Title: The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg - An Account of his Barbering, Hair-dressing, & Peruke-Making - Services, & some Remarks on Wigs of Various Styles.
Author: Bullock, Thomas K., Tonkin, Maurise B.
Language: English
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                                  THE
                                WIGMAKER
                         in Eighteenth-Century
                             _WILLIAMSBURG_


 An Account of his Barbering, Hair-Dressing, & Peruke-Making Services,
               & some Remarks on Wigs of Various Styles.


                      _Williamsburg Craft Series_


                             _WILLIAMSBURG_
                  Published by _Colonial Williamsburg_
                               MCMLXXXVII



                             _The Wigmaker
                  in Eighteenth Century_ Williamsburg


    [Illustration: Illustrated capital]

Richard Gamble, barber and perukemaker of Williamsburg in the middle
years of the eighteenth century, appears to have remained a bachelor all
his life. Other than this he seems to have been no more improvident than
the average craftsman of his time. That is to say, he came—or was
brought—into court with startling frequency in an endless round of suits
to collect unpaid debts.

He was in good company. Going to the law was part of the colonial way of
life in Virginia, and everyone from a town’s least citizen to the
colony’s greatest planter engaged in it. In fact, suing and being sued
had some of the aspects of a game: the plaintiff in one case might
shortly be defendant in another and witness in a third—and keep right on
doing business with the other parties in all three cases!

Court records abound with evidence that Williamsburg wigmakers were just
as impecunious and as contentious as any of the rest. Mr. Gamble,
however, had an additional distinction—of a sort. While most debt cases
reached settlement out of court or ended in judgment for the plaintiff,
Gamble actually went to jail for debt. In the _Virginia Gazette_ of May
8, 1752, appeared this announcement to the public:

  BEING prevented carrying on my Business as usual by an Arrest for a
  Debt not justly my own. I hereby give Notice, That I have taken into
  Partnership with me _Edward Charlton_, late from _London_, who will
  carry on the Business, at my Shop, next Door to the _Raleigh_ Tavern,
  in _Williamsburg_. Gentlemen, who please to favour us with their
  Orders for Wigs, &c. may depend on being well and expeditiously serv’d
  and oblige

                                               Their very humble Servant
                                                       _Richard Gamble_.

  _N. B._ All Persons who are indebted to me, are desired to pay the
  same to Mr. _Alexander Finnie_, who is properly impowered for that
  Perpose.

Alexander Finnie, co-defendant with Gamble in at least one large suit
for debt—perhaps the one that led to Gamble’s “Arrest”—was himself a
wigmaker who had abandoned the craft for the arduous pleasures of
innkeeping. He was proprietor at the time of the Raleigh Tavern,
Williamsburg’s largest and most famous hostelry.

When Gamble died, Edward Charlton, late from London, succeeded to the
business and became in time Williamsburg’s leading barber and wigmaker.
His livelihood—as perhaps he foresaw—was already doomed when he retired
from business shortly before the Revolution: the wig fashion was on the
way out in England and would soon be dropped in America. And in any case
his former clientele would vanish from the streets of Williamsburg when
the capital of Virginia was moved to Richmond in 1780.

Charlton, Gamble, and Finnie were only three of some thirty men
concerned with barbering and wigmaking in eighteenth-century
Williamsburg. Once or twice between 1700 and 1780 the town apparently
had to struggle along for short periods with but a single active
practitioner of the craft. Usually there were at least two or three, and
for a time in 1769 as many as eight plied their trade in the little
capital city.

About some of these thirty or more men we know nothing today except
their names. About others quite a few facts survive in one place or
another, chiefly the records of the York County Court and the columns of
the _Virginia Gazette_. In addition, Edward Charlton’s account book of
sales made and payments received during the years 1769 to about 1775
(there are some later entries) was found in the attic of a Williamsburg
home only a few years ago. It helps immensely to round out our knowledge
of his craft and clientele, and makes him almost inevitably the
“representative” of his fellows in this account.

