Bostonians in Distress, 1774

The Bostonians in Distress, attributed to Philip Dawe, Robert Sayer and J. Bennett, 1774, Library of Congress.

The Bostonians in Distress, attributed to Philip Dawe, published by Sayer and Bennett, 1774, New York Historical Society.

Quick note: the New York Historical Society version was attributed to a dead link, and may be misattributed. Please let me know if you have any information on this colorized piece.

In this political cartoon Dawe addresses the closing of Boston harbor and the effort by Boston's fellow American colonists to supply the town with the food and goods needed to survive. The other colonists are represented by three sailors standing in a jolly boat, shoveling piles of fish to the caged Bostonians.

Dawe's piece is a companion to his more famous Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring and Feathering. Here he has converted the mob into a caged and starving rabble that fight each other to eat the raw fish provided for them. Significantly, the noose in the first print has been converted into a chain by which the cage now hangs from the Liberty Tree.

The sailor on the far left wears a round hat with a band around the crown (which gets colored out) and without trim, turned up a bit on the front and back. His red jacket is single breasted, and he wears a white shirt without waistcoat. The blue striped trousers end above the ankle, showing his white stockings and rectangular buckles.

In the middle stands a sailor in a wider brimmed round hat with a shorter crown. His neckcloth is a solid color, and again he wears no waistcoat. Notably, this tar's white neckcloth is tucked into his shirt, which is darker than the white shirt most sailors are portrayed wearing. His jacket is a bit odd: there are no buttons at all, and the fabric is vertically striped. Beneath his petticoat trousers you can see the legs of his breeches.

This mariner has got petticoat trousers as well, and you can see the legs of his white breeches fairly well. His stockings are white, and he has rectangular buckles on his shoes. The blue jacket is a bit shorter and without any vents. The cocked hat atop his bob wig is worn point forward

Industry and Idleness Rewarded, c.1775

Industry and Idleness Rewarded, artist unknown, c.1775, Colonial Williamsburg.

This decorative handkerchief is a morality tale of two servants, William Goodchild and Jack Idle. These Goofus and Gallant characters follow very different paths. Goodchild becomes a high ranking political figure, while Idle is put to death.

A trope of sailors in fiction is their inherent immorality. This predates the eighteenth century, as in the novel Robinson Crusoe, wherein the title character often laments his sinful life, but says little about what he did wrong besides ignoring his father's advice and becoming a sailor.

Such is the case here. Jack Idle goes to sea in a scene reminiscent of William Hogarth's "The Idle Prentice Turn'd Away and Sent to Sea."

Jacke Idle is shown being rowed to sea, and is directed to observe the gallows over the sea, bearing a corpse as a warning to sailors. Beneath this frame is a Biblical verse surrounded in a wreath: "The wise shall inherit Substance, but shame shall be ye promotion of fools." This is an interesting translation of Proverbs 3:35, which is usually translated (and was at the time in the King James' Version of the Bible) as "The wise shall inherit glory" or "honor." This translation, and indeed the print as a whole, links wealth and political success to virtue. Bad fortune and destitution, meanwhile, are linked to vice.

Sailors then, as low class laborers, are inherently vicious.

Jack Idle, furthest aft, wears his own curly hair cut fairly short over a dark neckcloth and single breasted jacket. The sailor standing amidships wears a cocked hat bound in white taps, a bob wig or bob wig style of hair, a light neckcloth and short jacket with slit cuffs. His shirt may be striped and he is without waistcoat. Around his waist are a pair of petticoat trousers. The oarsman wears  a plain cocked hat, short hair, a dark neckcloth, and a single breasted striped jacket.

At the base of the handkerchief is a pair of illustrations showing the further rewards awaiting idleness and virtue. Ont he left is "Trade & Commerce," showing William Goodchild shaking hands with a Spaniard, while a Dutchman smokes his pipe. A bound crate bearing his initials is ashore, and more goods are being carried there.

Jack Idle, had he not been hanged, would certainly have been transported as a convict servant to Virginia or Maryland. His fate was to be equated with the enslaved shown hoeing tobacco plants.

The Wapping Landlady, 1743 & 1767

The Humours of a Wapping Landlady, publisher unknown, 1743, British Museum.

The Wapping Landlady, engraved from the Original Painting in Vaux Hall Gardens, published by Carrington Bowles, 1743, British Museum.

