Self-Expression through Clothing

 

John Pory, letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, Sept. 30, 1619

(excerpts from the electronic version found at  American Journeys)

{1} All our riches for the present doe consiste in Tobacco, wherein one man by his owne labour hath in one yeare raised to himselfe to the value of 200l sterling; and another by the meanes of sixe servants hath cleared at one crop a thousand pound English. These be true, yet indeed rare examples, yet possible to be done by others. . . .

{2} Nowe that your lordship may knowe, that we are nto the veriest beggers in the worlde, our cowekeeper here of James citty on Sundays goes accowtered all in freshe flaming silke; and a wife of one that in England had professed the black arte, not of a scholler, but of a collier of Croydon, weares her rough bever hatt with a faire perle hatband, and a silken suite thereto correspondent. But to leave the Populace, and to come higher; the Governour here, who at his first coming besides a great deale of worth in his person, brought onely his sword with him, was at his late being in London, together with his lady, out of his meer gettings here, able to disburse very near three thousand pound to furnishe himselfe for his voiage.

“Necessaries for Virginia”

in The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, by John Smith (1624)

(excerpted from the electronic version found at Documenting the American South)

A particular of such necessaries as either private families, or single persons, shall have cause to provide to goe to Virginia, whereby greater numbers may in part conceive the better how to provide for themselves.

 

{3} Apparell: Apparell for one man, and so after the rate for more.

A Monmoth Cap.	1s.10d.
3 falling bands.	1s.3d.
3 shirts.	7s.6d.
1 Waste-coat.	2s.2d.
1 suit of Canuase.	7s.6d.
1 suit of Frize.	10s.
1 suit of Cloth.	15s.
3 paire of Irish stockings.	4s.
4 paire of shooes.	8s.8d.
1 paire of garters.	10d.
1 dozen of points.	3d.

1 paire of Canuas sheets.	8s.
7 ells of Canuas to make a bed and boulster, to be filled in Virginia, seruing for two men.	8s.
5 ells of course Canuas to make a bed at Sea for two men.	5s.
1 course rug at sea for two men.	6s.
	4 l.

 

{1} Victuall for a whole yeare for a man, and so after the rate for more.

8 bushels of meale.	2 l.
2 bushels of pease.	6s.
2 bushels of Otemeale.	9s.
1 gallon of Aquavita.	2s.6d.
1 gallon of oyle.	3s.6d.
2 gallons of Vineger.	2s.
	3 l. 3s.

{1} Armes for a man, but if halfe your men be armed it is well, so all haue swords and peeces.

1 Armor compleat, light.	17s.
1 long peece fiue foot and a halfe, neere Musket bore.	1 l. 2s.
1 Sword.	5s.
1 Belt.	1s.
1 Bandilier.	1s. 6d.
20 pound of powder.	18s.
60 pound of shot or Lead, Pistoll and Goose shot.	5s.
	3 l. 9s. 6d.

{1} Tooles for a family of six persons, and so after the rate for more.

5 broad howes at 2s. a peece.	10s.
5 narrow howes at 16d. a peece.	6s. 8d.
2 broad axes at 3s.8d. a peece.	7s. 4d.
5 felling axes at 18d. a peece.	7s. 6d.
2 steele handsawes at 16d. a peece.	2s. 8d
2 two handsawes at 5s. a peece.	10s.
1 whipsaw, set and filed, with box, file and wrest.	10s.
2 hammers 12d. a peece.	2s.
3 shouels 18d. a peece.	4s. 6d.
2 spades at 18d. a peece.	3s.
2 Augers at 6d. peece.	1s.
6 Chissels at 6d. a peece.	3s.
2 Percers stocked 4d. a peece.	8d.
3 Gimblers at 2d. a peece.	6d.
2 Hatchers at 21d. a peece.	3s. 6d.
2 frowes to cleaue pale 18d. each	3s.
2 hand Bills 20d. a peece.	3s. 4d.
1 Grindstone.	4s.
Nailes of all sorts to the value of	2 l.
2 Pickaxes.	3s.
	6 l. 2s. 8d.

{1} Houshold implements for a family and six persons, and so for more or lesse after the rate.