    [Illustration: _Two customers and seven workers in an
    eighteenth-century French barber-wigmaker’s shop. From left to
    right: a man (partly obscured in the shadow) prepares hair in the
    hackle; another sews weft to the peruke on the wig block in his lap;
    before the window a girl weaves strands of hair on the frame to make
    weft; a customer, standing, protects his face with a cloth as he
    dusts his head with powder; an apprentice shaves a second customer;
    in the background two workers heat curling irons in the fire;
    another apprentice dresses what appears to be a Ramillies wig on the
    stand._ DIDEROT]

All of these Williamsburg barbers and perukemakers performed at least
one, but not always all three, of the craft’s basic services: (1)
making, selling, and dressing wigs and false hair pieces for men and
women; (2) cutting and dressing men’s, women’s, and children’s natural
hair; and (3) shaving men. Before we go into more detail on these
aspects of the craft in colonial days, however, it may be well to peer
briefly still further back into history.



                      _BEARDS, WIGS, AND HISTORY_


The trouble with hair is that it persists in growing, and every once in
a while something must be done about it. Over the millenia since time
began—or at least since people began—that “something” has been manifold
in variety: dyeing, bleaching, oiling, powdering, pomading, trimming,
curling, straightening, shaving off completely, or augmenting with hair
from horses, cows, goats, and from other human heads.

Shaving the face was not customary among the ancient Greeks until
Alexander the Great ordered his soldiers to doff their beards lest the
enemy use them as a convenient handle in close combat. Thereupon the
Grecian tonsorial parlor, known as a _tonstrina_, added shaving to its
previous services of trimming and dressing the hair and beard, massage,
first aid, and minor surgery.

Roman barbers (the word comes from the Latin _barba_ for beard) followed
the example of their Greek colleagues when the beard passed out of favor
during the Republic. The classic reply of the Roman general Archelaus
rings true even today: asked by a talkative barber how he would like to
be trimmed, Archelaus answered, according to Plutarch, “In silence.”

From the onslaught of the barbarians (a word that comes not from
_barba_, but from the Greek _barbaros_, meaning strange or rude) until
about the thirteenth century, the craft of barbering probably reverted
in most of Europe to its elementary procedures of trimming and dressing
the hair and beard. In the latter century the first guilds of barbers
were formed in both France and England, and by the seventeenth century
the golden age of the barber had begun.

For most of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe an
inordinate emphasis on appearance led to excesses of fashion in both
costume and hairdress. Men followed the vagaries of high fashion as
faithfully as women, and vied with each other in wearing long curls of
their own or somebody else’s hair.

The wearing of wigs, at least for special purposes, was of ancient
origin. Wigs have been found on Egyptian mummies; Greek actors wore wigs
on stage; fashionable ladies of Rome and Carthage were much addicted to
false hair—especially golden locks from Teuton heads. But the widespread
wearing of perukes as an everyday article of costume is generally held
to date from 1624, when Louis XIII adopted the usage.

Here it needs to be said, perhaps, that “wig” and “peruke” are not
different styles but different forms of the same word. The French
_perruque_, spelled _peruke_ in England and the colonies, had gone
through an earlier series of English transformations: from _perwyke_ to
_perewyk_ to _periwig_, and then by abbreviation to _wig_.

Although Louis XIV disdained wigs until his abundant natural hair began
to fall out, the fashion flourished at his court and was brought over to
England by the restored Charles II, who began in 1663 to affect a large
black wig. Charles may have been the first English king to adopt the
custom, but it is said that Elizabeth I owned some 80 auburn, orange,
and gold wigs to cover her thinning hair.

Just as Louis XIII’s courtiers hastened to don wigs as soon as their
monarch did, so aspiring ladies and gentlemen of Restoration England
emulated their king. Samuel Pepys recorded that his wife first acquired
“a pair of peruques of hair, as the fashion now is for ladies to wear;
which are pretty, and are of my wife’s own hair, or else I should not
endure them.” Then, after great hesitation, he bought a “periwigg” for
himself and had his hair cut off and made into another.

Pepys’s final word on the subject was to wonder “what will be the
fashion after the plague is done, as to periwiggs, for nobody will dare
to buy any haire, for fear of the infection, that it had been cut off
the heads of people dead of the plague.” He need not have been concerned
on that score; the fashion throve better after the plague than before,
attaining its greatest development under Queen Anne, when the long curls
of men’s full-bottomed wigs covered the back and shoulders and floated
down over the chest. In France, according to Diderot’s _Encyclopedia_
(published 1751-1772), late seventeenth-century _perruques_ were so long
and so much adorned that they commonly weighed as much as two pounds and
cost more than 1,000 _ecus_ (silver coins about the size of a dollar).

Milady’s hairdress reached even more preposterous extremes in the
many-tiered and bejewelled “fontanges” of Louis XIV’s court (an
exaggeration he disapproved in vain) about 1700. After a period of some
moderation the style reappeared in the yard-high “heads” dictated to
fashion by Marie Antoinette before she lost hers. If English and
colonial women did not go to the extreme, they nevertheless followed the
style. A letter to the New York _Journal or General Advertiser_ in 1767
complained that “it is now the Mode to make the Lady’s Head of twice the
natural Size, by means of artificial Pads, Boulsters, or Rolls”
which—the writer had on good authority—came from hospital patients dead
of the smallpox and of “a Distemper still more disagreeable.”



                      _WIG SHOPS IN WILLIAMSBURG_


The shop that Richard Gamble entrusted to his new partner in 1752 stood
next door to the Raleigh Tavern, in what was sometimes called “the most
public part of the city.” Certainly no better location in Williamsburg
could have been found for a barber shop than on the Duke of Gloucester
Street in the block nearest the Capitol.

    [Illustration: _“The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Feathered Lady”
    is the title of this satirical print issued in London in 1776.
    Contemporary accounts indicate that the artist did not greatly
    exaggerate either the size or the composition of the headdresses
    affected by fashionable ladies in the capitals of Europe. Colonial
    women seem not to have dressed their hair in such heights of
    fashion._]

The broad main street of Williamsburg, muddy or dusty as the season
decreed, stretched westward from the Capitol nearly a mile to the
College of William and Mary. During most of the year it saw only the
normal activity of a small colonial town. But several times each
year—when the courts and perhaps the Assembly met—the town’s population
doubled or tripled. These “Publick Times” were almost field days of
litigation, commercial negotiation, and merrymaking. Then it was that
innkeepers and craftsmen lucky enough to have located in that first
block knew how fortunate they were.

One small shop also near the Raleigh had been a barbering and wigmaking
establishment at least since John Peter Wagnon bought it in 1734. It
remained so through the long ownership of Wagnon’s one-time apprentice,
Andrew Anderson, and the short occupancy of two successor barbers and
wigmakers, William Peake of Yorktown and James Currie. Across the street
from the Raleigh had stood the shop of Jean Pasteur, one of
Williamsburg’s first known wigmakers. Somewhere nearby Alexander Finnie
made wigs before moving to the Raleigh itself, and Anthony Geohegan did
so later—perhaps in the same shop.

A little farther uptown William Peake had briefly set up business as a
barber in Mr. Dunn’s Crown Tavern, opposite the printing office. James
Nichols first opened his shop in “the corner room of the brick house
where Mrs. Singleton lives”—now better known as the Brick House Tavern.
And somewhere along the same crowded street Richard Charlton (who was
somehow related to Edward and had at least a passing acquaintance with
wigmaking) kept his well-patronized tavern.

Other craftsmen also located in the same neighborhood. Not far beyond
the Raleigh hung the sign of James Craig’s jewelry, watch, and
silversmith shop, the Golden Ball. And next to it was the millinery
store of the sisters Margaret and Jane Hunter—the latter of whom married
her neighbor Edward Charlton.

