Men’s caps in English records of the seventeenth century

 

The “problem” relating to these caps stems from the difficulties of interpreting the written evidence, and the lack of the type of images in England that are so common in Dutch genre paintings. First what is meant by a cap; as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it “a covering for the head. (Precise sense not definable).” When talking of menswear it comments that they are “usually of some soft material,” and that they often come “With some qualifying word, indicative of shape, origin, or character.”

The poem by John Cleveland (1613-1658) has several types of caps acting as suitors to a Cambridge lass. “And first, for the Plush-sake, the Monmouth-Cap comes,” “Then Leather-Cap strongly pleads, And fain would derive his Pedigree of fashion.” Next is “the Puritan in a wrought-Cap,” followed by “Sattin-Cap,” and “The Lawyer's a Sophister by his Round-Cap.” But the lass replies to all, “if ever I have a Man, Square-Cap for me.” (1)

Figure 1: These men are preachers. Broadsheet, 1647. 

 

Statute Caps

Reenactors have a habit of talking of “statute” caps, and using this term to indicate the sort of sixteenth century flat cap, that was so common in Holbein paintings. There is in fact no such thing as a statute style cap. The 1571 Act for the making of caps was instituted by Elizabeth I to protect the English capping industry because, “of late dayes moste and in maner all men have forborne and left the using and wearing of Cappes.” (2) They had gone out of fashion, so the act states only that a cap was to be worn on a Sunday by all above the age of six: however the exceptions are telling, it does not apply to women, the nobility, the gentry, anyone with twenty marks a year of land (one mark is 13s 4d), anyone who has held an Office of Worship and anyone who has been a Warden of a Company.  The only reference to the type of style of cap is that it should be of wool, knit, thickened, and dressed in England. Harte argued that the introduction of such an act had the effect of making such an item even more unfashionable among those who had enough money to choose fashion items to wear. (3 pp. 153-4) The Act was repealed in 1597, so it does not apply in the seventeenth century,

 

Caps in written records

The problem here is that they knew what they were describing, we do not. When listing items in probates they would often separate out linens from woollen apparel. In 1619 William Morgan listed his household linens (sheets, napkins, towels, etc.) and with them his wearing linens; shirts, bands and three caps, his woollen apparel is separate, so it may be assumed that these are linen caps. (4 p. 123) It is less obvious what type of cap is being referred to in yeoman Francis Fuller’s 1634 will when he leaves, “My brother Robert all my unbequeathed wearing apparel with the stockings he wears, all my boots and shoes, my bible, a holland shirt, two of my best caps and one of my best waistcoats.” (5 p. 267) Are these caps linen, or wool? Caps can be made of other materials, and need not be knitted, as when a mariner, George Weston, in 1637 has “one Red velvet Cappe Lacd with gould lace” (6 p. 103) In 1622 the merchant John Harper leaves several items including his  “twilted silk cap, [and] best wrought cap.” (7 p. 227) A wrought cap is one that has been embroidered, twilted is quilted. When a reference is made to just a cap should it be assumed from the context that it is a knitted cap? An example is in 1611 when William Briggs leaves “to Ralph Walker my work day britches a doublett and a cap.” (8 p. 50)

 

Figure 2: Linen cap or cap liner. London Museum

Flat caps

Some written records do specify types of cap. A flat cap would probably be the nearest style to what reenactors call a statute cap. By the beginning of the seventeenth century they were already regarded as just for the working man. As Heywood has a London apprentice reply in his 1600 play, “Flatcappes thou calst us, wee scorne not the name.” (9 p. 18) In the 1605 play The Dutch Courtesan, Mary Faugh, an old woman, says to the courtesan “who helped thee to thy custom,—not swaggering Ireland captains, nor of two-shilling inns-o’-court men,—but with honest flat-caps, wealthy flat-caps, that pay for their pleasure the best of any men in Europe.” (10 pp. I,ii)

 

Mid-seventeenth century caps

One of the best mid century English images is “These tradesmen are preachers in the City of London” published in 1647. [Figure 1] These twelve working men are depicted at their occupations, most are indoors. The tailor, soap boiler and glover wear what might be taken as a “nightcap” style. The box-maker is wearing something with a band or brim, onto which the fabric of the crown is gathered. The meal man and chicken man could be wearing felt hats, or they could be wearing a knitted fulled cap, perhaps like this survival in the Rijksmuseum. [Figure 3] It is from the grave of a Dutchman who died and was buried near Spitzbergen. What the porter is wearing is more obviously a felt hat.

