Читать книгу Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony - Dow George Francis - Страница 6

In 1630 there were differences in dress even more so than at the present time. The simple, coarse clothing of the yeoman and the worker in the various trades was far removed from the dress of the merchant and the magistrate. Leather clothing was very generally worn by laborers and servants as deerskins were cheap and leather had been in common use for jerkins and breeches in Old England, so naturally it was worn here. Stockings were made of a variety of materials and most shoes had wooden heels.

Higher in the social scale men wore doublets and full breeches and clothed themselves as well as their estates permitted – sometimes even better than they could well afford. Sleeves were slashed. Falling bands at the neck were common and a deep linen collar appears in portraits of the period. A beaver or felt hat with steeple crown was worn, and gloves, sometimes elegantly embroidered, were essential. The accepted idea of Puritan dress should be revised and the Victorian standard of sentimental simplicity be discarded. There was great variety of fabrics available in the shops of London and Bristol as will be noted in the list at the end of this chapter, and as wealth permitted probably much of this material eventually found its way to the shelves of the shopkeepers in Boston and other of the larger seaport towns.

The following list of clothing each man should provide himself with on sailing for New England in 1629, when the Rev. Francis Higginson came over, is so specific that we can easily visualize the male company that arrived at Salem that year.

Note. As several excellent books are available that treat exclusively of costume in the colonies, it has not seemed necessary to elaborate on the subject in these pages. The following notes however, are thought to be of interest.

4 peares of shoes.

4 peares of stockings.

1 peare Norwich gaiters.

4 shirts

2 suits dublet and hose of leather lyn'd with oy'd skin leather, ye hose & dublett with hooks & eyes.

1 suit of Nordon dussens or hampshire kersies lyn'd the hose with skins, dublets with lynen of gilford or gedlyman kerseys.

4 bands

2 handkerchiefs

1 wastecoat of greene cotton bound about with red tape

1 leather girdle

1 Monmouth cap

1 black hatt lyned in the brows with lether

5 Red Knitt capps mill'd about 5d. apiece

2 peares of gloves

1 Mandillion [mantle or great coat] lyned with cotton

1 peare of breeches and waistcoat

1 leather sute of Dublett & breeches of oyled leather

1 peare of leather breeches and drawers to weare with both there other sutes.

Fine clothing surrounded itself with fine furnishings, according to the standards of the period, and as the wealth of the Colony increased with the successful exportation of fish, lumber, beaver, and peltry, it supplied them with all kinds of luxuries and refinements. The ships were crossing frequently and the Colony kept pace with the mother country much as the country follows the city at the present time.

In the town of Ipswich, lived Madam Rebecka Symonds, writing in her sixtieth year to her son in London to send her a fashionable "lawn whiske," for her neckwear. In due time he replied that the "fashionable Lawn whiske is not now worn, either by Gentil or simple, young or old. Instead where of I have bought a shape and ruffles, which is now the ware of the gravest as well as the young ones. Such as goe not with naked necks ware a black wifle over it. Therefore, I have not only Bought a plaine one y't you sent for, but also a Luster one, such as are most in fashion."

The dutiful son also purchased for his mother's wear a feather fan; but he writes to her "I should also have found in my heart, to have let it alone, because none but very grave persons (and of them very few) use it. Now 'tis grown almost as obsolete as Russets, and more rare to be seen than a yellow Hood." When the feather fan reached Ipswich it was found to have a silver handle and with it came "two tortois fans, 200 needles, 5 yds. sky calico, silver gimp, a black sarindin cloak, damson leather skin, two women's Ivorie Knives, etc."30

Human nature and human frailities were much the same in the seventeenth century as at the present time, and before long, the magistrates considered it desirable to curb the extravagancies of dress that followed the London mode; and to induce a spirit of economy more fitting to the poverty of a new settlement. The ministers controlled the lawmaking body and sumptuary laws were enacted which are enlightening. Because of "newe and immodest fashions" the wearing of silver, gold and silk laces, girdles and hat bands was prohibited. It was the fashion at that time to slash the sleeves so that a fabric of another color worn beneath would show in an ornamental manner through the slash. The ministers decreed that neither man nor woman should wear clothing with more than one slash on each sleeve and another on the back. "Cutt-works, inbroidered or needle worke capps, bands & rayles," were forbidden.31 Ruffs and beaver hats were prohibited, as was long hair. Binding or small edging laces might be used, but the making or selling of bone lace was penalized at the rate of five shillings per yard.

