Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/costumeofcoloniaOOearlrich 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. THE SABBATH IN PURITAN NEW ENG- LAND. 12mo, $1 25. CHINA COLLECTING IN AMERICA. With 75 Illustrations. Square 8vo, $3.00. '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 *- 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 MINERAL LTRRADv HOME USE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT MAIN LIBRARY This book is due on the last date stamped below l-month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405. 6-ronth loans may be recharged by br.ngmg books to Circulation Desk. Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date. ALL BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO RECALL 7 DAYS AFTER DATE CHECKED OUT. :iEC. ciR. r£B i I BEG. CIR. AUG 30 'f.h^ -4W LD21— A-40m-8.'75 (S7737L) General Library University of California Birkolty I YB 2D0I9 U. C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CDS7^m7M5 i^ '- .' -^ / UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY