USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 29
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the opening of the Revolutionary epoch "My Lady of the Manor" lux- uriated in costumes that rivaled the modes of the fashionable promen- ades in Europe. She might be a year late in adopting them, but she was not responsible for their delay in reaching her, and there are cer- tain contemporary records which leave no doubt in the mind that she and her daughters-were not backward even in adopting and continuing the ultra décolleté gowns which the Stuart Restoration made indispen- sable to an English fashionable woman. They embraced themselves in the cruel stays that compressed their figures into the wasp-like waist, then the object of foolish admiration, and tilted themselves forward on the pinching and high-heeled shoes, which had passed from Louis Quatorze to Charles II, and thence to the colonies. The stalwart and heroic impulses which united the colonies in their revolt against the British monarchy penetrated all classes of society, and as the crisis ap- proached, dress became simpler and the great ladies cooperated with their husbands in representing in their own persons the economy and plainness which typified the approaching era of war and republicanism.
Knitting was an art much cultivated, the Dutch women excelling in the variety and intricacy of the stitches, according to the description of Mrs. Van Cortlandt : "A knitting sheath, which might be of silver or of homely goose-quill, was an indispensable utensil to the dame, and be- side it hung a ball pin-cushion. Crewel work and silk embroidery were fashionable, and surprisingly pretty effects were produced. Every little maiden had her sampler, which she began with the alphabet and num- erals, following them with a Scriptural text or verse of a metrical psalm. Then the fancy was let loose on birds, beasts and trees. Most of the old families possessed framed pieces of embroidery, the handiwork of female ancestors, some of which can stand comparison with the Ken- sington productions of this day. Flounces and trimmings for aprons, worked with delicately tinted silks on muslins, were common. The hand painting of strips of trimming for dresses is not a modern art. I have several yards of fine muslin painted in the early days with full- blown thistles in the appropriate colors. Fringe looms were in use and cotton and silk fringe was woven. The former was used for the fine dimity wrappers worn in the morning. These garments were trimmed with cotton inserting and a cotton cord and tassels confined them at the waist. Chintz, usually of East India manufacture, with vivid colors on a white ground, was in vogue, and made up into a sack and petticoat. Large and showy patterns of flowers and buds prevailed."
In the case of what may be called full or formal dress, brocades and moire antiques were worn. "The robe of a bride in 1748 was of moire antique with a long train, the sleeves coming to the elbow. The bosom and sleeves were trimmed with lace, headed by a narrow pinked ruffle
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of the silk. The exquisitely quilted petticoat came from Holland, as did the clocked silk stockings, a present to the bride. Canton crepe, levantine, lutestring silk and other silks were worn by the ladies. Leno, a muslin with a very open mesh, was used for trimming. Dainty half handkerchiefs, with narrow embroidered borders of gold or silver thread, were worn as fichus. Powder was in general use and the hair was dressed on high rolls in front and tied behind in a sort of bag-shaped queue. Aprons, much trimmed and embroidered, were a part of the full dress, and hoops were also in vogue. Slippers of silk and kid had immensely high heels, sloping to the instep, and it is a marvel how the wearers balanced themselves. Fortunately the dance they favored was the slow and stately Minuet. Necklaces were mostly made of heavy gold beads, plain or carved. Fans were very large and handsome. Here and there in old families still are seen very beautiful chatelaines, from which hung the watch and seals. When calves were killed for family use, the skins were tanned and kept until the peripatetic shoemaker, who traveled through the country, made his annual visit, when he halted long enough to make shoes for the elders, the children and the servants. The tailoress too made yearly or semi-yearly visits and undertook to turn the homespun cloth into garments. The coming of the mantua- maker, with her European patterns, created a lively stir among the matrons and maidens. Sewing in those days was done with fine linen thread, that even yet defies time and wear to destroy it."
