; and how
many shoes he had made and sold of such
faulty materials, and so loaded with evils the
court say they know not." Thus was the
depravity of inanimate objects rebuked by
the Puritan magistrates.
It is common to represent the Puritans as
shod with buckled shoes, but certainly these
New Haven colonists wore shoe-strings in-
Costume of Colonial Times
stead of buckles. The latter are not men-
tioned in the early inventories, but shoe-
strings were important enough to be left by-
will, as by that of Mrs. Dillingham, of
Ipswich. Perhaps they were ''rich span-
gled marisco shoe-strings," such as Dekker
wrote of in 1633 in his Match Me in Lon-
don.
If shoe-strings were valuable enough to be
bequeathed, of course shoes would be also.
WilHam Replye, of Hingham, a wealthy
man, left '' one paier of shoes to my son "
by will. Scores of other instances could be
given.
Sizes were designated by numbers, as at
the present day. From the inventory of
the estate of Robert Turner, of Boston, in
1 65 1, we learn that No. 11 shoes were
worth ^s. 6d. a pair ; No. 1 2 shoes, 4s. Sd.
a pair; No. 13 shoes, 4^-. lod. a pair. In
1672 a law was proposed in Boston to pre-
vent shoemakers from asking more than five
shillings a pair for sizes 11 and 12. Laws
were enacted in other communities to pre-
vent extortionate prices. In Connecticut
in 1676 shoemakers could have only '' five
Costume of Colonial Times
pence half penny a size for all playne &
wooden heeled shoes, and seven pence half-
penny a size for well wrought French
Falls." French Fall shoes, whatever they
were, remained in style for some time.
Runaway Indian servants were advertised in
t\iQ Boston News Letter oi October, 171 1,
and of September, 1713, as wearing French
Fall Shoes. In Maryland this style of shoe
seems to have been common wear as early as
1653-
The advertisements of runaways at that
date show a vast variety of styles. One in
1 71 2 wore ''Square To'd Shoes with Steel
Buckles ; " another, in 1707, wore " Round
to'd Shoes;" a third, in 1711, had a
** New pair Wooden Heeled Shoes ; " and,
in 1 7 16, one had '' old shoes with strings in
them." By 1723 low leather heels appear,
and shoe- buckles of steel, brass, and silver,
even on negro slaves. The Virginian slaves
seem to have worn largely ** Virginia-shoes."
I find the name used for the wear of field-
servants till this century.
Of women's shoes in the seventeenth cen-
tury we know but little. Doubtless the
Costume of Colonial Times
Puritan dames and maids followed closely
the Puritan goodmen in shape and material
of their foot-gear. Pointed shoes came in
style by 1730, and, like those worn by Eng-
lish ladies of fashion, were of thin material.
In 1740 "Mourning Shoes" appeared in the
Boston Evening Post, and in April, 1742,
in the same paper, Mrs. Nutmaker adver-
tised that she had at the Three Sugar Loaves
and Cannister " Womens fine Silk, flower'd
Russel, white callimanco. Black Russel,
Black Shammy, & Girls Flower'd Russel
Shoes, Black Velvet, white Damask, &
flower'd silk Clogs, Womens black & chil-
drens red Morocco shoes and pumps ; " a
pretty variety, surely. These shoes were
not at all cheap. In 1748, in the Boston
Independefit Advertiser, appeared this no-
tice: *^ Greatest Variety of Beautiful Silk
Shoes as has been imported in many years.
Russel and Callimanco Shoes 52s 6d a
pair ; ' ' and the silk and damask ones were
higher priced still.
John Hoses shoes were great favorites for
many years, and were sold everywhere
throughout the colonies. In 1764 Jolley
223
Costume of Colonial Times
Allen, the enterprising Boston shopkeeper,
advertised ''John Hoses shoes at 56s. Silk
Shoes at 6s. Neat made Russel shoes at
47s 6d and Lyn made shoes at 36s."
This last item brings us to a very impor-
tant feature in shoe-wearing in America — the
manufacture of shoes in Lynn. Shoes were
made in that town as early as 1670 — coarse
shoes with straps and buckles — and the
manufacture constantly increased. By 1750
women's shoes of fine quality were made
with ''white and russet bands closely
stitched with waxed threads." The toes
were pointed and heels were high, "cross-
cut, common, court and ^vurtemburgh "
heels. In 1763 best Lynn made shoes were
advertised in Boston papers — " womens cal-
limanco Shoes of all colours and sizes made
by the neatest handed workmen in Lynn at
38s a pair and cheaper by the quantity."
The manufacture of shoes in Lynn increased
so in quantity and quality that it completely
revolutionized the trade.
Women's shoes were made of still other
materials than have been mentioned — dam-
ask, cloth, everlasting. Avis Binney had
224
Costume of Colonial Times
for sale in 1751 **womens best Damask
Worsted shoes in fashionable colours, viz :
Saxon blue, green, pink colour, and
white ; " so it is plain that very light-col-
ored shoes prevailed at that date. In 1782
came on the brig Sally to Providence a large
stock of ' ' embroidered shoe Vamps ' ' and
"Sattinet patterns for Ladies' shoes of vari-
ous colours with a set Flower in the Vamp."
So we see that women's shoes disappeared
with the Revolution, and with republican
simplicity ladies' shoes came in. Low
heels, too, made their appearance, no heels
even, sandal - shaped foot-gear, about the
year 1790. Very low heels had been ad-
vertised in the Boston Evening Post of
1764, but I fancy they were on servants'
shoes. Children's shoes followed the fash-
ions of their elders. Boys wore leather and
kid, and Httle girls had ''silk Damask, red
moroco and flowered russel shoes. ' '
All these vari-colored and vari -shaped
shoes for women's and ladies' wear had thin
soles. I have never seen a pair of century-
old shoes, no matter what the material, with
anything but ' * paper soles. ' ' Hence the
225
Costume of Colonial Times
vast sale and wear of clogs, goloshes, and
pattens.