 

Figure 3: Whaler's knitted cap from Spitsberge. Rijksmuseum

Linen and fabric “nightcap” style caps

These were mainly for indoor wear, and were sometimes depicted being worn under hats. There was a blogpost on nightcaps in 2020 with links to embroidered and decorated survivals that were for the nobility and gentry. Plain caps in this style were purchased for servants, in 1647 James Master purchased “4 holland caps for my boy 1s 6d.” (11 p. 170) Note that in the woodcut from the ballad A Health to All Good-Fellows, men at the table wear hats, but the servant wears a cap.[Figure 4] The caps worn by the soap boiler and glover are plain, though the tailor’s appears to have a lace trim,  like the upmarket survival in the London Museum [Figure 2], there is a similar plain, lace trimmed survival in the Manchester collection. As well as being made of linen more upmarket versions could also be made of silk, the rector Giles Moore in Sussex bought many satin caps, paying usually three shillings for them. (12 pp. 13, 130)

 

Figure 4: Broadside- A Health to All Good Fellows  

Round caps

What about round caps? They are sometimes seen as specifically applying to undergraduates, “Many a Damsel, who has marry'd a Round-Cap, has dearly repented of her Bargain... An Undergraduate should no more venture upon Wedlock, than an Apprentice.” (13) However plain round knitted caps exist, two were found with the Gunnister burial on Shetland, and are now in the National Museums of Scotland (14) One is without a turn up brim, the other [Figure 5] has a turn up. Many similar caps were found among the excavated graves of Dutch sailors. It is noteworthy that in 1607 those who wore the livery of the Company of Butchers of the City of London had to wear as livery “a round cap of wooll and not a hatt.” (15 p. 115)

 

Figure 5: Gunnister round cap. National Museums of Scotland

Square caps

Square caps can relate to those worn by clergy, in a distinction that goes back to the separation of the Church of England from the Catholic Church. John Hooper in 1551 was finally worn in as Bishop of Gloucester wearing “a geometrical, that is, a four-cornered cap.” (16 pp. 93-110) This style can be seen in the 1633 portrait of Archbishop Laud by Van Dyck in the National Portrait Gallery.

 

Caps named for places

There are lots of arguments about what constitutes a Monmouth cap, and there are lots of other places where there are references to caps named for a town or city, where it is unknown what exactly the style is, or if it just refers to were the cap was made. The 1571 Act lists twenty six towns making caps and then adds “and dyvers others.” (2) In 1633 the Howard of Naworth Castle accounts have “for one Richmond capp for my Lord 3s 7d.” (17 p. 292) In 1642 the chapman William Mackerell had in stock “a Wakefield capp 6d.” (18 pp. 186-90) In 1660 Samuel Pepys “found Mr. Shepley, in his Venetian cap.” (19 p. 30th Dec)

 

Leather and fur

Leather and fur caps were around. In 1656 James Master paid “for a black Spanish leather cap lined 2s.” and in 1658 “for a leather cap lined 2s.” (20 pp. 252, 323) The 1641 accounts for the Marquis of Hertford also have payments for leather caps. (21 p. 24) In 1660/1 Samuel Pepys “sent a porter to my house for my best fur cap.” (19 p. 28th Jan) What these caps looked like is uncertain. Hollar’s engraving of the Royal Exchange has a couple of foreign merchants in the bottom left had corner, wearing what might be fur caps, they are the only caps in the image, as seen in the detail from the engraving at Figure 6. There is a painting from 1654 Young man in a Fur Cap by Carel Fabritius, which gives another indication of what they might look like.