Among the Dutch the opulent burghers compared to their wives and daughters as the peacock does to the hen. The women's dress was sober, but the men's many coats, their silk and velvet small clothes, their silver buttons and fine linen stood for a good deal of money in each individual instance. The English colonial gentlemen did not stint themselves, but kept as close to the models of the London tailors as time and distance would permit. Lacking any other exemplar for such display, they could find one in the equipments of the British officers stationed at New York. Captain Caesar Carter, who was stationed there in 1692, was the envied possessor of a wardrobe which cost nearly a thousand dollars outside of his military accoutrements. Jacques Cos- seau, a merchant who was a bankrupt before his death, in 1682, pos- sessed but three old coats, the same number of old shirts, two pairs of worn-out breeches and one neckcloth; but Dr. Jacob De Lange, a pros- perous professional gentleman, rejoiced in a wardrobe of which we pos- sess the details, garments which would put to shame a modern dandy. Mr. Samuel Leete, clerk of the Court of Mayor and Aldermen in 1679, who is styled "a literary gentleman," was worth £23 10s in garments and furniture. Cornelius Steenwyck, "one of the principal merchants and leading citizens of New Amsterdam," who died in 1686, kept an in-
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ventory of chattels in the "great chamber" of his house which has been preserved and which represents an enviable assemblage of possessions when we regard the small amount at which it was appraised. Styles grew into extravagance up to the period of the Revolution. When peacock gorgeousness prevailed men and women vied with each other in the costliness of their costumes, and sartorial sobriety was left in some families of unmixed Dutch blood. The price of good cloth, prior to the Revolution, being a guinea a yard, gentlemen of a frugal disposi- tion would have a coat turned when it had lost its original freshness so as to make it do duty twice as long. After that it went to the ser- vant. Mechanics, workingmen, and country people wore leather breeches, leather aprons and baize vests of red or green. The dress of a runaway apprentice is described in an advertisement of 1753: "A blue coat with black mohair buttons, blue lapelled waist-coat, the lapells lined with black velvet, a pair of black leather breeches with solid sil- ver buttons and a brown wig." To the combrous hoops that came into fashion after the wide skirts of the ladies, succeeded the "bishop," a half circular pillow stuffed with horsehair and supposed to give more nat- ural elegance to the figure. This in turn was superseded by the queue de Paris, an abridged edition of the "bishop," and not unlike the later "bustle." The press during all this time tried in vain to exercise its nascent power by denouncing folly. An editor gives vent to his indig- nation in 1754 in the following outburst :
"These foreign invaders first made their attack upon the stays, so as to diminish them half down the waist, exposing the breast and shoul- ders. Next to the caps; cut off the flappets and tabs, pored and pad- locked the ears. Next came the wide hoops and French pocket holes ; and last of all have lately shortened the rear, so that the heels and ankles are exposed, even to the very gusset and clock ! O shame! shame!" Ladies' shoes at the time were of calfskin, with a white band of sheepskin attached to the top. This was a neat dress shoe.
In the matter of bonnets and hats the shapes for a long time were far from graceful. The prettiest was the "Skimmer" hat, made of some shining material like silver tinsel, with a flat crown and large brim ; the "horsehair" bonnet was very light, but stiff ; the bath-bonnet, made upon the principle of the modern gentleman's crush hat, was more be- coming than the mush-melon bonnet, ribbed and stiff-looking, which was in use just before the Revolution; the whalebone bonnet was an improvement upon the last-named; it was stiffened only in front. The calash bonnet was made of green silk and so constructed that it could be folded back like the top of a calash or gig when the wearer went indoors. The "wagon" was a black silk affair with the shape of a wagon top, and at first used exclusively by the Quaker ladies. However, as it
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was from its shape an excellent protection from the sun's rays, many ladies in the country adopted it, making it of some light material trimmed with gay ribbons. The only straw bonnet mentioned during a long period was the "bee-hive," worn by old ladies. A large, white, flat beaver was once worn with scarcely any crown, and fastened under the chin by two strings. The only kind of wrap used by the ladies was the loose cloak which with slight alterations in the cut went by the name of roquelaure, capuchin, and cardinal. After the Revolution the influence of French fashions was felt throughout the Republic. Amer- ican women wore the limpskirted, short-waisted dress of the dames du Directoire about the time that their husbands and beaux, having dis- carded the long-cherished queue, wore their hair closecropped, a la Brutus. Parasols came in fashion late ; as well as umbrellas. Men wore "raincoats" and women "camblets," for protection against the weather. Watson says the first umbrellas were carried by British officers, and were deemed effeminate by the people. Yet in an old advertisement of 1769 a milliner proposes, in addition to her regular modish business, to "cover umbrellas in the neatest manner;" so that useful article must have become the custom already at that time. Ladies careful of their complexion at one period wore a black velvet mask in winter, "with a silver mouthpiece to keep it on by retaining in the mouth." Rather an inconvenient arrangement and one that compelled silence, it has been remarked. The earliest kind of watches worn in the colony had cases of shagreen, turtle shell, or pinchbeck. After that the finest gentleman was content to carry a silver watch. The first gold watches were an article of jewelry, becoming only to wealthy and fashionable ladies. Old gentlemen at the close of the eighteenth century carried a tall, gold- headed cane, and generally a gold snuff box, from which they were ever ready to offer a sociable pinch to an acquaintance. They held on to the very last against the abolishment of the queue, or pig-tail, and clung to the large silver buttons, which were once a mark of wealth and dig- nity. These buttons were often made of coins-quarter dollars being used for the coat and "eleven-penny bits" for the vests and breeches. Spectacles were rarely used, even by the aged; a young man or woman wearing glasses was something unheard of.
Manners in Revolutionary Period-The period of storm and stress that embraced the period of the Revolutionary War and the ushering in of new ideals brought about a greater simplicity of manners. The "coarse" element came in afterwards when the power of money began to be felt. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld Liancourt, writing about the social life of the Americans some time after the Revolution, says : "Luxury is very high there, especially at New York and Philadelphia,
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and makes a dangerous progress every year. . . There are some persons who surpass their neighbors already too far advanced in luxury ; these injure the manners of the country." He adds that luxury is much less prevalent in the country towns, but is continually increasing, and often out of proportion with wealth. The same writer summarizes his views in the following two paragraphs-the first is less a criticism than a correct explanation of the absence of an idle, refined society ; the sec- ond, a just homage paid the American people and a prophetic view of the future greatness of the country :
An European coming into the new world, and bringing with him the need of the usage of the politer attentions of that which he has quitted; he above all who brings with him the need of what we call in France the charms of society, which we know so well how to appreciate, and of which we know how to participate, and which affords us so many moments of happiness, such a man will not find himself satisfied in America, and his recollections will be continually sprinkling his life with melancholy. He cannot, if his heart has an occasion for a friend, hope to find there the sweetness of a constant and avowed friendship.
The inhabitants of the United States have been hitherto too much engaged in their respective occupations for the enticements of polished society to be able to withdraw their attention from them; they have not the leisure to consecrate to friendship. Such an European ought to have for a long time forgotten Europe in order to live quite happy in America. But if he can readily lose the remembrance of it, or take with him there the dearest objects of his affection, he will lead in America a happy and tranquil life. He will there enjoy the blessing of liberty in the greatest extent which it is possible to desire in any polished country. He will see himself with an active people, easy in their circumstances and happy. Every day will bring him to observe a new progress of this new country. He will see it every day take a step toward that strength and greatness to which it is called; towards that real independence which is for a nation the result of having the means of satisfying itself.
