Beards and Facial Hair

Given the mountain of evidence and research regarding facial hair in the eighteenth century, and the years of debate over whether and how prevalent beards were during the period, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the debate has been settled.

Beards aren't a thing.

Perhaps more appropriately, I should say that beards aren't a thing sailors chose to wear, except in the most dire circumstances. In the hundreds of images I've examined, only four clearly show beards.

Without._from the London Gazette of 11 June, 1757, T. Ewart,
Yale University Lewis Walpole Library.

A new way to pay the National-Debt, James Gillray, 1786, British Museum.

Plate from Histoire des Naufrages, engraved by Marillier, 1788,
John Carter Brown Library of Early American Images.

Frost on the Thames, Samuel Collings, 1788-1789, Yale Center for British Art.

In all of these situations, sailors are depicted ashore and worse for wear. The beards represent their rock-bottom situation. The first two shown here are political cartoons in which the artist is specifically calling out the ministry for neglecting the sailors that protect their nation, and so condemning them to poverty.

This appears to be the case in what few references there are in sailors' memoirs, too. Ebenezer Fox, writing many decades after his experiences, claimed that prisoners on the hulk Jersey had 'their beards never cut, excepting occasionally with a pair of shears, which did not improve their comeliness, though it might add to their comfort.'[1] Despite their condition, they still sought to cut away what facial hair they could.

I've found only one case in which a sailor chose to wear a beard in this period. When John Nicol learned that a press gang awaited him back at port, 'I had allowed my beard to grow long and myself to be very dirty to be as unlikely as possible when the man-of-war boats came on board to press the crew.'[2] He believed, perhaps rightly, that the Royal Navy had no interest in taking a dirty, bearded soul that might infect their ship. While it is likely that Nicol did more than grow a beard to appear disheveled and undesirable, it was the only specific action he relates in this goal. Nicol thought that the beard was essential to looking 'very dirty.'

Beards continue to be depicted in movies, television, and video games about the eighteenth century, and continue to be worn by historical reenactors portraying average sailors. Some of this is obstinacy, with more than a few online forums being inundated with bearded fellows who refuse to give up against historical evidence. Some of it is genuine misunderstanding of historical evidence. The word 'beard' could sometimes be misleadingly used as referring to what we might recognize as scruff or a five o'clock shadow. In Hannah Snell's memoirs, she is said to have been ridiculed by her fellow tars (who were unaware she was a woman posing as a man) 'for want of having a rough beard as they had.'[3]

Some sailors undoubtedly did wear sideburns, as depicted by Copley in his masterpiece Watson and the Shark.

Watson and the Shark, John Singleton Copley, 1778, National Gallery of Art

The average Jack Tar went clean shaven. He might be forced to grow out a beard when wrecked on a distant shore, or destitute on the street, but by far the overwhelming majority of sailors took a razor to their facial hair.


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[1] Fox, Ebenezer, The Adventures of Ebenezer Fox in the Revolutionary War, Boston: Charles Fox, 1847, page 108.
[2] Nicol, John, The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner, edited by Tim Flannery, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997, page 162.
[3] Snell, Hannah, The Female Soldier; Or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of  Hannah Snell, London: R. Walker, 1750, in The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell, Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot, Tucson, Arizona: Fireship Press, 2008, page 26.

Plate from Histoire des naufrages, 1788

Plate from Histoire des Naufrages, engraved by Marillier, 1788, John Carter Brown Library of Early American Images.

The curators of the John Carter Brown Library of Early American Images state that this image depicts a small group of survivors from a pair of English vessels bound from Quebec to New York City during the American Revolutionary War whose schooner was lost with all hands and ship run aground. In a desperate bid for salvation, these six men took a damaged boat ashore and were met by two Native Americans, who are shown here providing them with warmth and food.