The size of Edward Charlton’s barber and wig shop is now unknown. For
some time it was probably no larger than a front room of the house he
owned opposite the Raleigh. Andrew Anderson’s shop was in a building
sixteen feet square. The barber shop next to the King’s Arms Tavern is
shown on later insurance papers to have been sixteen by twenty feet—and
these are the approximate dimensions of the restored barber and
perukemaker’s shop.

    [Illustration: _The restored shop of the barber and perukemaker in
    Williamsburg. It stands on Duke of Gloucester Street next to the
    King’s Arms Tavern and across from the Raleigh Tavern. In
    dimensions, appearance, and equipment it is believed to resemble
    quite closely a shop that stood on the site about 1770 and may have
    been occupied successively by the partnerships of Geohegan and
    Brazier and of Charlton and Nichols._]



                   _MASTERS, SERVANTS, AND MATERIALS_


In such a small shop it seems unlikely that even a leading wigmaker
could have had very many helpers. But Edward Charlton at one time had
four apprentices and journeymen, and one of his contemporaries, Robert
Lyon, in the space of two years had five known bond servants, at least
three identified as barber-wigmakers.

Apprenticeship to a master barber and perukemaker was the normal—in fact
the only—way for a boy to learn the trade. The Williamsburg wigmakers
presumably all entered the craft in this manner, though Andrew Anderson
is the only one about whom the record is clear. Presumably, too, most of
them had apprentices in turn; but here the surviving information is
quite skimpy.

Journeymen (craftsmen who had finished their apprentice training but had
not yet gone into business as their own masters) were in good demand and
apparently in good supply. Alexander Finnie gave notice in a 1745 issue
of the _Virginia Gazette_ that he was “in want of Two or Three
Journeymen, that understand the Business of a Barber and Peruke-maker,”
and promised any who applied “good Encouragement.” The response to this
ad was prompt, for the very next issue of the _Gazette_ contained this
notice by the master barber and wigmaker whose shop was directly across
the street from Finnie’s:

  _Whereas my honest Neighhour, that has advertis’d for Two or Three
  Journeymen, has lately seduced One from my Service, in a clandestine
  and undermining Manner; which I am well persuaded, that no Man but one
  of his Principles would have done: Therefore it’s to be hoped, that
  one of the Number he has advertised for, will come into my Service, in
  Lieu of him who has been so villanously cajol’d as above, who may
  depend on having good Encouragement, from_

                                                        Andrew Anderson.

Whether Anderson lured anyone into his employ by this ad does not
appear. But Finnie a year later announced that he had just imported from
London a shipment of wigmaking materials and also “some exceeding good
Workmen.” With what has the ring of smug satisfaction he concluded: “As
I have a great many good Workmen, Gentlemen and others may depend on
being speedily and faithfully served, in the best Manner.”

Finnie’s mention of imported materials was typical. Time and again the
announcements of Williamsburg wigmakers contain phrases such as “Just
arrived, a choice Parcel of Hairs, prepared by the best Hands in
London,” or “A Fresh Cargoe of live human Hairs, already curl’d and well
prepared.” By far the larger portion of hair used in Williamsburg-made
wigs was imported from England, either by the perukemaker himself or by
colonial hair merchants.

According to Diderot’s _Encyclopedia_, hair from regions such as
Flanders, where beer and cider were the common beverages, made superior
wigs; women’s hair was better than men’s; country women’s better than
city women’s; and chestnut was the most desirable color—except that
white wigs should be made of hair that once had been black. Furthermore,
avowed the same authority, “In general the hair of persons not given to
excesses lasts a long time, while that of men who live in sexual
debauchery, or of women who give themselves to the uses of men, has less
sap, dries out, and loses its quality.”