The Wapping Landlady, engraved by L. Truchy, 1767, New York Public Library.

All of these prints are derived from the same inspiration: Francis Hayman's painting. The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses a detail of the original, but it does not include the dancing sailor, bar, or other participants at this jolly gathering. The original painting hung in Vauxhall Gardens, and is described in the 1782 tourists' guide The Ambulator as "The Wapping landlady, and the tars who are just come ashore."

Wapping is a well known maritime community in east London along the River Thames in which sailors came and went throughout the eighteenth century. Some ne'er-do-well mariners met their end at Wapping's famous Execution Dock.

Having "just come ashore," a mess of sailors enjoy themselves in the landlady's common room. According to the caption text on "The Humours of a Wapping Landlady" the fellow reclining across a bench beside a well dressed woman is Jack Bowline, who courts the landlady's daughter. At center is the dancing Tom Gunter, who has asked the fiddler to "strike up a hornpipe." Standing in a well chosen spot between the fiddler and the bar is the cabin boy Oakum. It is at the bar behind him we find the old landlady, who plies the tarpawlins with liquor so that she can take their hard earned pay.

Tom Gunter wears a simple black cocked hat reversed. His hair is short, hanging well above the shoulders. Tom's unlined single breasted jacket stretches to the top of his thighs. Though we get no good view of his buttons, the jacket is without pockets or collar. It does not appear that the cuffs have any buttons.

Tom's waistcoat has vertical narrow stripes and a single row of buttons. The cutaway of Tom's waistcoat is open just enough to let us see the two button fly at his waistband. His trousers end above the ankle, revealing light colored stockings. His shoes have a rounded toe. Tom has tucked his hooked walking stick under his left arm.

The Bowles version is somewhat more detailed. Tom's hat is looking rather worse for wear, and his neckstock is a bit more easily seen, tucked into his waistcoat though it may be. Otherwise, the details of his slop clothes are essentially the same: single breasted jacket without cuffs, trousers with a two button fly at the waistband, and a hooked walking stick (albeit under the right arm this time).

The New York Public Library's copy of The Wapping Landlady looks to have been lifted directly from the Bowles' print. The only major differences are Tom's hat (which has somewhat smoother lines) and walking stick (along which the knobs are more bulbous.

 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

In the original painting, the sailor is depicted with red breeches, white stockings, and black round toed shoes with decorative yellow metal buckles. He wears a single breasted white waistcoat with cloth covered buttons, but no neck cloth. His brown jacket is likewise single breasted with cloth covered buttons, and a mariner's cuff with all but one button fastened. His hair is just about should length beneath a cocked hat with remarkably short brim.

On the table beside him rests a large tankard, punch bowl, and pipe.

Interestingly, the prints that followed Hayman's original shows the clothing of the landlady's daughter continually updated by the engraver to keep pace with modern fashion.

British Museum, Version One

British Museum, Bowles Version

NYPL

With the exception of Jack Bowline's hat, his outfit remains relatively unchanged over two and a half decades. A black cocked hat with the point forward, a single breasted jacket ending about the top of the thigh with open mariner's cuffs, breeches bound below the knee by a buckle. The original painting puts Jack Bowline in red breeches, white stockings, a black cocked hat with remarkably short brim, white waistcoat without neckcloth of any sort, and a brown jacket.

British Museum, unknown publisher

British Museum, Carrington Bowles

New York Public Library

Oakum the cabin boy is the most consistently depicted figure in each of the prints. He wears a work cap with horizontal stripes, a loose fitting single breasted striped jacket, and long trousers. Oakum's hair is even shorter than this mates, clinging close to his head.

Hats, 1773

"Hats." Matthew Darly, 1773, Colonial Williamsburg.

While visiting Colonial Williamsburg, I stopped by the tailor and millinery. Above the doorway rested a copy of this print. Though a few other institutions have copies of this print, Colonial Williamsburg appears to be the only one that has it digitized in color. The trade off is the low resolution.

In situ at Colonial Williamsburg

Darly has created a caricature of the styles of hats in Britain at the time. In the words of the tailor at Williamsburg, some of the hats are only slightly exaggerated. Among these barely caricatured hats is that worn by a sailor in the upper right.