But this didn't change human nature and although from time to time offenders were taken into court and punished, the wearing of fine clothing fashioned after the London mode continued and a few years later the ministers tried their hand again. Any kind of lace was anathema and "no garment shalbee made with short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arme may bee discovered." On the other hand, large sleeves were forbidden, so the maids and goodwives of the time must have been somewhat at a loss to know how lawfully to fashion their clothes.

The minister at Ipswich grew so ill-tempered over the ungodly state of the women in his town that he vented his spleen as follows: "When I hear a nugiperous Gentledame inquire what dress the Queen is in this week, what the nudius tertian of the Court, I look at her as the very gizzard of a trifle, the product of a quarter of a cypher, the epitome of nothing, fitter to be kickt, if she were of a kickable substance than either honoured or humoured."32

The minister in the adjoining town, Rowley, actually cut off his nephew from his inheritance because he wore his hair long in the prevailing fashion. Later in the century the offense of wearing long hair was forgotten in the unspeakable sin of wearing wigs. The Great and General Court again took a hand and in 1675 condemned "the practise of men's wearing their own or other's hair made into periwigs." Judge Sewall in his Diary alludes to the custom. In 1685 three persons were admitted to the Old South Church in Boston. "Two wore periwigs," comments the Judge.

"1708, Aug. 20, Mr. Chievar died. The Wellfare of the Province was much upon his Spirit. He abominated Periwigs."33

The Great and General Court at one time ordered that no person should smoke tobacco in public under a penalty of two shillings and six pence, nor in his own house with a relative or friend. But everybody smoked who wanted to, even the maids, and the repressive legislation in time met the usual fate of similar efforts to restrain individual liberty and manners.

It is sweet to fancy Priscilla at her spinning wheel wearing the coif and nun-like garb of the Puritan maiden of the poet and the artist. But the inventories of estate in the early years of the Colony, as well as at a later time, furnish evidence of a different character. The variety of fabrics listed is amazing and holds its own with the modern department store. There are most of the well-known fabrics of today, such as calico, cambric, challis, flannel, lawn, linen, plush, serge, silk, velvet, and many others; and there are also names that sound strangely in modern ears, viz.: cheney, darnex, dowlas, genting, inckle, lockrum, ossembrike, pennistone, perpetuana, sempiternum, stammell, and water paragon.

As for dress – the women wore bonnets, caps, silk hoods, coifs, forehead cloths, ruffs, and whisks. Gowns, cloaks, mantles, and muffs are mentioned frequently; as are many kinds of lace and even fans and veils. Shawls and scarfs were not unknown and there were gold, silver, and enamelled rings. Women possessed masks, and stomachers were not uncommon. Tortoise shell combs appear; all well-to-do persons wore gloves, and as for shoes – there were shoes with French heels, fall shoes, and those with silver buckles. Even shoe strings appear in the inventories. There were silver, pewter, and steel buttons and those of gympe, thread, and silk.

Laboring men wore leather and coarse fabrics and for others there were suits, doublets, waistcoats and breeches. Trousers are mentioned; also a cane and periwigs. Of caps and hats there were a number of kinds – felt, castor, demi-castor, and even straw. Capt. George Corwin, a Salem merchant, owned a cloth coat trimmed with silver lace, a velvet coat, a tabby doublet, an old-fashioned Dutch satin doublet, four cloaks of various kinds, two pairs of golden topped gloves, one embroidered pair, and a pair with black fringe. He also took his walks abroad wearing silk stockings, with a hat encircled by a silver band and carrying a silver-headed cane or a plate hilt rapier, according to fashion. He possessed two silver watches. Who shall say that the men and women of the New England colonies did not dress well and live well in the early days according to their means?34

In the late 1600's, and until comparatively recent times, working men very generally wore frocks, a custom in dress that dates back into the centuries. It was an almost universal custom for farmers and those employed in the mechanic trades to wear a frock. The farmer generally looked upon the frock as an outer garment – something to put on in colder weather or to slip on to protect underclothing or to conceal an untidy appearance. It was a garment to take off on coming into the house or to put on when going to the village or to market.