If colonial wigmakers were aware of this dictum—which seems
unlikely—they paid it no attention, buying hair from abroad with never a
query as to the personal habits of the original wearers, and showing
similar indifference in purchasing local locks:

  THE subscriber proposes purchasing Hair for Wigs, and hopes he will
  soon be able to supply wigmakers with that article, of different
  kinds. He is in want of a quantity of human hair, both long and short,
  of any colour, for which he will give one shilling per ounce, or more,
  according to the quality. Apply to Mr. _James Nichols_, barber in
  _Williamsburg_, who will receive it and pay the money, or to me in
  _Petersburg_.

                                                            George Long.



                          _COLONIAL CLIENTELE_


A few of the Williamsburg barbers and perukemakers advertised their
readiness to dress ladies’ hair, and Charlton regularly made “curls” for
his customers’ wives. But most seem to have confined themselves
wholly—or almost so—to barbering and bewigging male clients.

These clients were either town dwellers or members of the plantation
gentry, who were the colony’s economic, political, and social elite. Of
every hundred Virginians, eighty or more were small farmers or farm
workers and did not own wigs. Devereaux Jarratt, the son of a poor but
industrious farmer near Williamsburg, recalled later in life in his
memoirs:

  A _periwig_, in those days, was a distinguishing badge of _gentle
  folk_—and when I saw a man riding the road, near our house, with a wig
  on, it would so alarm my fears, and give me such a disagreeable
  feeling, that, I dare say, I would run off, as for my life.

    [Illustration: _Some of the tools and equipment of the
    barber-wigmaker, especially those used for shaving and hair
    dressing. Note in particular the powdering masks in the lower right
    corner that covered the faces of customers while their hair or wigs
    were being dusted with powder._ DIDEROT]

And an anonymous traveler of the 1740s observed that in Maryland:

  ’Tis an odd Sight, that except some of the very elevated Sort, few
  Persons wear Perukes, so that you would imagine they were all sick, or
  going to bed: Common People wear Woollen and Yarn Caps; but the better
  ones wear white Holland or Cotton: Thus they travel fifty Miles from
  Home. It may be cooler, for ought I know; but, methinks, ’tis very
  ridiculous.

Perhaps on the frontier men allowed their beards to go unshorn. In the
settled areas and towns, however, only a clean-shaven face was
acceptable to the fashion that simultaneously demanded false hair on the
head. Most men probably shaved themselves, and some, like Councillor
Robert Carter and Dr. John Sequeira, had slaves trained to do their
barbering. Of the rest a goodly number visited Charlton’s shop almost
daily and paid him an annual fee for “shaving and dressing.” We do not
know if this meant shaving the face or the head or both; “dressing,” of
course, normally referred to care of the wig.

Some among Charlton’s regular customers for shaving and dressing,
however, never bought a wig from him. Either they imported their own
directly from a maker like Thomas Clendinning of Glasgow, or else they
wore no wig. To defy fashion in this second manner must have taken some
courage, for the wig was an important badge of social rank, particularly
among the upper and would-be upper classes.

But it was not an infallible one. Negro slaves may sometimes have been
decked out in white wigs: those who were the liveried house slaves,
coachmen, and the like, of the ostentatiously rich planters. On the
other hand, such a well-to-do and fashion-conscious man as George
Washington seems from portraits and other records to have worn no wig at
all, though he kept his own hair well powdered and curled. In the lesser
ranks craftsmen, indentured servants, and apprentices sometimes did and
sometimes did not wear wigs.

Washington, who often lodged when in Williamsburg at the tavern of
Richard Charlton, was not among Edward Charlton’s customers for any
barbering service. Peyton Randolph, however, the speaker of the House of
Burgesses, was an excellent patron. He bought two brown dress bob wigs
every year, and each December paid for a year’s shaving and dressing.
John Randolph, the attorney general, was another regular customer, who
paid nothing for several years, then settled his large bill partly in
“cash,” partly by “the pardon of a Negro,” and partly with some horses.