1 Iron pot.	7s.
1 Kettell.	6s.
1 large Frying pan.	2s. 6d.
1 Gridiron.	1s. 6d.
2 Skellots.	5s.
1 Spit.	2s.
Platters, dishes, spoones of wood.	4s.
	1 l. 8s.

        

For Sugar, Spice, and Fruit, and at Sea for six men.

12s. 6d.

 

So the full charge after this rate for each person, will amount about the summe of

1 l. 10s.

 

The passage of each man is	6 l.
The fraught of these prouisions for a man, will be about halfe a tun, which is	12 l. 10s. 10d.
So the whole charge will amount to about	20 1.

{1} Now if the number be great, Nets, Hooks and Lines, but Cheese, Bacon, Kine and Goats must be added. And this is the vsuall proportion the Virginia Company doe bestow vpon their Tenents they send.

Benjamin Franklin to Emma Thompson, Feb. 8. 1777

(excerpted from the electronic version at The Papers of Benjamin Franklin)

{4} You are too early, Hussy, (as well as too saucy) in calling me Rebel; you should wait for the Event, which will determine whether it is a Rebellion or only a Revolution. Here the Ladies are more civil; they call us les Insurgens, a Character that usually pleases them: And methinks you, with all other Women who smart or have smarted under the Tyranny of a bad Husband, ought to be fix’d in Revolution Principles, and act accordingly.  . . .

{5} I know you wish you could see me, but as you can’t, I will describe my self to you. Figure me in your mind as jolly as formerly, and as strong and hearty, only a few Years older, very plainly dress’d, wearing my thin grey strait Hair, that peeps out under my only Coiffure, a fine Fur Cap, which comes down my Forehead almost to my Spectacles. Think how this must appear among the Powder’d Heads of Paris. I wish every Gentleman and Lady in France would only be so obliging as to follow my Fashion, comb their own Heads as I do mine, dismiss their Friseurs, and pay me half the Money they paid to them. You see the Gentry might well afford this; and I could then inlist those Friseurs, who are at least 100,000; and with the Money I would maintain them, make a Visit with them to England, and dress the Heads of your Ministers and Privy Counsellors, which I conceive to be at present un peu dérangées. Adieu, Madcap, and believe me ever Your affectionate Friend and humble Servant

BF

 

William Dean Howells, My Mark Twain: Reminiscences (1910)

(excerpt from the electronic edition at ClassicAuthors.net)

 

{6} To the period of Clemens`s residence in Fifth Avenue belongs his efflorescence in white serge. He was always rather aggressively indifferent about dress, and at a very early date in our acquaintance Aldrich and I attempted his reform by clubbing to buy him a cravat. But he would not put away his stiff little black bow, and until he imagined the suit of white serge, he wore always a suit of black serge, truly deplorable in the cut of the sagging frock. After his measure had once been taken he refused to make his clothes the occasion of personal interviews with his tailor; he sent the stuff by the kind elderly woman who had been in the service of the family from the earliest days of his marriage, and accepted the result without criticism. But the white serge was an inspiration which few men would have had the courage to act upon. The first time I saw him wear it was at the authors` hearing before the Congressional Committee on Copyright in Washington. Nothing could have been more dramatic than the gesture with which he flung off his long loose overcoat, and stood forth in white from his feet to the crown of his silvery head. It was a magnificent coup, and he dearly loved a coup; but the magnificent speech which he made, tearing to shreds the venerable farrago of nonsense about nonproperty in ideas which had formed the basis of all copyright legislation, made you forget even his spectacularity.

{7} It is well known how proud he was of his Oxford gown, not merely because it symbolized the honor in which he was held by the highest literary body in the world, but because it was so rich and so beautiful. The red and the lavender of the cloth flattered his eyes as the silken black of the same degree of Doctor of Letters, given him years before at Yale, could not do. His frank, defiant happiness in it, mixed with a due sense of burlesque, was something that those lacking his poet-soul could never imagine; they accounted it vain, weak; but that would not have mattered to him if he had known it. In his London sojourn he had formed the top- hat habit, and for a while he lounged splendidly up and down Fifth Avenue in that society emblem; but he seemed to tire of it, and to return kindly to the soft hat of his Southwestern tradition.