The well-to-do people of the province were liberal patrons of art. Very many of them had been educated in the European schools, and in the vast collections of the Old World had learned to know a good painting, a meritorious marble, a fine bit of porcelain or glass, or any- thing commendable in the way of decoration and bric-a-brac. They encouraged native genius and were tolerant of its crudities. In the manor-houses along the Hudson were works of John Trumbull, Charles Wilson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Washington Allston, and other American painters. The social atmosphere of these houses pos- sessed a warmth and refinement that were favorable to artistic appre- ciation. Painters were welcome guests within their walls. Peale made excursions into this region and Sully visited the home of Governor Daniel D. Tompkins to obtain sittings for the admirable portrait which he produced of the statesman. The well-to-do element kept large amounts of money in their houses. In 1774 a lady, who died in New
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York, owned estates in Westchester County and the executor's inven- tory showed that she had sums amounting to £6,593 19s 8d in cash. How amply furnished were the old-time houses is shown in the inven- tory of property removed in 1776 from a house in the Neutral Ground of Westchester County. There was, however, one class of settlers as sharply distinguished in their social life as in their language and nativ- ity from the Dutch and the English. These were the Huguenots, the French Protestant exiles, who came into the county so early in its his- tory and gave to their settlement the name of New Rochelle, in memory of the ancient French city which had been the European home of a great many of them. Some of them were well educated, and most were skilled artisans. Of the first house which they built the Rev. L. J. Coutant has given a graphic description. It was erected upon the point later known as Hudson's Park. Mr. Coutant writes :
"During the pleasant weather of the autumnal months (circa 1690), a house was built on Bonnefoy's Point-not a very commodious one, nor yet very elegant in its architectural design. An excavation was made in the earth to the depth of five or six feet, and faced around with stones, after the manner of building cellar walls at the present day, preparatory to the erection of the superstructure. On these stone walls logs were laid in successive tiers, until a height was reached suffi- cient to make one story above ground and a large garret for a sleeping apartment. The whole was roofed over with long grass, bound firmly onto the rafters with strong cords, interlaced with poles running length- wise of the roof; so that this primitive dwelling, with the exception of its cellar walls or ground work, was nothing more or less than a thatch- ing house. The work of building this edifice was accomplished by the voluntary and united labor of the whole colony-men and women both doing what they could to hasten its completion.
"Incidents peculiarly interesting cluster round this primitive cottage. It was a joint-stock possession-a common property, in which all had an interest-a sort of headquarters, a public house indeed, to which the settlers nightly resorted for social intercourse or recreation when the toils and adventures of the day were over. On the Sabbath it was the temple whither the settlers went up to worship and listen to the re- ligious instructors of the pious Bonrepas, their beloved pastor, and to join in the raptures inspired by the singing of Marot's hymns. It is surprising to see what expedients necessity will adopt; into how narrow a compass it will compress the proprieties of life, both civil and re- ligious; how few and simple are the requirements of society and gen- uine religion, when stripped of the conventional superfluities bestowed by pride and wealth. In this same house the first child was born, to one Louis Guion, and there the first Huguenot marriage took place, the
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groom Jean Coutant, and the bride the daughter of David Bonnefoy. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Right Rev. David de Bonrepas, who united in his ministerial functions the several offices of bishop, priest and presbyter to the French Protestant Church at New Rochelle."
Domestic Economy Among Huguenots-In respect to the social char- acteristics and domestic economy of the early Huguenots who formed an important element in the population of the territory now embraced by the Borough of The Bronx Mr. Coutant remarks :
"Not in former times, as now, were the families in country villages or districts dependent on the butcher's stalls for the daily supply of their table, nor yet upon the bakers' shops and the flour merchants for bread and pastry. These staples of life, as well as their wearing ap- parel, were furnished upon their own premises. Their cereals were gathered from their fields, threshed and winnowed upon their own barn floors, and carried to the mill in bags to be converted in flour, which was kneaded and baked by the good matrons, in the old-fashioned brick ovens, constructed in the immense kitchen chimney-backs. And as to pastry, all of it, not even excepting wedding cake, was prepared in the same way. Their herds of kine and flocks of sheep, grazing upon their pasture fields, and the poultry in their barn-yards supplied them with fresh meat, butter and eggs the whole year round. The writer himself, although not as old as some men whom he knows, can well remember the time when a single small cow or a young steer, slaughtered once a week, sufficed to supply the families of New Rochelle and East Chester with all the fresh meat that was needed, over and above that raised on their own premises. Thus a thrifty farmer in the early summer or spring would slaughter a calf, sheep or lamb and, reserving what was required for his own use, send the rest to his neighbors, until they in turn did the same thing ; and thus the supply was mutual and alternate. This policy was frequently adopted also upon the recurrence of a stone, or ploughing 'frolic,' as they were called, or upon the raising of a barn or some other heavy-timbered building, on which occasions a supply of good old Jamaica rum acted as a sort of steam power, and at night the affair was often concluded by a liberal supply of lamb or veal pot-pie and generous potations of cider.