The cash receipts that Charlton entered in his accounts may in rare
instances have included clinking money. But the colonies were forbidden
to mint their own, and coin of the realm was exceedingly scarce. So
Charlton’s income was largely paper currency of one kind or another:
perhaps Virginia currency printed by William Hunter at the printing
office on Duke of Gloucester Street years before; perhaps bills of
exchange on a London merchant; most likely warehouse receipts for
varying amounts of stored tobacco—these being a form of legal tender
universally acceptable in the tobacco colonies.

Robert Carter Nicholas, treasurer of the colony, Thomas Everard, mayor
of Williamsburg, George Mason of Gunston Hall, author of the Virginia
Declaration of Rights, George Wythe, professor of law at the College,
and Wythe’s former student, the youthful Thomas Jefferson, all visited
Charlton’s shop more or less faithfully. Jefferson, experimenting as
usual, first bought a brown dress queue wig and then a brown tie wig
before he settled on the brown dress bob that was the prevailing style.

Another of Charlton’s famous patrons, “Mr Patrick Hanrey Esq^re,” bought
only one peruke of him in the half-dozen years of the account book. He
brought it back once for alteration, but never for dressing. Perhaps
this was the brown wig that one contemporary remembered “exhibited no
indication of great care in the dressing.” Another acquaintance
recalled, however, that “at the bar of the General Court, [Henry] always
appeared in full suit of black cloth or velvet, and a tye wig, which was
dressed and powdered in the highest style.”

    [Illustration: _Part of a page from Edward Charlton’s account book,
    showing purchases by Thomas Jefferson of four wigs, two pairs of
    curls, three pounds of powder, and one dressing during the years
    1769 (when he came to his first session as a member of the House of
    Burgesses), 1770, 1771, and 1773. Jefferson spent most of 1772, the
    year of his marriage, at Monticello, letting public business and
    Williamsburg get along without him._]

Among the shop’s other patrons were innkeepers, blacksmiths, a saddler,
a silversmith, printers, clergymen, physicians—indeed, from wealthy
planters like Robert Carter, Ralph Wormeley, and John Page to such
unglamorous persons as Humphrey Harwood, plasterer and brick mason,
Charlton made wigs for them all.



                       _THE MOST POPULAR PERUKES_


The French _Encyclopédie Perruquière_ listed 45 styles of wig in its
1727 edition, 115 styles in that of 1764. While a complete catalogue is
impossible here, some description in words and pictures of the most
frequent varieties may assist gentlemen of the twentieth century to
choose (in their mind’s eye) the style that would suit them best. The
wigs pictured and described do not presume to share the amazing
characteristics claimed by a London maker of 1760. His advertising
avowed:

  to ecclesiastical perukes he gives a certain demure, sanctified air;
  he confers on the tye-wigs of the law an appearance of great sagacity
  and deep penetration; on those of the faculty of physick he casts a
  solemnity and gravity that seems equal to the profoundest knowledge.
  His military smarts ... [give] the wearer a most war-like fierceness.

As for color, any style might be made up in any of the several colors
favored for wigs: black, white, grizzle (an iron-gray mixture of black
and white hair), brown, and flaxen are mentioned most often in surviving
accounts. Less popular shades included milk white, light natural,
yellowish, pale, chestnut, auburn, piss-burnt, and gray. Red was deemed
a “disagreeable colour” for hair and was rarely if ever used in wigs.

The styles here shown were all popular at some time during the
eighteenth century, though perhaps some of them were worn more often in
England and France than in the colonies. On the other hand, a popular
colonial style, the “Albemarle” wig, is not in our catalogue because
nothing has been found to tell what it looked like.

    [Illustration: Bob wig.]

No eighteenth-century illustration of a bob wig, so labeled, has been
found. This picture, from Diderot’s _Encyclopedia_ (like all the others
in this group) shows a “bonnet” or “short wig.” The brown dress bob
favored by so many of Edward Charlton’s customers must have been very
similar. A plain bob presumably had fewer curls, but neither it nor the
dress bob would have had any queue or hanging side curls.

