It is always good when you get accounts that give some sort of detail to the clothing provided to male servants in a gentry household, though if they are not always entered into the accounts in a logical order it can be difficult to disentangle them.
Below are the January 1613 accounts for clothing four men: Mr Barton, Abel Barbie, Robert Hargreaves and John Leigh (or Lee), and three “boies.” Elsewhere in the accounts are references to the cook’s boy, the kitchen boy, the crow boy, the boy Bill, and the boy Whitehead, so some of these may be the three boys of the accounts. These men and boys would have received their lodging, food, and clothes, plus wages. In July 1613 John Leigh received a quarters wages of 16s 8d for three months work, equating to £3 6s 8d for the year. There are also other references in the accounts to clothing these men. (1) Image 1 shows a servant in a tavern setting from the broadside ballad A Bill of Fare. British Library
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| Image 1: A Bill of Fare. British Library |
Outer Fabrics
The fabrics used for the outside of doublets, jerkins and breeches are ordinary: kersey, frieze, fustian and cotton, with linen, flaxen cloth and leather for linings.
Kersey – in the accounts as cursey. Kersey was used for the breeches for Mr. Barton, and for the suits for the boys. Kersies were a range of narrow, usually a yard or a yard and a nail wide, wool-based, twill woven cloth. They came in various types: ordinary, sorting, Devonshire (called dozens), and check kerseys. By 1618 three kersies were accounted the equivalent of one broadcloth. (2) (3)
Frieze – in the accounts as fryse or fries. Frieze were another range of narrow wool-based cloth, they were plain woven with a raised nap. It was a heavy cloth, with a 1581 comment being that you should have “a frise cote in winter.” In the accounts frieze was used for jerkins for Barton, Hargreaves and Leigh. (2) (3)
Fustian – in the accounts as fustion. Fustians were a range of mixed fabrics, often with a linen or worsted warp and a cotton weft. Much fustian was imported, but as a 1641 work states, “The towne of Manchester in Lancashire, … they buy Cotten wooll in London that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home worke the same, and perfit it into Fustians, Vermillions, Dymities, and other such Stuffes” (2) (3) Manchester is less than 30 miles from Gawthorpe Hall, so these may have been Manchester fustians. In the accounts fustian was used for doublets for Barton, Hargreaves and Leigh.
Cotton – in the accounts as cotton. In this context the fabric is not made of cotton, but is a plain, narrow woven wool-based cloth, with a nap raised by the process of cottoning. In the Book of Rates cottons are listed as “Cottons, Northern, Manchester, Taunton, and Welche Cottons. (2) (3) Both Mr. Barton and Abell get eight yards of cotton each, for Abell this appears to be for a doublet, jerkin and breeches.
There is a certain differentiation in the value of the fabric used, that for Mr. Barton is usually the more expensive. The kersey for Mr Barton is 3s 6d a yard, while that for the boys is 2s a yard. The fustian for Mr. Barton is 2s 4d a yard, while that for Hargreaves is 1s 6d a yard. The frieze for Barton is 3s a yard, while that for Hargreaves is 2s 1½d a yard. All the cotton is at 2s a yard.
Linings and notions
Mr Barton gets five yards of linen for linings, while Abel gets flaxen linings, bearing linings and stiffening. Bearing linings are probably what today would be called interlinings. Also purchased are pasteboard and russet fustian, which are probably also used in the construction of the doublet. An examination of three doublets of the same period in the Victoria and Albert Museum show several layers of mainly linen, and occasionally wool, interlinings. Linen canvas and buckram were also used, especially in the centre front belly area. Pasteboard could be used to stiffen the collar, as specified in the Newdigate accounts from 1618-20; “past bord for the coller”. (4)
Three sheep skins are purchased to provide lining to breeches and for pockets, this was common. The Howard accounts for 1624 have “2 skins, pockets, and for lyning the page's briches, 15d” (5), and another set of clothing for Leigh in 1611 has “a sheepe skine for pockettes 4d” Occasionally whole suits of leather might be provided as in 1636 when the overseers of the poor gave to William Bower, who was described as an idiot, a “dublet and breeches of calves lether with lineinge of hardin” (6)
Buttons. This is a period when buttons are placed very closely together, so the purchase of three dozen buttons for Mr. Barton and four dozen for Abel is not unusual. A plain serge doublet and breeches of the 1620s in the Victoria and Albert Museum has 41 of its buttons remaining on the doublet and would have had five buttons on the breeches, a detail of these can be seen in Image 2. For both Barton and Abel skeins of silk are listed with the buttons, probably for making the buttonholes. Another servant, Turner, in 1610 has specifically “silke to button holes in Turner's jerkin 4d,” while thread is listed with the cost of making.
Image 2: Buttons on a c.1625 doublet. Victoria and Albert Museum
Abel gets 4 yards of galune (galloon) lace, this is a type of braid which was often used to edge clothes, and frequently used in liveries. It was only 2d a yard, this is a typical price for lace for liveries, elsewhere in the accounts money is paid out for 22 yards of “gallowne lace” at 22d the dozen yards. Leigh also gets lace for his breeches, and this may have been similar as it was the same price.
Colour
There is little mention of cloth colours. Mr. Barton gets eight yards of black cotton. Hargreaves and Leigh get ash coloured cloth for their breeches and grey frieze for jerkins. Elsewhere in the accounts is a reference to dyeing a pair of hose and a doublet, but it doesn’t say what colour.
Making Costs
Some accounts list the cost of all the materials for the clothes, but do not give a cost for making. Others do specify, and unsurprisingly Mr Barton’s is the most expensive, with 7s 2d paid for making, thread and pockets. Abell’s doublet breeches and jerkin cost for thread and making 5s 6d. For three suits for the boys the thread and making cost 6s 6d, so just 2s 2d a suit. Later in the year Smalley, a tailor, is paid 1s for making the kitchen boy a doublet and breeches, with a further 6d for thread and leather pockets.
Pickadil
Mr Barton gets “a pickadell to his dublett.” Picadils are pasteboard supports which hold the separate band or collar up, there is a surviving example in the Victoria and Albert collection. (4) This is what would have been under the collar seen in the painting (Image 3) of Dr David Kinloch, to hold up the linen band.