At intervals throughout the century-
buckles of different sizes and materials were
worn on women's shoes, but it is impossible
to give the exact dates of such wear.
"Sorted Colours of Shoe Roses," as adver-
tised in the Salem Gazette of July, 1784,
had also their day, alternating with buckles
and ferret shoe-strings in favor.
In the cases at the Essex Institute at Sa-
lem, and in the Museum of Art at Boston, in
the rooms of the Worcester Society of An-
tiquity, and in the Deerfield Memorial Hall
may be seen handsome shoes that were worn
by women in the past century ; high-heeled,
pointed-toed, of as rich material as the
gowns, they are broader in the sole across
the ball of the foot than would now be
considered elegant or graceful. See^Batts*
Brogues, Pumps, Slippers, Cockers.
Shoepack. a shoe shaped like a mocca-
sin, without a separate sole, but made of
tanned leather, and much worn in Revolu-
tionary times.
936
Costume of Colonial Times
Silk Grass. From the earliest years of
the colonies until well into the eighteenth
century I find constant references to a tex-
tile called silk grass. Mr. Eggleston says
it was the " cotton " from the milkweed.
This statement cannot be correct ; the milk-
weed pappus was called silk-down. John
Winthrop, in a letter to Sir Robert Murray
in 167 1, explains at length that the silk
down from the " si Ike podds " was used to
stuff beds and bolsters and for tinder ; and
he adds, " Concerning ye question whether
it be spun, I have heard of some have tried
it but never saw any but some grosly spun
for candlewicke. "
Many references vaguely indicate the real
character of silk grass. On December 23,
1640, Thomas Georges wrote to John Win-
throp for " some of that stuffe which with
us supplies the want of hempe. Our Indi-
ans make theyr snow Shoes, nets and bags
of it. Alsoe of a bigger stalke called silke
grass which makes very fine hempe."
Francis Higginson wrote in 1630 that there
were in New England " two kinds of herbs
that bear two kinds of flowers very sweet
227
Costume of Colonial Times
which they say are as good to make cordage
or cloth as any flax or hemp we have."
Some indication of its identity is found in
the Travels of Kalm in Pennsylvania in
1744, who writes: " Instead of flax several
people make use of a kind of Dogsbane or
Apocynum cannabium. The people prepare
the stalks of this plant in much the same
manner as we prepare Hemp or Flax."
Many other travellers and planters bear glow-
ing testimony to these "herbes." Cartier
speaks of them, calling them chanure (chan-
vre). Berkeley writes of them in Virginia.
In the True Relation concerning the State of
New England^ 1634, we read of ** three
sortes of plantes whereof Lynnen & Cordage
may be made, the coursest sort excells our
hemp & the finest may equal the coursest
silke." In 1628 ''two tun weight of silke
grasse ' ' was ordered by the Massachusetts
Bay Company; and Matthew Cradock, \vrit-
ing from London in 1629 to Endicott, said:
"The like do I wish for a ton weight at
least of silk grass." It was evidently used
to weave with silk, for in 1719, in Judith
Sewall's outfit was ordered "Good strong
228
Costume of Colonial Times
black Silk Damask, no Silk Grass to be in
it." And we know Queen Elizabeth had a
gown made of it. It must have been strong
and tough, for I find it constantly advertised
for sale for shoemakers' supplies. In the
Boston News Letter, May 23, 1727," Good
Silk Grass Suitable for Cordwainers ; " on
December 26, 1728, *' Very good Silk Grass
for Shoemakers." Both cordwainers and
braziers also had it for sale in Boston at the
same date.
Skilts. Sylvester Judd, a most reliable
and valued authority, thus described in
Margaret this garment :
Her father and elder brother wore a sort of brown
tow trousers known at the time as skilts ; they were
short, reaching just below the knee, and very large
being a full half yard broad at the bottom.
They were worn during Revolutionary times,
and seem to have been a forerunner of trou-
sers.
Skirt. The first application of this word
in the sense of petticoat appears in 1768,
229
Costume of Colonial Times
thus: ''Fine Flower' d Dimothies for
Skirts." "Quilts for Ladies Skirts."
Skirts of coats and waistcoats had been pre-
viously named. We read in the Journal of
a Young Lady of Virginia (1782) :
Hannah was dressed in a lead-coulered habbit
open, with a lylack lutestring scirt. Sister wore a
blue habbit with a white Satin scirt.
Sleeve. In the reign of Henry VIII. the
sleeve was often a separate article of dress
and the most gorgeous and richly orna-
mented portion of the dress. Outer and in-
ner sleeves were worn by both men and
women. But Elizabeth banished the outer
sleeve,, though she retained the detached
sleeve. In our colonial days separate sleeves
still were worn by women, but not such gay
sleeves. A careful student of the history of
the sleeve notes :
The flat lace or linen collar of the early part of
the seventeenth century had a depressing effect on
the sleeve ; it was still full, but flattened on the
shoulder. It was not until the latter part of that
century that the sleeve merely to the elbow became
common in England ; and the eighteenth century
was emphatically the age of the elbow sleeve, with
230
Costume of Colonial Times
its frills of real lace and ornaments of fluttering rib-
bons. In the days of the Revolution the sleeve van-
ished.
The " slytting " or slashing of sleeves was
still in vogue in Pilgrim days, and was re-
garded as an idle vanity. Massachusetts
men and women were forbidden to have
more than one slash in each sleeve, nor could
they wear sleeves over half an ell wide.
Short sleeves, ' ' whereby the nakedness of the
arm may be discovered," were also prohib-
ited, or were to be reinforced and made
properly modest with linen cuffs. Existing
portraits prove how little these laws were
heeded. A double-puffed " virago " sleeve
seems to have been much worn by women
just previous to the assumption of the elbow
sleeve. Few indications of the wear of de-
tached sleeves are noted among the English
colonists ; but Dutch women had almost
universally a ' ' pair of sleeves. ' ' Sometimes
these were worth three pounds a pair. They
were often trimmed with '* great lace" or
gold lace, and seem to have been a truly
elegant and convenient fashion.
I wish to note, in passing, a definite use
231
Costume of Colonial Times
of the word hanging sleeve, which I have
not seen given in any of the dictionaries or
histories of costume, which always character-
ize hanging sleeves as an ornamental over-
sleeve. It was often used by Pepys in his
diary, and by Judge Sewall in his letters,
solely to indicate a portion of the dress of a
child, in fact to symbolize a dress of infancy.
Judge Sewall also used it to indicate second
childhood, thus, ^' I am come again to my
hanging sleeves. ' ' A girl who was ' ' still in
hanging sleeves " was still a Uttle child, not
even a miss in her teens.
Sliders. See Slyders.
Slipper.
Standing on slippers which his nimble haste
Had thrust upon contrary feet,
wrote Shakespeare in his day. Henry VII.
when writing to inquire the personal ap-
pearance of a princess whom he wished for
a wife, asked if she *' stood in slipers."
Judge Samuel Sewall wrote to Edward Hall,
in 1686, thanking him for "your loving
Token the East India slippers to my wife ; ' '
232
Costume of Colonial Times
and in his diary, of his own footgear, " Go-
ing out to call the Fisherman in slip-shoes
I fell flat." Randle Holme writes of slap-
shoes — shoes with a loose sole.
Part of the lading of the Neptune, which
was sold at Andrew Faneuil's shop or wharf
in Boston, in 171 1, were ''slippers." Mo-
rocco slippers appear frequently for sale in
the early American newspapers.
In 1796 Sally McKean wrote to the sister
of Dolly Madison of the modes of the day :
There have come some odd fashioned slippers for
ladies made of various color' d kid and morocco with
small silver clasps sewed on ; they are very hand-
some.
Slivers. See Slyders.
Slops. The signification of this word
has greatly varied. Originally a loose cas-
sock for woman's wear, it came to mean a
smock-frock, then a night-gown ; then, in
Shakespeare's time, it meant wide, full, Dutch
breeches — ^knickerbockers — and such is its
signification when used in old New Eng-
land, though apparently for overall breeches
233
Costume of Colonial Times
to be worn to protect other breeches or hose.
The old English application of the word to
a certain form of shoes is not found in Amer-
ica. Its present colloquial use is to indicate
cheap, ready-made clothing. The eigh-
teenth-century word cantsloper, or khant-
sloper, used by Colonel John May, of Boston,
in his diary, is in some obscure way related
to the word slops, and meant — judging from
its relative position in sentences — what we
now term a mackintosh.
Slyders. The word slyder is given by
Felt as a New Englandism for overalls. I
have found it frequently so used in invento-
ries of goods sent from England to Wynter
at Richmond's Island in the years 1635 to
1640, and spelt slyders and sHders. Boys'
** camnas " sliders, as well as men's, were
invoiced to him, and were worth five shil-
lings a suit. We read in the account of a
shipwreck on the Florida coast in the early
colonial days, that the men were cast ashore
in slyders. Slivers, or slivings, were loose
slops also worn by sailors, but do not appear
to have been overalls.
234
Costume of Colonial Times
Snail. See Lace.
Snow-shoe. In the Suffolk County Rec-
ords of the year 165 1 snow-shoes were named
as part of Thomas Sautell's estate. One of
the Winthrop letters, dated 1640, speaks of
the Indians making the cords of their snow-
shoes of silk grass. Josselyn, the traveller
in New England, wrote in 1670, of ''snow
shooes made like a large Racket we play
Tennis with." As late as 1748 they were
called rackets. In 1704 it was enacted that
the militia on the frontier be provided with
snow-shoes, and all the colonists in outlying
towns quickly learned to use them. At
ordinations in Maine the visiting clergy
often appeared on snow-shoes, and doctors
visited their patients thus shod. Rev.
Thomas Smith writes in his diary of a
couple who came to him on snow-shoes to be
married.
Solitaire. '' Bag wig, laced ruffles and
black solitaire" were the marks of a man
of fashion in 1760. The neck decoration
called a solitaire was introduced in France
in the reign of Louis XV. It was a broad
23s
Costume of Colonial Times
black ribbon worn loosely around the throat,
apparently to protect partly the coat from
the powdered wig. Often it was tied to the
back of the wig and brought around and
tucked in the shirt ruffle. This fashion im-
mediately preceded the large white bow of
lawn and lace that was worn by the Maca-
ronis. It was in high fashion in America,
and solitaire ribbons were advertised in
many American newspapers, especially in
the Southern States.
Spatterdashes. In the Boston Evening
Post of 1763 were advertised, "■ Thread and
Cotton Spatterdashes." These were a cov-
ering for the legs to protect trousers, stock-
ings, etc., from mud and wear. They were
part of a soldier's uniform. The modern
word spats is therefrom derived. Spatter-
dashes were also called copper-clouts, and
sheen-steads, both English local names;
and were also spelt spatterplashes. See
Sherry-vallies.
Stamin. a heavy cloth like linsey-wool-
sey, or taminy, q. v.