    [Illustration: Brigadier wig.]

This “brigadier wig” shows what a few of Charlton’s patrons ordered from
him. It was known also as a major wig and a military wig. The “tye wig”
mentioned in Charlton’s accounts must have looked very much like this
(again we lack any clear contemporary illustration) except that it had
more than two curls tied at the nape of the neck.

    [Illustration: Queue wig]

What Charlton called a “queue wig” might have been any wig with a
tail—or even with two, like this double pigtail. The tails were usually
bound tightly with black ribbon, though sailors used leather. A single
queue, braided but not bound, with a large bow at the top and a small
bow at the bottom, was known as a “Ramillies wig” after the battle at
that place (1706). The wearer of a Ramillies often doubled the end of
the queue back up to the wig and held it with a comb or ribbon.

    [Illustration: Bag wig]

In the “bag wig” the long hair at the back was simply tied inside a
black taffeta bag, usually with a rosette of black ribbon for
decoration. In England and France this style, like so many others, was
carried to such an extreme that the bag eventually covered the wearer’s
entire shoulders. The exaggeration at least had the virtue of protecting
his clothing from the pomade and powder of the wig. It was going out of
fashion in Virginia by Charlton’s time. Note the small strap and buckle
on the wig.

    [Illustration: Square wig.]

By the time of Diderot’s _Encyclopedia_, the “square wigs” shown here
were the nearest remnants of the full-bottomed wigs that had gone out of
style about 1740. These last can still be seen, however, in portraits of
royalty and nobility of the seventeenth century and early years of the
eighteenth, and of course the style still holds for English judges when
they are on the bench.

    [Illustration: Natural wig.]

This, incredibly, was called a “natural wig,” and was supposed to
resemble the wearer’s own hair. It fell down behind in long, straight
locks, ending either with a single roll, or tapering away into a series
of ringlets.

    [Illustration: Knotted wig.]

The resemblance between this “knotted wig” and its distant predecessor,
the full-bottomed wig, may not be apparent at first glance. The flowing
locks of the full-bottomed and campaign wigs (the latter having two long
curls falling to the front of each shoulder) were inconvenient to
travelers, sportsmen, and soldiers. So they adopted the habit of
knotting up the curls on both sides and tying together those in back;
eventually this expedient became a style in its own right, but with a
single corkscrew curl in back.

    [Illustration: Cadogan or club wig.]

The “cadogan” or “club wig,” its name attributed to the first Earl of
Cadogan, became popular in England in the 1770s, especially with the
foppish young men who called themselves “Macaronis” and went to absurd
extremes in style, wearing cadogans several times the size of this
modest example. The queue of straight hair was looped back on itself and
tied with string or ribbon to form a vertical bow of hair.

    [Illustration: Clerical wig.]

This is the kind of clerical wig, with built-in tonsure, that Roman
Catholic clergy in France wore. Anglican clerics in Virginia, as
Charlton’s accounts testify, wore brown dress bobs just like those of so
many of their parishioners.



                         _THE MAKING OF A WIG_


The eighteenth-century wig was built up of rows of hair woven at the
root ends to cross-threads, each row being then sewn to a net-and-ribbon
skullcap or “caul.” The steps in making a queue wig would differ, of
course, in some detail from those in making a wig without a queue. But
the basic procedures in the eighteenth-century manner of perukemaking
are the same for any style, and can be set forth briefly under the
following seven headings:

(1) _Taking the Measurements_—The customer’s head (preferably shaved) is
measured with a strip of paper about an inch wide, each measurement
being recorded by a scissor-nick in the edge of the strip. There are
five essential dimensions to take: (a) from the top center of the
forehead over the head to the nape of the neck; (b) from one temple to
the other around the back of the head; (c) over the top of the head from
ear to ear (to the top of the ears for a wig “with ears,” i.e., with
ears showing, to the middle of the ears for a half-eared wig, and to the
bottom of the ears for a full-bottomed wig); (d) from the middle of
either cheek to the back of the head; and (e) from the top center of the
forehead to either temple.