The low resolution image available on Williamsburg's website does not give us the detail we would want, but thankfully the Metropolitan Museum of Art does:

By combining the higher resolution image with the colored image we can come to a few good conclusions. As the centerpiece, the hat is worn backward and tacked down. This style fits perfectly with the 1762 style described in the London Chronicle that I addressed earlier this year in my post On Hats. It appears to be a black felt cocked hat.

Aside from the hat, our sailor wears a striped jacket (blue stripes on white in the colored image) with large buttonholes and his neckcloth is of an orange-red hue with dots.

A New Method of Macarony Making, As Practiced at Boston in North America, 1775

A New Method of Macarony Making, As Practiced at Boston in North America, Carington Bowles, 1775, University of Wisconsin Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture.

From the beginning of this project, I have been searching for a high resolution copy of this print, and finally I have stumbled across it! The University of Wisconsin's Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture has faithfully reproduced this rare image.

Even to an eye only somewhat familiar with political cartoons of the American Revolutionary era, the central figure (covered in feathers, bent on one knee and begging to be released from the noose fitted about his neck) is an obvious copy.

Library of Congress

Even the title has been lifted from a popular piece that was published only a year before. Unlike many lazy attempts to cash in on popular prints by reproducing the exact same print (only worse), Bowles used only the central figure of the original and expanded the rest of the scene dramatically.

Bowles also added a short ditty to explain the scene:

For the Custom House Officers landing the Tea ; / They Tarr'd him and Feather'd him just as you see, / And they drench'd him so well both behind and before / That he begg'd for God's sake they would drench him no more.

Sure enough, we find the begging Tory at the feet of American tars.

Perhaps taking his cue from John Adams famous description of the Boston mobs as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negros and mullatos, Irish teagues and outlandish Jack tars," Bowles illustrates a black and a white sailor. The seaman on the right wears a knit cap (possibly a thrummed cap) decorated with a large cockade.  His dotted neckcloth hangs over a striped waistcoat, beneath a fairly typical single breasted short jacket. His mate, ready to haul the Tory aloft by his neck, also wears a dotted neckcloth, but has much fancier headwear: a cocked hat with large cockade and lace tape. Perhaps further indicating his position as a leader among the violent mariners, his jacket is also lined with tape around his cuffs, waist pockets, and lapels. A plain waistcoat is fitted beneath, and a simple pair of trousers complete his slop clothes.

To the far left in the foreground is a short sailor, perhaps a lad. He wears a round cap, probably a knit cap judging by the stripes. His jacket is very short, barely extending past the waist, with mariner's scalloped cuffs buttoned closed. Otherwise he wears striped slops, a solid color neckcloth, and striped slops. 

Amid the crowd, right at the foot of the gallows, is a sailor heaving a stone at the helpless and prostrate man. His is a short brimmed round hat. Over his triple vented jacket is tied a dark neckcloth bordered in a lighter color, and beneath it is a pair of close fit striped trousers. Along with many of the other jacks, he carries a stick or cudgel.

Smiling as he watches the scene beside another Bostonian (probably not a sailor judging by his hair length, frock coat, and stockings), yet another tarpawlin wields a cudgel. Another thrummed cap with cockade, just like that worn by the black sailor, is visible here. His jacket is also lined with tape, but is double breasted. A white neckcloth, striped waistcoat, and plain trousers finish him off.

At the far right of the crowd another sailor gestures toward the Boston Tea Party. The infamous December 1774 event did not occur alongside a tar and feathering, but this sailor may be a visual key by the artist to indicate how the chronologically separate events are linked through the same violent rabble. 

Regardless, this sailor wears a cocked hat with the point forward and a large cockade, a solid colored neckcloth, short jacket with no waist pockets and trimmed around the cuffs and armscye, single breasted waistcoat with stripes that only appear straight down the front along the buttons stand, and a pair of striped trousers.

The Tea Party participants have foregone their Indian garb in favor of sailor's clothing. Trousers that areplain, horizontally striped, and vertically striped, accompany short jackets with slash cuffs and, in one case, even a striped jacket. Striped jackets are mentioned here and there in textual accounts of sailors, but rarely turn up in art depicting them. What's great about this piece is that this sailor is not the only one with a striped jacket.

To the left of the scaffold stands a young man waving his cudgel, but his eyes are fixed on a man symbolically pissing into a teapot:

Hatless, he too wears a striped jacket, accompanied by plain slops.