236
Costume of Colonial Times
•• Stammel. a woollen cloth, possibly
called also stamin. It was like flannel and
much used for petticoats ; and being red,
the name also was applied to the color red.
We read in Hakluyt's Foyages of " carsies
of all orient colours especially stammel,"
and also of sending for stammel dyes.
Startups. This word is found in New
England inventories of men's attire. Thomas
Johnson, of Weathers field. Conn., had a
*' perre of startups " in 1640. They were a
sort of buskin or half- boot, for common
wear. In Thynne's Debate between Pride
and Lowliness^ a countryman wears these
shoes, which are thus described :
A payre of startuppes had he on his feete,
That lased were up to the small of the legge ;
Homelie they were, and easier than meete,
And in their soles full many a wooden pegge,
" Stays. I do not know when "whale-
bone prisons " for women first were worn,
but it is certain that many a pair crossed in
the Mayflower and tight-lacing was known
in the twelfth century. Stays appear in the
early inventories of women's attire — ^as val-
237
Costume of Colonial Times
uable heirlooms. In 1679, upon a Salem
tailor's bill is the item, " To altering & fit-
ting a paire of stayes is 6d." Whalebone
at that time was worth 2s. 6d. a pound. By
newspaper days, as early as 17 14, we find ad-
vertisements of very good silk stays, and
later of stay-makers :
This is to give notice to all Gentlewomen, Ladies
& Other Persons who may have Occasion for New
Stays that David Burnet from Great Britain who
now lives near the Sign of the Ship upon the Stocks
in Battery March, in Boston, makes all Sorts of Stays
after the Newest Best Fashion, And also makes Stays
for such as are Crooked or Deformed in their Bodies,
so as to make them appear Strait, which was never
before done in this Country.
Stay-maker Burnet may be held responsible,
for at least forty years, for Boston dames*
wooden, flat figures which he trussed up in
"turned stays, jumps and gazzets," and
finally in caushets — which I suppose was the
provincial way of spelling corsets. I have
also seen tl^e word *' coascetts " in a seven-
teenth - century inventory. In New York
and Philadelphia stays were made and sold.
Women's stays and *' custulls " are adver-
238
Costume of Colonial Times
tised in the Boston Evening Post \Xi 1761 ;
but if David Burnet knew what custulls
were, we do not, nor gazzets either.
We also catch many a glimpse of the ma-
terials of which stays were made. Thus, on
January 12, 1767, WiUiam Palfrey at the
Heart and Crown had an '' Assortment of
Stay Trimming consisting of Fine & Coarse
Yellow Holland, Galloun, Strapping braid
& cord. White Sattinet, Stay Tick, Best
White Watered Tabby, White and half Stif-
fened Buckram, White Bellandine Sewing
Silk."
Good specimens of old-time stays can be
seen in the cases of the Essex Institute and
the Deerfield Memorial Hall — real iron-clads
— with heavy busks and adamantine bones,
and covered with stiff buckram. I have
been told frequently of tin stays, but have
never seen them.
^ Stayhooks. These hooks were not to
fasten stays, but were small and ornamental
and to be stuck in the edge of the bodipe to
hang a watch or etui upon. The first offer
of them for sale which I have seen is in the
239
Costume of Colonial Times
Boston Gazette in 1743. " Silver' d Stay-
hooks," and '* silver sta^ooks with fine
stones. " In the Boston Independent Adver-
tiser of August, 1749, appears this notice:
** There was taken up Yesterday a Hook for
a Womans Stays. The Person who lost it
may have it by enquiring of the Printer."
In 1762, on June 7, the Boston News
Letter contained the advertisement of
"Gold & Stone Sett Breast Hooks, Plain
Stay hooks and Stone sett Ditto." These
were pretty trinkets, and were in high fash-
ion for many years. I have seen in old
jewel-boxes several stay-hooks much resem-
bhng our modern chatelaines ; there are one
or two preserved in the cases of the Essex
Institute. Since they were more fi-equently
of silver or hard metal than of gold, many
have perished with the century.
Stirrup-hose. See Hose.
Stivers. Edward Skinner, who died in
1 64 1, named in his will " i Payr fustian
Stivers and i Payr leathern Stivers. ' '
Stock. See Neckstock.
240
Costume of Colonial Times
Stockings. See Hose.
V
^ Stomacher. Bishop Earle wrote thus of
Puritan garb and ''she precise hypocrites"
in 1628 : "A nonconformist in a close stom-
acher and ruff of Geneva print, and her pu-
rity consists much in her linen." A stom-
acher is sufficiently defined through its
evident derivation — a band or ornamental
girdle worn over the stomach. They have
been in fashion at varying intervals until the
present day^ and have been made of many
and varying materials — folded silk, orris,
leather, silvered gimps, beads, spangles, and,
as shown in the Boston Evening Post of
November, 1755, of ''Bugle and Paste-
board." In the Pennsylvania Gazette of
July 24, 1760, we read of " gauze and bugle
stomachers with floss flowers." A writer in
the Weekly Rehearsal oi January 10, 1732,
complains of the variation in the fashions of
stomachers, saying, "sometimes it Rises to
the Chin, and a Modesty-Piece sufl'ers the
purpose of a Ruff", again it is so Complaisant
as not to reach Half- Way." Abigail Adams,
writing to Mrs. Storer, in 1785, says she en-
241
Costume of Colonial Times
closes ** patterns of a stomacher, cape and
forebody of a gown ; different petticoats are
much worn, and then the stomacher must be
of petticoat color."
y Strip. An ornamental portion of dress
apparently solely for women's wear, and
used to cover the neck or breast. We read
in P €716 lope and Ulysses^ 1658,
A stomacher upon her breast so bare,
For strips and gorget were not then the weare.