 

Figure 6: Detail from Wenceslaus Hollar. The Royal Exchange

Knit caps and charity schools

By the end of the seventeenth century knit caps appear to be mainly for working men, servants, and boys in charity schools. When the Grey Coat School was founded at Westminster in 1699 the governors ordered knitted caps for the boys, and John Driden in his 1707 will setting up his charity school specified that the boys would each have a knit cap. (22 pp. 95, 145)

 

How common were caps

As Spufford and Mee said, “The fluidity of terminology that applies to clothing and changes in fashion presented some problems.” (23 p. 29) Looking at wills and probates from men who are not wealthy enough to have their estates probated at York or Canterbury, and comparing references to hats to references to those caps that are not linen or other fabric, and not for children or babies, then there is roughly one (possibly knit) cap mention for every one hundred hats. This is not a very reliable statistic. The people who had wills and probates are disproportionately yeomen and artisans. Gregory King in 1688 considered that there were twice as many hats being produced as “Caps or all sorts,” but it is unknown what he was including in his caps of all sorts. (24)

 

References

1. Cleveland, Jon. The works of Mr. John Cleveland. London : Printed by R. Holt for Obadiah Blagrave, 1687.

2. Acts, statutes, etc. . 13 Elizabeth c.19. An Acte for the makinge of cappes. 1571.

3. Harte, N. State control of dress and social change. [book auth.] D. C. Coleman and A. H. Johns. Trade, Government and Economy in Pre-Industrial England. London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976.

4. Emmison, F. G. Jacobean household inventories. Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society. 1938, Vol. 20.

5. Evans, Nesta, ed. Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury 1630-1635. Suffolk Records Society. 1987, Vol. 29.

6. George, E. and S. eds. Bristol probate inventories, Part 1: 1542-1650. Bristol Records Society publication. 2002, Vol. 54.

7. Allen, M. E. ed. Wills in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk 1620-1624. Woodbridge : Suffolk Records Society, 1988.

8. Wood, H. W. ed. Wills and inventories from the registry at Durham, part 4, [1603-1649]. Publications of the Surtees Society. 1929, Vol. 142.

9. Heywood, Tomas. King Edward IV, Part 1. London : Shakespeare Society, 1600 (1842).

10. Marston, John. The Works of John Marston, vol.2. London : Nimmo, 1887.

11. Robertson, S. The expense Book of James Master 1646-1676 [Part 1, 1646-1655], transcribed by Mrs Dallison. Archaeologia Cantiana. 1883, Vol. 15, 152-216, pp. 152-216.

12. Bird, Ruth, ed. The Journal of Giles Moore of Horsted Keynes, 1655-1679. Lewes : Sussex Record Society, 1971.

13. The Free-thinker. 153, London : s.n., 1719.

14. Henshall, A. and Maxwell, S. Clothing and other articles from a late 17th century grave at Gunnister, Shetland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 1952, Vol. 86.

15. Cunnington, Phillis and Lucas, Catherine. Occupational cosume in England. London : Black, 1968.

16. Doda, Hilary. Rounde Heades in Square Cappes: The Role of the Vestments in the Vestiarian Controversy. Dress. 2013, Vol. 39, 2.

17. Ornsby, G. ed. Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle. Publications of the Surtees Society. 1878, Vol. 68.

18. Spufford, Margaret. The great reclothing of rural England: petty chapman and their wares in the seventeenth century. London : Hambledon Press, 1984.

19. Pepys, Samuel. Diary. [Online] https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary.

20. Robertson, S. The expense Book of James Master 1646-1676 [Part 2, 1655-1657], transcribed by Mrs Dallison. Archaeologia Cantiana. 1886, pp. 241-259.

21. Morgan, F. C. Private Purse Accounts of the Marquis of Hertford, Michaelmas 1641-2. Antiquaries Journal. 1945, Vols. 25, 12-42, pp. 12-42.

22. Cunnington, Phillis and Lucas, Catherine. Charity Costumes of Children, Scholars, Almsfolk, Pensioners. London : Black, 1978.

23. Spufford, Margaret and Mee, Susan. The Clothing of the Common Sort 1570-1700. Oxford : OUP, 2017.

24. Spufford, Margaret. The Cost of Apparel in Seventeenth-Century England, and the Accuracy of Gregory King. Economic History Review. 2000, Vol. 53, 4.