Carters or truckmen also habitually wore frocks. Drake, in his "Landmarks of Boston," describes the old-time trucks, not to exceed eighteen feet in length, with their loads of hogsheads of molasses and other heavy merchandise balanced on the one axle and the two horses harnessed tandem, the head horse led by the truckman. With the disappearance of these ponderous vehicles also went "that distinctive body of men, the 'Boston Truckmen,' who once formed a leading and attractive feature of our public processions, with their white frocks and black hats, mounted with their magnificent truck-horses. Hardy and athletic, it would be hard to find their equals on either side of the water. The long jiggers now used are scarcely less objectionable than the old trucks." Drake wrote this only seventy-five years ago but the "jiggers" of his time have now almost entirely disappeared.

The frock was a loose garment slipped on over the head and in length usually reached halfway between the knees and the feet. The opening in front reached from the neckband nearly to the waist and was closed by buttons, though sometimes a gathering string was used. The bottom was cut up eight or ten inches, on the sides, to permit greater freedom in walking. There were long frocks and short frocks, the latter being generally worn indoors. The frocks worn in workshops by mechanics were short.

One early source of information exists in the advertisements of runaway servants to be found in the eighteenth-century Boston newspapers. During the quarter-century following 1725, the Boston News-Letter printed thirty-seven advertisements asking for the detention of white male servants, twenty-one of whom ran away during the cold-weather months. Of the latter, six wore frocks or carried frocks in their bundle of clothing. It is fair to assume that some of these men may have taken with them only their best clothing and left working garments behind, hence the small number of frocks specifically mentioned. This possibly may have been the fact in the instance of an Irish servant, aged twenty-six, who ran away in December, 1741, from his master, James Hunt of York, Maine. He wore a broadcloth coat and jacket of a cinnamon color, a pair of orange colored plush breeches and a good beaver hat. The reward for his detention was £3.

John Davis, a servant of Mr. Okenden of Boston, absented himself from service in March, 1728, and among other clothing he took with him a brown fustian frock, and a pair of striped ticking breeches.

Frocks and "trouzers" were part of the personal effects of William Davison, a tailor, in King Street, Boston, that were advertised for sale at public vendue in November, 1729.

Charles Daly, an Irish boy, who ran away from his master in Boston, in December, 1732, wore a fustian frock and another Irish servant who ran away from a brigantine at Boston four years later, wore a new frock and trowsers.

An Irish servant of Captain Luce of Boston, a cooper by trade, took with him when he disappeared in December, 1737, a frock and a pair of "trowsers." Ten years later a negro servant who ran away from the North End of Boston, took with him a new ozen-brig frock.

The settlers came provided with English-made shoes it is likely of a quality similar to those provided by John Hewsen in 1629, the contract reading: "To make eight pair of welt-neat's leather shoes, crossed on the outside with a seam, to be substantial, good over leather of the best, and two soles, the inner sole of good neat's leather, and the outer of tallowed backs."35 In 1651, the stock of Robert Turner of Boston, shoemaker, was inventoried as follows: 23 pairs of children's shoes at 9d. per pair; 29 pairs of No. 11, at 4/4; of No. 12, at 4/8; of No. 13, at 4/10 per pair; 20 dozen wooden heels at 8d. per dozen; 14 pairs boots at 14/ per pair.

In 1672, a committee of the town of Boston, considering that people in low circumstances "will wear no other shoes or boots generally but of the newest fashion and highest price" proposed that a law should be enacted that no shoemaker shall sell to any inhabitant, shoes of 11 or 12 sizes above five shillings a pair and so in proportion as to other sizes.36

During the first half century following the arrival of the settlers, red colored stockings were much worn in New England and russet and green colored stockings were also in fashion. Stockings made of wash leather were worn. In 1675 cloth stockings sold at 14/ to 18/ a dozen pairs. In 1675 John Usher of Boston wrote to his principal in London: "Your stirrups and turn-down stockings are not salable here."

The Massachusetts Bay Company sent over in its stock, in 1629, a hundred black hats made of wool and lined in the brim with leather and at the same time came one hundred Monmouth caps, so-called from the place where they were manufactured, and valued at two shillings each. With them came five hundred red knit caps, milled, at five pence each. Beaver hats were also worn at that time and in 1634 prohibited by order of the General Court. In 1651, a shopkeeper in Boston, sold black hats at 14s. 16s. and 5s.; colored hats brought 10s. and others, 8s.; children's were 3/6; black castors, 14s. and coarse felt hats, 3s. each.

In 1675 a Bostonian wrote to a friend in London, that the local market for sugar-loaf or high-crowned hats was dull.