Among the rich possessions of one Richard
Lusthead, of Mattapinian, Va., in 1664, we
find "9 laced stripps, 2 plain stripps.'*
They were evidently an elegant piece of
apparel.
SuRDAN. In the Boston Gazette and
Country Jour7ial of June 13, 1774, a runa-
way slave was advertised as wearing a ' ' blue
Surdan," w^hich was apparently a jacket or
waistcoat.
SuRTOUT. A great-coat for men's wear,
or an outside sleeved jacket for women's
wear. We read in the Boston Gazette of
242
Costume of Colonial Times
February 6, 1769, that there was lost *' Last
Monday Ev. two very good plain & Knapt
Bath Beaver Surtoiits of a light mixt Colour
one very large the other suitable for a Boy
of 12 years." In letters of that same date
we read of travelling mantua-makers coming
to make cloth surtouts for all the daughters
in the family.
Swanskin. Fairholt says swanskin was
a thick fleecy hosiery. But from early days
we read in American newspapers of runa-
ways in swanskin jackets, and also of ^' Ell-
wide Swanskin for Ironing cloth," which
would seem to point to its being a cheap
fleecy cloth like Canton flannel.
Tabaret. This advertisement from the
Boston Gazette of 1749 somewhat defines
this material : *' Worsted Tabaritts the new-
est fashion. In Imitation of a rich Brocaded
Silk." It was a sort of poplin, and was
much used for petticoats, and later, of
slightly heavier make, for upholstering pur-
poses. Tabbinet was a similar material with
a watered surface.
243
Costume of Colonial Times
Tabby. A plain soft silk. It was ad-
vertised for sale in the Boston News Letter
as early as October, 171 1, and was a favorite
material for women's wear. It varied much
in value. A petticoat of tabby was worth,
in 1660, ^2 I OS. We read under date
1676 of '' I Pair Tabby Bodyes cloath col-
our'd ^ wide & long wastied." Within a
hundred years the name has been applied to
watered silks. We find Peter Faneuil's sis-
ter sending word to England to have an old
gown dyed and "watered like a tabby."
See ToBiNE and Tabaret.
Taffeta. This was not originally our
modern plain silk called by the name, but
was in Chaucer's day a heavier, costlier silk.
Ann Hibbin's taffety cloak was, from its
value — ^2 I OS. — of rich quality. The
name was also applied to thin linen.
Taminy. a woollen stuff glazed like
alpaca, made in Norfolk. It was spelt
also tammin, tammy, tamin, etaminee, and
estamine. I learn from the accounts of
John Pyncheon, of Springfield, in 1653,
844
Costume of Colonial Times
that " red Tammy " was worth at that date
2S. lod. per yard. Martha Emmons, who
died in Boston in 1666, owned a red tam-
miny petticoat ; one of her neighbors had a
'* taminy wast cote." I find tammy and
taminy advertised in Connecticut newspa-
pers as late as 1775. The " mixt Esta-
mains " worth eighteen shillings a yard, that
were sent to Deliverance Parkeman, in Bos-
ton, in 1703, were also taminys.
Tewly. See Tuly.
Therese. a large veil or scarf worn as
a head-dress, usually of a light, thin material,
such as gauze or mull. Thereses were worn
toward the close of the seventeenth century,
and are named in the lists of New England
milliners.
Thumb Ring. See Ring.
Tiffany. A thin gauzy silk. Tiffany
hoods were forbidden to folk of modest for-
tune by the early sumptuary laws of Massa-
chusetts, so must have been deemed rich
wear. Tiffany was frequently advertised in
245
Costume of Colonial Times
Boston newspapers; in 1739, ^^^ ^^^ News
Letter, and spelt **Tifyny;" in 1 741, in
the New England Weekly Journal, and spelt
** Tiffeny." It appears so frequently with
crapes and cypress, that I think black tif-
fany must have been much used in mourn-
ing wear, indeed almost appropriated to that
Tippet. A narrow covering for the neck.
In 1763, November 6, in the Boston Even-
ing Post, Jolley Allen advertised '* Meck-
lenburg Tippets for Women & Children ; "
and on January 11, 1767, he had ''very
Gentell Tippets Silver'd at 22s 6d." Gauze
tippets were advertised also. William Pal-
frey had blue and silver, and white and sil-
ver tippets. Rattlesnake tippets were of fine
blonde stuck with flowers. All these were
ornamental additions to the toilet ; but in
the winter tippets of various kinds of furs
were worn for warmth. The Weekly Re-
hearsal of January 10, 1732, comments on
the tippet as " an elegant and beautiful Or-
nament ; in Winter the Sable is Wonderful
Graceful & a fine Help to the Complexion."
246
Costume of Colonial Times
ToBiNE. A heavy silk material much
used for rich gowns and sacques. In 1742
the Boston News Letter advertised ''Silk
of Sundry Sorts as Rich Tobine." Striped
and flowered tobins were named, and '' To-
bine Lustrings at 9 sh sterling a yard," and
*' Rich tobine and Tissue for men & womens
wear chiefly gowns and sacks." For men's
wear it was used in waistcoats — the striped
seeming to be the favorite. It was akin in
quality to tabby, q. v.
Tongs. Loose trousers or overalls of
linen or cotton stuff. In Margaret, by
Sylvester Judd, we read, '' The boys were
dressed in tongs, a name for pantaloons or
overalls that had come into use." The
word was not in common use at the time of
the Revolution.
Trollopee. a loose gown like a neg-
ligee, worn during the last half of the eigh-
teenth century.
Trousers. The first hint of anything
like the use of the word or article trousers,
appears in the items of consignments to John
247
Costume of Colonial Times
Wynter, of Richmond's Island, Me., in 1638.