The weak seamen gathered about the fire wear breeches and loose petticoat trousers. Their jackets have buttoned scalloped mariner's cuffs, and at least one of them is double vented at the back. Atop their heads they wear tattered round hats with tall cylindrical crowns and one fellow had a loose cap. They sport some facial hair, probably a sign of their desperation and lack of comforts, as it is incredibly rare for sailors to be portrayed with beards.

And officer and a sailor, also bearing beards and long hair, stand over the others. The sailor wears a round hat with upturned brim, single breasted jacket, and trousers.

Frost on the Thames, 1788-1789

Frost on the Thames, Samuel Collings, 1788-1789, Yale Center for British Art.

Thanks once more to Adam Hodges-LeClaire for pointing out this piece to me.

From the seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries, when winters were colder than they are today, the Thames would occassionally freeze. On these occasions, Frost Fairs would be held. People of all classes would clamber across the ice and engage in various revelries.

Collings is depicting one of the last Frost Fairs, which occurred in 1788. In the background, a forest of masts clouds the Tower of London, frozen in port. Scattered among the common and classy folks of London (and even a Dutchman) are a number of sailors who have no work to do while they wait for a thaw.

Sitting atop a wicker basket, a sailor in a blue jacket, black neckcloth, and white trousers, smokes a clay pipe. He also wears a bob wig and cocked hat. Behind him is a sailor with his hands at his waist or possibly in trouser pockets. He wears a round hat with tall cylindrical crown, red jacket, black neckcloth, and white trousers.

This sailor keeps his hands warm in his trouser pockets. He wears a reversed cocked hat, black neckcloth, blue waistcoat, and red jacket.

Leading a mule, this beggardly peddler is perhaps a veteran of the sea. He wears petticoat trousers over his wooden leg, a stick is tucked under his arm, and his brown jacket is patched at the shoulder and elbow. Atop his head is a bushy fur cap, and gray whiskers cloud his chin.

A New Way to Pay the National-Debt, 1786

A new way to pay the National-Debt, James Gillray, 1786, British Museum.

King George III, accompanied by Queen Charlotte, smiles broadly as money pours from his breeches. He is heralded by musicians who are likewise festooned with gold guineas, and a gentleman who offers a fat sack of cash. This is juxtaposed against a quadriplegic sailor who sits with his empty round hat between wooden legs.

Unlike virtually every other sailor featured on this blog, this poor tarpaulin wears a beard. Beards were generally frowned upon in the eighteenth century, with the English in particular being opposed to any facial hair. The fact that this destitute man sports a full white beard is a testament to his helplessness.

The sailors wears a yellow and red plaid neckcloth over his double breasted blue jacket, which ends at his waist and sits over the plain pair of slops/petticoat trousers that cover his thighs. Blue breeches run down to his wooden legs.

Without, 1757

Without._from the London Gazette of 11 June, 1757, T. Ewart, Lewis Walpole Library.

Ewart provides us a political piece decrying the state of the Empire in the midst of the Seven Years/French and Indian War. The title "Without" accompanies each figure in the piece, detailing what it is they are lacking. Some of the figures are without virtues: the nobles who lack honor, and the senators who lack honesty. Others are lacking more essential things: the colonies who lack protection, and the seamen lack "encouragement."

Certainly this Jack looks destitute. He wears a striped cap over his short and curling hair. His plain neckcloth hangs loose around his neck, framing the highly unusual beard. Beards were remarkably uncommon in the eighteenth century. This is the only image of a sailor to have featured it thus far in the hundreds I have examined. The beard probably exists to underline his utter lack of support: he is so poor and helpless that the poor fellow cannot even shave!

His jacket is typical for the period, hanging down to about the top of the thigh, with a single row of buttons, no collar, pockets, or cuffs that we can see. Our tar's single breasted waistcoat is tucked into his slops, which are themselves fashioned with a single button closure. Just beneath the slops are the strings of his breeches. His shoes are disintegrating from his feet, and we can clearly see his toes protruding from them. In his left hand is a tall walking stick, and in his right is a round hat held out for alms.