"The cellar of the well-to-do farmer was his larder; being fully stocked with barrels of salted meat and hogsheads of cider, as also of potatoes, turnips, butter, lard and such other provisions as were need- ful for family use. Even mechanics, carpenters, shoemakers, weavers, tailors, coopers, and blacksmiths had each his acre of land, cow and fatted pig, and whatever they lacked of other provisions they had no
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difficulty in obtaining by an exchange of labor for farmers' products, at the rate of four dollars per hundred weight of beef, eighteen cents per bushel 'for potatoes, fifty cents a barrel for apples, seventy-five cents a bushel for wheat, fifty cents for rye, and not more than thirty-six cents a bushel for Indian corn, and other produce in proportion; while the wages of the laboring man ranged from fifty to eighty dollars a year, with board, and from fifty to seventy-five cents a day. The wages of mechanics were from seventy-five cents to one dollar a day, if boarded, and from one dollar to a dollar and twenty-five cents where they boarded themselves. Carpenters, wheelwrights and blacksmiths were employed upon many of the utensils of husbandry in those days to which they are strangers at the present time. The former made the farmer's ox-sleds, plows, harrows, cider-mills, crackles and other im- plements for working in flax; the latter forged his plow-shares, colters, chains and crowbars. The manufacture of flax and wool-spinning wheels was usually done by cabinetmakers and turners, which class of mechanics was far from numerous. The turning was performed on the old-fashioned pole lathe.
"The dress worn by men consisted of pantaloons, vest and coat; the latter trimmed with large brass buttons, and an overcoat, or, as it was then called, a match-coat, a wool hat made very much in the form of the felt hats worn at the present day; laced or low-quartered shoes, and woolen, home-knit stockings. These garments as a general thing constituted a gentleman's wardrobe or outfit for the winter. In sum- mer, linen was usually worn. The ordinary dress worn by elderly women was the old-style short-gown and petticoats, of homespun or linsey woolsey. When they went abroad, however, this was generally exchanged for a short-waisted gown of the same material in winter; but in summer of some lighter fabric. Those who could afford it occa- sionally wore silk. The head-dress consisted of a cap with a wide border and high crown, over which, when abroad, they wore a plain silk bonnet. The young women wore frocks of a similar style and ma- terial, but no caps. Their long tresses were parted in front, combed back and braided into a cue; rolled up spirally upon the back of the head, and secured by a huge turtle-shell or horn-comb. Small side combs were also used to keep the hair evenly parted in front. The shape of their hats varied constantly, as now, in accordance with the fickle dictates of fashion. At one time it would be a fur cap, somewhat like that worn by men at the present time, but trimmed with ribbons and ornamented with feathers, white or black, according to the fancy of the wearer. At another, the hat would flatten down and spread out into an immense disk of braided leghorn or straw, held in place by a broad ribbon tied under the chin. Presently, almost while we are yet gazing
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in admiration, they assumed the form of an immense tin scoop in front, projecting beyond the face some ten or twelve inches, with high crowns to make room for the large comb.
"Strange as it may seem, all of these, to us, outlandish costumes and fashions looked well in their time. Boys, until grown-up, mostly went barefooted ; nor was it at all uncommon to see grown-up men pursuing their occupations without shoes upon their feet. All, of course, wore shoes and yarn stockings in winter. Moreover, the young man who could afford a pair of calf-skin boots with white or red sheep-skin tops was regarded with admiration by the belles of the town. He was a rare bird indeed and likely to become the target for the arrows of the mis- chievous blind deity. All the more so, if these ornamental appendages supported a trim, symmetrical form, attired in buff colored corduroy pantaloons, white vest, a blue broadcloth swallow-tailed coat, trimmed with glistening brass buttons, the collar extending high in back of the neck, and the tail reaching to within a foot of the floor; the whole sur- mounted with a high, bell-crowned beaver hat:
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