" 7 pair of trushes ^i is." The word fre-
quently appears in his later accounts and
is always thus spelled. These ** trushes "
were probably tow overalls for the use of
Wynter's fishermen, though slyders, which
were overalls, were also named. Trouses,
trossers, trews, and trusses were other early
forms of the word. Through newspaper
items we learn of runaway slaves wearing off
*' chequer' d," tow, or ozenbridge trousers,
sometimes over their breeches. One was
advertised in the Week/y Rehearsal of Sep-
tember, 1733, as wearing '* Cinnamon col-
ourd Plush breeches with Trousers over
them." Another in the Boston Gazette oi
May 27, 1 77 1, is said to have run off in
*' Buckskin breeches and white trousers."
It seems evident that the word was at first
applied to a garment of the nature of over-
alls. A contemporary writer thus describes
them : ** linen drawer trousers which are
breeches and stock ins all in one and fine
cool Wear." One servant who ran off in
knee-breeches was " reported to have been
seen later with Frock and Trowsers on."
348
Costume of Colonial Times
These tow trousers were also called tongs.
Sailors wore trousers. The portrait of Teach,
the pirate (called Blackbeard), shows him in
trousers. The date of portrait is about
1734. Trousers did not come into general
wear till after Revolutionary times ; in fact,
not till this century. The first mention I
have seen of woollen trousers was dated 1776.
See Tongs, Slyders, Skilts.
TuFFTAFFETA. This stuff was a taffeta
with velvet or plush tufts of nap or raised
pile. I have never found any tufftaffeta
garments named save in New England in-
ventories, and then only jerkins and doub-
lets for men — no women's wear.
TuLY. Also tewly. A color — red. ''To
make bockerum tuly — a mannor of red col-
our, as it were of crop madder." I read ot
tuly waistcoats in New England.
Turban. In 1763 '' Silk and Tinsel
Turbins" were advertised in the Boston
Evening Post, as early an adverrisement as I
have noted of turbans. In 1767 the Con-
necticut Courant advertised a box containing
249
Costume of Colonial Times
a'^turbant and tippets." Silvered gauze
turbans were very fashionable and were fre-
quently trimmed with feathers. Until well
into this century women wore and had their
portraits painted in turbans, which, when
made of rich materials, were a truly impos-
ing headgear.
Though I have never seen turbans adver-
tised for men's wear, there are many por-
traits in existence of masculine New Eng-
landers wearing turbans, or a headgear
closely resembling the feminine turban. The
portrait of Edward Bromfield, and those of
Thomas Boylston, Thomas Hubbard, and
Master John Lovell in Memorial Hall in
Cambridge, all display caps much like tur-
bans.
Umbrella. Though umbrellas are men-
tioned in Quarles's Emblems (which was
printed in England in 1635) and by various
English authors after the year 1700, they
were not used in the colonies till after the
middle of the century. In the year 1740
a l>elle in Windsor, Conn., carried an um-
brella which had been brought to her with
250
Costume of Colonial Times
other elegancies for the toilet from the West
Indies. Her neighbors mocked her by
carrying sieves balanced on broom-handles.
By 1762 they were advertised in Boston
papers by all enterprising and modish milli-
ners, and by other tradespeople.
Among the earliest special advertisements
of umbrellas is this from the Boston Evening
Post, June 6, 1768 :
Umbrilloes made and sold by Isaac Greenwood ;
Turner, in his shop in Front Street at the following
Prices. Neat mahogany frames tipt with Ivory or
brass ferrils 42s 6d plain ; others at 40s ; printed at
36s; neat Persian Umbrellas compleat at 6 ids
and in proportion for better silk. Those Ladies
whose Ingenuity Leisure and Oeconomy leads them
to make their own may have them cut out by buying
Umbrella sticks or Forms of him ; and those Ladies
that are better employed may have them made at
15s a piece. N. B. All the above Prices are in O.
T.
Oliver Greenleaf likewise advertised in the
same paper the same year, on May 23d,
** very neat Green and Blue Umbrellas."
Another Boston man, '' Unmade Setts of
Sticks for Umbrilloes for those who wish to
cover them themselves."
251
Costume of Colonial Times
The early spelling was usually ** umbril-
loe" and '' umberaloe." The shape, can
we judge from the newspaper wood-cut, was
very flat, with few ribs. The old umbrellas
seen in museums are very heavy of frame
and very large.
Vampay. Sometimes spelled vamp, or
vampay. A short woollen hose, or stocking,
reaching only to the ankles. One adver-
tisement of a runaway servant described him
as wearing knit vamps. Another wore knit
boots over his hose, which boots were prob-
ably vamps.
Veil. These shields for the face were
worn by Puritan women, and were enjoined
by Roger Williams. But Minister Cotton
proved that such wearing was not com-
manded by the apostles, and veils were dis-
carded by Salem and Boston dames in 1634
-^so runs the tale.
Vest. In Pepys's time the word vest
meant '' a long cassock close to the body,"
which was not necessarily a sleeveless gar-
359
Costume of Colonial Times
ment like a waistcoat. It seems curious
while I have never seen the word vest used
in New England, either in print or manu-
script, until the middle of this century,, that
it was constantly used in Pennsylvania in
the previous century. From the newspa-
pers alone innumerable examples can be
given. In the Pennsylvania Gazette of
May, 1752, we read of runaways wearing
off stocking-wove vests, with coats, show-
ing that these vests were waistcoats. In the
same publication, under date of January 13,
1729, another runaway wore a corded dim-
ity vest flowered with yellow silk ; and on
June 30, 1736, one wore a cinnamon vest-
coat, which sounds like a Tony Weller pro-
nunciation. See Waistcoat.
