Bearing cloths

Bearing cloth in the Norwich Museum collection

In my blog post on baby clothes I didn’t mention bearing cloths. Bearing cloths, sometimes referred to as mantles were the outermost cloth babies were wrapped in for such things as being presented and being baptised. 

Late fifteenth century ordinances for the “Christening of a Queen’s child” say, “Yf it be a prynce, an Erle to bear his trayne and if yt be a prynces, a Countesse to bear yt.” In fact, for royalty the mantle or bearing cloth was so long it took several people to carry it to the christening. A c.1565-75 drawing of a royal christening shows a lady carrying the baby, while behind her at least three people carry the train of the bearing cloth. (1)

Among the nobility and gentry the bearing cloth was not as large, but was still as sumptuous as they could make it. When Perdita, in A Winter’s Tale, is discovered abandoned as a baby, the comment is made, “Looke thee, a bearing-cloath for a Squires childe”.   In 1629 a squire’s wife, Elizabeth Coke of Bramfield had a crimson damask bearing cloth costing 25 shillings. (2) Going higher up the social scale, in 1623 the Howards of Naworth Castle had a bearing cloth made and the bill reads, “for 5 yeard of dameske to mak a bearing cloth £3 6s 6d, for taffetie to lyne it 32s, for lace 11 ounces to it 57s 6d.” (3) The lace being listed in ounces means that it was a metallic lace, probably silve or silver gilt. The total cost of the bearing cloth was £7 16s 0d. Bearing cloths from this level of society do sometimes appear in paintings, notably the Cholmondeley ladies, sisters painted with their babies (shown below), and the Saltonstall Family, both of which are in the Tate Britain collection. 

Detail of the Norwich bearing cloth lace

There are survivals of bearing cloths. The seventeenth century example in the Norwich Museums Collection is in the more traditional red, as Shakespeare says in Henry VI, part 1, “Thy scarlet robes, as a child’s bearing cloth.”  This bearing cloth has connections via the Buxton Family to the Pastons of Oxnead Hall. It is of crimson silk velvet lined with ivory silk and edged with gold and silver lace incorporating spangles. The Norfolk Lace Makers have produced a reproduction of this cloth for the Strangers’ hall museum in Norwich, and information on how they copied the lace is available on their website.

Another seventeenth century example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, this is in a pale blue / green silk satin, two lengths put together with the seam running along the centre length of 133 centimetres (52½ inches), the width is 104 centimetres (41 inches). This is the same construction as the Norwich example, and like the Norwich example it has a wide edging of metallic bobbin lace. 

Bearing cloths appear in various probate inventories at various levels of society. In 1619 Henry Randoll, a smith , has “a bearing cloth & childs coat 2s” in his inventory. (4) In 1631 Rose Palmer, the widow of a butcher, has “...one bearing say for a child” listed. (5) Bearing cloths are also left in wills. In 1637 Bridget Hammond, a widow, leaves “to my grandchild Lydia Stuward... my bearing cloth.” (6) Also in Suffolk, in 1649 Mary Chapman specifies, “My bearing cloth should be for the use of my sister and daughters, each to have it when they have occasion to use it, and she that last bear children to have it forever.” (7)  

The Cholmondeley Ladies. Tate. CC-BY-NC-ND

The term bearing cloth gradually disappears by the end of the seventeenth century, though the term mantle continues. It has been suggested that the reason is that total immersion baptism also disappears. If you don’t need a naked baby just wrapped in a bearing cloth, then you can dress the child in christening robes. In 1698 Mary Thresher had nine mantles in her childbed linen including, ones in white satin, dove-coloured satin, blue and white satin trimmed with silver and white sarsnet. (8) 

References

1    Cunnington, P. and Lucas, C., (1972) Costume for Births, Marriages and Deaths. London: Black. Quote from BM MS Add. 6113, f. 122v. and drawing from the College of Arms MS. 6 f. 78.

2     Buck, A. (1996) Clothes and the Child. Carlton: Bean. p.26

3     Ornsby, G. ed. (1878) Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle. Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 68, p.205

       Emmison, F. G. (1938) Jacobean household inventories. Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, vol 20, pp1-143. p.74    

 

5     Jones, J. ed. (2003) Stratford-Upon-Avon Inventories, 1538-1699 Volume II (1626-1699). Dugdale Society, vol 40, p40-41 

6     Evans, N., ed. (1993) Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1636-1638, Suffolk Records Society, vol. 35, p.103

        Tymms, S. ed. (1850) Wills and inventories from the registers of the Commissary of Bury St Edmunds and the Archdeacon of Sudbury. London: Camden Society, p.220  

                           

8       Buck, A. (1996) Clothes and the Child. Carlton: Bean. p.28

Baby clothes: common and elite, written sources and survivals

Written Sources

Detail from the Saltonshall Family, Tate Gallery

In Thomas Deloney’s 1597 work The Gentle Craft, a list is given of clothing needed to prepare for the birth of a child, it includes, “beds, shirts, biggins, wastecoats, head bands, swaddlebands, cross cloths, bibs, tailclouts, mantles, hose, shooes, coats, petticoats...” The table below lists the clothing of three mid to late seventeenth century babies, and shows that little had changed, although obviously the richer you were the more you had. These three babies reflect three levels of society; the poor, the working class and the well to do.