The Monmouth or military cocked hat, for men, began to come into fashion about 1670, with an average width of brim of six inches. Their inconvenient width led to the practice of having one flap fastened to the side of the crown, either before or behind, and then to having two flaps alike secured. During the reign of Queen Anne, the brim was caught up in three flaps, and so the triangularly cocked hat became the fashion.37

Doublets were made of leather, usually red in color, and fastened with hooks and eyes. They were large on the shoulders, having much cutwork showing the linen shirt beneath. Toward the end of the century their popularity waned and they were succeeded by the waistcoat. The jerkin was made of leather and also various kinds of cloth and sometimes is mentioned in inventories. It was worn by laboring men.

Snow Shoes were used after a great storm; "which our People do much use now, that never did before." —Boston News-Letter, Jan. 29-Feb. 5, 1704/5.

Stolen or carried privately away out of the house of Capt. John Bonner in Cow Lane, near Fort Hill, Boston, sometime before the late Sickness of his late Wife, or about the time of her decease, which was the Month of January last: the following Particulars, viz.: Of his Wife's Wearing apparel three Silk Gowns, one changable colour, a second flowr'd and the third stript; Three other Gowns, one where of a double gown, one side silk stuff the other russel, a second double Gown of silk-stuff and Petticoat of the same, the third a black Crape Gown and Petticoat of the same; Four other Petticoats, one changable colour'd silk, a second black flowr'd silk, a third plain black silk, the fourth a flowr'd Sarge, one Lutstring Hood and Scarff, three laced Headdresses and one plain, three laced Caps, two laced Handkerchiefs, three under Caps laced, three white Aprons, three pair of laced Sleves, two white Muslin Hoods, one Amber Necklace, one Muff…" —Boston News-Letter, Mar. 5-12, 1710/11.

Gloves. Mens Topt fine Kid Gloves, and womans at 3s. 6d. per Pair, fine Glaz'd Lamb and Mittens at 2s. 6d. per Pair, and Rough Lamb for Men and Women at 2s. 6d. per Pair, and further Incouragement to any that buys in Quantity: To be Sold by Mr Daniel Stevens lately come from England, At his House in Pudding-Lane, Boston. —Boston News-Letter, Sept. 3-10, 1711.

Man's Muff. Any Person that took up a Man's Muffe, dropt on the Lord's Day between the Old Meeting House & the South, are desired to bring it to the Post Office in Boston, and they shall be Rewarded. —Boston News-Letter, Jan. 9-16, 1715/16.

Venetian Silks. Imported from London in the Last Ship, and to be Sold by Mr. A. Faneuil, Merchant, at his Warehouse in King-Street, Boston, flowered Venetian Silks of the newest Fashion, in Pieces that contain enough for a suit for a woman. —Boston Gazette, Feb. 8-15, 1719/20.

Wigg. Taken from the Shop of Powers Marriot, Barber, in Boston, either on the 2d or 3d of August Instant, a light Flaxen Natural Wigg; parted from the Forehead to the Crown, the narrow Ribband is of a Red Pink Colour, the Caul is in Rows of Green, Red and White. Whoever will give Information of the said Wigg, so as it be restor'd again, they shall have Twenty Shillings Reward. —Boston News-Letter, July 31-Aug. 7, 1729.

Public Vendue. To be Sold, at Publick Vendue, by William Nichols at the Royal Exchange Tavern, in King Street, Boston, on This Day, beginning (if the Company attend) precisely at 4 o'clock Afternoon, a Variety of Merchandize; which may be seen till the Sale begins, viz:

A curious and compleat double Sett of Burnt China, Broad Cloths, Druggets, Shalloons, Cottons and long Ells, Buckrams, Scots Cloths, Dowlas, Garlixs, Hollands, Chints, Patches, Qualities, FINE NUNS THREADS, Garterings, Mens and Womens fine Hose, Mens superfine Silk Hose, fine Shirt Buttons, Womens superfine Mittens, yellow, blue and Tabby, a sattin Coverlid, curiously embroidered with Gold Lincey for Curtains, &c., some Household Goods, such as Case of Draws, Tables, Paints, Maps, Alabaster Effigies, China, &c. Sundry suits of Mens Apparel, new and second hand; sundry very good Watches, Shoes, Boots, Green Tea, Chocolate, and many other Things. —Boston News-Letter