Vizard. See Mask.
Wadmol. Originally weadmel, a coarse
heavy stuff made of Iceland wool, and
brought from Iceland to Suffolk and Nor-
folk, England. It came to mean a very
coarse, felted woollen stuff. We read of
*' wadmoll mittens," of '* a woadmell petti-
253
Costume of Colonial Times
coat." The name does not appear later
than the year 1700. And I have never seen
it in inventories of the Southern colonies.
Waistcoat. A term used in early days,
as now, for an undergarment reaching from
the neck to the waist, and usually sleeve-
less. In 1628 each Bay emigrant had two
**wascotes of greene cotton bound about
with Red tape." The Piscataquay planters
had red waistcoats supplied to them. Wom-
en and men both wore them and left them
by will. Edward Skinner, in 1641, in Bos-
ton, and Martha Emmons, in 1664, had
** wastcotts." Jane Humphrey had them
in variety of kersey, serge, and fustian —
green, white, gray, blue, and ''murry col-
lured." It took *' 4 yardes and halfe a quar-
ter of tuft Holland ' ' to make Lawyer Lech-
ford's wife a waistcoat, which is much more
than would be necessary for a simply shaped
waistcoat nowadays. Widow Oxen bridge,
of Boston, had white dimity waistcoats. In
1 72 1 knit ** westcots " were advertised in
the Boston News Letter ; in 1767 '* Damas-
cus Lorettos & Burdets for fine westcoats,"
254
Costume of Colonial Times
and *' fine Rich Pink colour'd Vellure Silk
for waistcoats" were also sold. ''Knit
Maccorini waistcoats ' ' and waistcoat pat-
terns also appear in the list, among the lat-
ter *' the Sportmans fancy, the Prince of
Wales Newmarket Jockey, the Modest pale-
blue." In the early part of the eighteenth
century the waistcoat became an important
article of attire, being very long, as dis-
played in the portraits of the founder of
Yale College, of Sir William Pepperell, Sir
William Phips, and other gentlemen of their
day. It was low in the neck, however,
showing the cravat all around the neck ; it
was richly embroidered or trimmed with
great gold or silver buttons and laces. Sir
Charles Frankland said in 1763 that seven
yards of gold lace were needed to trim a
waistcoat.
Watchet Blue.
" The saphir stone is of watchet blue."
In the early colonial days this word oc-
curs, though rarely. It was defined in old-
time words, ''celustro, azure, watchet, or
skie-color. ' '
255
Costume of Colonial Times
Weather-skirt. See Safeguard.
Whisk. A neckerchief for women's wear,
which was plain or laced, and fell on the
shoulders ; hence also called a falling-whisk.
It was apparently formed at first simply by
turning the ruff down. We find Madam
Pepys buying a white whisk in 1660, and
later a *' noble lace whisk."
A whisk was not common or cheap neck-
wear. The same year that Madam Pepys
wore her whisk to court, Governor Berke-
ley, of Virginia, paid half a pound apiece
for *' Tiffeny Whisks." I think they were
a cavalier elegance, for I have never seen
the name in use but once in New England.
Wait Winthrop, in 1682, sent a whisk to his
niece Mary.
Whitney. A heavy and rather coarse
cloth in universal use in the eighteenth cen-
tury. To show its value, let me state that
Peter Faneuil ordered from London in 1737
*' Fine Whitneye at 53s a yard, Coarse
Whitneye at 28s a yard." Its color was
commonly scarlet. It was used for coats,
256
Costume of Colonial Times
jackets, petticoats, breeches, and extensively
for cloaks. It was also spelled Witney.
Whittle. This was a double blanket
worn by West country women over the
shoulders like a cloak. The word was de-
rived from the Anglo-Saxon hwitel, and is
found in Piers Ploivman. In 1655 Mary
Harris, of New London, left a " rred whit-
tle " by will, and Jane Humphreys, of Dor-
chester, had, in 1668, ^'a whittle that was
fringed." A whittle was apparently much
like a shawl. The name became obsolete
in the eighteenth century in America, but
was frequently used in England till a much
later date — in fact, may still be heard.
Wild BORE. We read of *' Marone Ribb'd
Wildbores" in the Saletn Gazette oi 1784,
and the name appears frequently elsewhere,
until this century. Wildbore was appar-
ently a heavy repped woollen goods, and was
much used for women's winter gowns.
Wig. From a very early date wigs were
in fashion in the colonies. As early as 1675
857
Costume of Colonial Times
the legislature of Massachusetts felt it neces-
sary to denounce wig - wearing. But the
question of the propriety of donning wigs
was a difficult one to settle, since the min-
isters and magistrates themselves could not
agree. John Wilson and Cotton Mather
wore them, but Rev. Mr. Noyes launched
denunciations at them from the pulpit, and
the Apostle John Eliot delivered many a
blast against ** prolix locks with boiling
zeal," but yielded sadly to the fact that the
** lust for wigs is become insuperable."
Wigs were termed by one author '* arti-
ficial deformed Maypowles fit to furnish her
that in a Stage play should represent some
Hagge of Hell ; " by another, * ' Horrid
Bushes of Vanity; " and other choice epi-
thets were applied.
Governor Barefoot, of New Hampshire,
wore a periwig as early as 1670 ; only
seven years after Pepys first donned one.
In 1676 Wait Winthrop wrote to his
brother in New London :
I send herewith the best wig that is to be had in
ye countrye. Mr. Sergeant brought it from Eng-
land for his own use and says it cost him two guin-
258
Costume of Colonial Times
eyes and six shillings, and that he never wore it
six howers. He tells me will have three pounds
for it.
The Winthrops frequently ordered wigs,
and their portraits display some full-blown
ones.