1691 poor – These are the items provided for Reeve’s girl by the overseers of the poor at Aylesford in Kent in 1691. (1)

1668 working class - On the 22^nd April 1668 Richard and Joyce Bamford of Great Paxton, Huntingdonshire discovered a baby abandoned under a bush. The baby was taken to a woman called Mary Corbet who undressed the child. Four days later a widow, Mary Chambers, of St Mary’s parish Bedford, admitted that the child was hers. Both Mary Corbet and Mary Chambers list the clothes the child was wearing, they are different. As Anne Buck states in her article, “the lists show the difficulty of interpreting garments from their names alone.” The two women, living only a few miles apart have different names for what are obviously the same items. (2)

1698 well to do - Mary Thresher in Billericay had her first child in 1698 and wrote down a list of “my small child bed linning”. She also produced a second listing, which may be for a different child, however as the first list does not include any clouts, I have included the clouts from the second list in the table below.(3)

1691 poor	1668 working class		1698 well to do
Overseer’s account for Reeve’s girl	Mother	Mary Corbet	Mary Thresher
	a holland shift	a shirt	6 fine shirts 2 pure fine holland half shift lacet att neck and hands
2 barrows
2 beds	a linen bed and blanket	a linen bed	2 holland beds in white 2 pure fine holland bed
2 clouts	a double clout	and one double cloth under it [the bed]	4 dozen and 4 diaper clouts 24 fine holland clouts 18 small flowered damask clouts 12 large figur’d damask clouts
one undercoat one uppercoat	a red sweather	a red wascoat	6 fine calico dimity wascoats
	a holland neckcloth	a neckcloth	6 fine neckcloths 2 fine neckcloths lacet
	a holland biggen	one biggen	6 pure fine bigons
	a linen hood	a white calico hood	6 head sutes of fine stript cambrick lacet
			6 pure fine night caps lacet 2 stitched caps
	double cross cloth	one double cloth pinned over the face	6 pure fine forehead cloth double lacet 6 double lacet forehead cloths to the [head] sutes
one blanket	two blew blankets	two blew lincey woollsey blankets, cast over with brown thread
	two red blanketts	two red blankets
		a bib
			2 pr of pure fine holland little linen pillow
			6 fine bellibands
			8 fine long stays
			4 pr of pure fine holland glove 2 pr of pure fine holland glove lace

Most of these types of linen and garments continue through the eighteenth century. The pre printed list of possible garments that was annotated when a child was taken in by the Foundling Hospital in London on their Billet of Description has: “cap, biggin, forehead cloth, head cloth, long stay, bib, frock, upper coat, petticoat, bodice coat, barrow, mantle, sleeves, blanket, neckcloth, roller, bed, waistcoat, shirt, clout, pilch, stockings, shoes.”

Survivals

The National Museum of Childhood is part of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and has an extensive collection of baby clothes. Below are links to the 17^th century items in the V&A collections. Other surviving baby clothes can be found in the Museum of London, the Museum of Fashion Bath, Nottinghamshire Museums and others. 

V&A Item O319493, link on left

V&A – 1600s - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O353952/baby-clothes/

V&A - 1625-1650 - http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O351539/baby-clothes-unknown/ NO IMAGES

V&A – 1650-1675 -http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80860/christening-mittens-unknown/ Mittens, cap, forehead cloth and bib

V&A – 1650-1699 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O362824/baby-clothes/ bib, cap, mitten only

V&A – 1650-1699 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O318686/baby-clothes/ mittens and two pieces of lace only

V&A – 1670-1699 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O319493/baby-clothes/

V&A – 1675-1699 - http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O357663/baby-clothes-unknown/

V&A - 1680-1699 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O357671/baby-clothes/

V&A 1680-1710 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O362391/baby-clothes/ cap & forehead cloth only

V&A - late 17^th century -  http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O315405/baby-clothes-unknown/

Terminology

Barrow – by the 19^th century this is being described as “A long sleeveless flannel garment for infants.”

Bed  - according to Buck this was, “a cloth extending from the breast to the feet, wrapped round the body and folded up over the feet.”(4)

Biggin – a close fitting cap

Clout - nappies for the English, diapers for the Americans, as Jane Sharp puts it, “Shift the child’s clouts often for the piss and dung.” (5) There is a good general article on nappies here http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal/issue-22/nappies-at-the-national-museum-of-childhood/

Sweather – swathes are swaddling bands, but here the word sweather appears to be being used for a waistcoat. Thomas Cooper’s 1565 Thesaurus gives, “the first apparayle of children, as, swathes,..and such lyke.”

References

1. Spufford, Margaret and Mee, Susan (2017) The clothing of the common sort 1570-1700. Oxford: OUP, p.60

1. Buck, Ann (1977) The baby under the bush. Costume, vol.11, pp98-99

2. Clabburn, Pamela (1979) “My small child bed linning.” Costume, vol. 13. pp38-40

4. Buck, Anne (1996) Clothes and the child. Bedford: Ruth Bean

5. Sharp, Jane (1671) The midwives book, or the whole art of midwifery.