By 1 716 the fashion of wearing wigs had
become universal; though in 1722 at a
meeting at Hampton a remnant of sturdy
Puritans passed a resolution that " ye wear-
ing of extrevegant superflues wigges is alto-
gether contrary to truth." In 1730 the
Assembly of New York placed a tax of
three shillings on every wig or peruke of
human or horsehair mixed, and even Penn-
sylvania Quakers cut their own hair and
wore wigs. When I read of these wig-wear-
ing times, and of the grotesque and mounte-
bank wigs that were worn, I wonder afresh
at the manner in which our sensible ances-
tors disfigured themselves.
In the Boston News Letter of August 14,
1729, we read :
Taken from the shop of Powers Mariott Barber, a
light Flaxen Naturall Wigg Parted from the forehead
to the Crown. The Narrow Ribband is of a Red
259
Costume of Colonial Times
Pink Colour. The Caul is in Rows of Red Green
& White.
Grafton Fevergrure, the peruke-maker at the
sign of the Black Wigg, lost a *' Light
Flaxen Natural Wigg with a Peach Blossom-
coloured Ribband." In 1755 the house of
barber Goes of Marblehead was broken into
and eight brown and three grizzle wigs stol-
en ; some of these must have been absurd
enough, with <' feathered tops," some were
bordered with red ribbon, some with th^e
colors, pink, green, and purple. In 1754
James Mitchell had white wigs and "griz-
zles." He asked 20s. O. T. for the best.
We read of the loss of " a horsehair bob-
wig," and another with crown hair, and a
goat's hair natural wig with red and white
ribbons. Wigs were also made of ** calves
tails," and the Virginia 6^f72^//^ advertised,
in 1752, "Mohair stain' d " for wigg.
Thread and silk were also used.
Hawthorne gave this list of wigs :
The tie, the brigadier, the spencer, the
albemarle, the major, the rami Hies, the grave
full-bottom, and the giddy feather-top.
To these we can add the campaign, the
260
Costume of Colonial Times
neck-lock, the bob, the minor bob, the bob
major, the lavant, the valiancy, the drop-
wig, the buckle-wig, the Grecian fly, the
peruke, the beau-peruke, the long-tail, the
bob-tail, the fox-tail, the cut-wig, the tuck-
wig, the twist wig, the scratch, the maca-
roni toupee. Sydney says the name cam-
paign was applied to a wig the fashion of
which was imported from France in 1702.
This date cannot be correct, for we find
John Winthrop writing in 1695 for " two
wiggs one a cam pane, the other short. ' ' A
campaign wig was made very full, and curled
eighteen inches to the front. It had ''knots
or bobs a-dildo on each side with a curled
forehead." The portrait of John Winthrop
displays an enormous wig, perhaps this very
" cam pane."
The Ramillies wig had a long plaited tail,
with a big bow at the top of the braid and
a smaller one at the bottom.
Wigs were of varied shapes. They swelled
at the sides, and turned under in great rolls,
and rose in many puffs, and hung in braids
or curls or clubbed tails, and then shrank to
a small close tie-wig that vanished at Revo-
261
Costume of Colonial Times
lutionary times in powdered natural hair
and a queue of ribbon, a bag, or an eel-
skin.
From the portraits of the day — those of
Copley, Smibert, Blackburn, and Gilbert
Stuart, and also of earlier artists — displayed
in Harvard Memorial Hall, in the Library
of the American Antiquarian Society, in the
rooms of the various historical societies, a
very correct sequence of wig fashions can
be obtained, and dates assigned to certain
shapes. The portraits of Virginians show
some specially handsome wigs.
All classes wore wigs. Many a runaway
slave is described as wearing off a *' white
horsehair wigg," a *' flaxen natural wigg,"
or a " full goatshair wigg." A soldier de-
serter in 1707 wore off a <' yellowish peri-
wig,." and as a specially absurd instance of
servile imitation, I read in the Massachu-
setts Gazette of July 11, 1774, of a negro
who " wore off a curl of hair tied on a
string around his head to imitate a scratch
wig." Just picture that woolly pate with its
dangling curl !
The account books of Enoch Freeman, of
262
Costume of Colonial Times
Portland, Me., contain in 1754 such entries
as this :
Shaving my three sons at sundry times jCs- 14s.
Expense for James Wig £g.
Expense for Samuels Wig. ;^9.
The three sons were Samuel, aged eleven,
James, aged nine, and William, aged seven.
Imagine any father in a small town being
such a slave of fashion as to have the heads
of little sons shaved and bedecking them
with such costly wigs.
At the beginning of this century women,
having powdered and greased and pulled
their hair almost off their heads, were glad
to wear wigs. At first '^tetes" of curled
hair were donned, as early as 1752; then
came * Mocks." We find Eliza Southgate
Bowne when a young girl writing thus to
her mother from Boston in the year 1800.
Now Mamma what do you think I am going to
ask for ? — A WIG. Eleanor Coffin has got a new
one just like my hair and only 5 dollars. I must
either cut my hair or have one. I cannot dress it at
all stylish. ... At the Assembly I was quite
ashamed of my head, for nobody had long hair. '
26?,
Costume of Colonial Times
Wigs were bequeathed by will. Robert
Richbell, of Boston, left eight by bequest ;
so also did rich Philadelphians. The cost
of dressing and caring for wigs became a
heavy item of expense to the wearer, and in-
come to the barber ; often eight or ten
pounds a year were paid for the care of a
single wig. Governor Hutchinson had a
formidable annual barber's bill. Wig- mak-
er's materials were expensive also — ''wig
ribans, cauls, curling pipes, sprigg wyers,
and wigg steels," and were advertised in
vast numbers.
fl64
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