    [Illustration: _The illustrations on this page come from
    François-Alexandre-Pierre de Garsault’s _The Art of the Wigmaker_,
    published in France in 1767. At the top is a hackle, with two
    parcels of hair being combed through it. Next are shears, curling
    pins, and a cylindrical oven for heating and drying curls. The
    instrument below the hackle is a wigmaker’s vise attached to a table
    top. Most prominent in the lower picture is the six-thread weaving
    frame, with hair strands of two different lengths tied to the lower
    threads. Above it and to the left are the various knots employed.
    The odd-shaped pattern at the lower left with each parallel line
    bearing several numbers produced a wig to fit the head of some
    eighteenth-century gentleman._]

(2) _Preparing the Hair_—Before it can be used in wigmaking, hair must
be cleaned, arranged according to length, quality, and color, and
curled. Tied in small parcels, the hair is cleaned by thorough powdering
with fine sand or mill dust from a flour mill; this absorbs the oil and
grease from the hair and is then shaken out. Next the hair is combed or
carded through a “hackle” and separated into parcels of different
lengths. The wigmaker’s vise, fixed to the table top in a horizontal
position, holds each parcel of hair in turn (by the root ends) while the
craftsman rolls the hair—in a curl-paper—onto curling pins made of pipe
clay. These rolls he boils for three hours and then partially dries in a
small charcoal oven. The loaded curlers are then piled up, taken to the
bakery, covered with a shell of rye dough, and baked in a moderate oven.
When the loaf is returned to the wig shop and broken open, the curls
will have absorbed some moisture from the dough and must again be dried
out in the charcoal oven. Finally dried and cooled, the curled hair can
be taken off the pins and combed out in the hackle, further separated by
lengths if necessary, and the root ends of each parcel trimmed off
evenly. If the hair is thin and needs to be filled out with horsehair,
or if hair of different colors is to be mixed to achieve a desired
shade, this is the time to do it.

(3) _Making the Pattern_—The wigmaker’s pattern is a weaving pattern; it
shows how many rows of hair will be needed in a wig of the customer’s
size, how long each row must be, and how long the hair in each part of
each row must be in order to make a wig of the desired style. On a piece
of squared paper the wigmaker draws as many parallel lines as his
measurements of the customer’s head tell him are needed. Each successive
line will be longer or shorter, also, as may be necessary to fit the
customer’s head. On each line—or portion of a line—he marks the length
of hair he will use in that part of the wig. In determining this the
wigmaker relies partly on his own experience, partly on pattern books or
similar sources.

(4) _Weaving the Hair_—The rows of hair are woven on a simple frame of
two upright posts holding three (or six) silk threads stretched tight.
The wigmaker takes several strands of hair by the root ends and weaves
them around the silk warp threads, using one of a number of possible
weaves. He continues weaving a few strands at a time, sliding the woven
strands tight together until he has a strip of weft as long as the
pattern calls for. He winds the finished strip onto one post as more
thread unwinds from the other, and does another row. If the frame holds
six threads, the lower three are used for the right side of the wig
(with the curl of the hair toward the weaver) and the upper three for
the left side (with the hair curling away from the weaver).

(5) _Mounting the Caul_—From his assortment of hollowed out elm or ash
wig blocks of different sizes and shapes the wigmaker selects the one
that corresponds to the customer’s head measurements. On it he outlines
the proposed wig in inch-wide “mounting ribbon” of silk, carefully
measuring, stretching, folding, and lightly tacking as he goes. Then he
fixes the ribbon firmly in place with strong thread stretched around two
rows of small nails, called “wig points,” one row on either side of the
ribbon. Next he sews a fine net of cotton or silk to the mounting ribbon
all around, with appropriate folds and tucks to fit the curvature of the
wig block, and trims off the excess. He then adds two strips of
“covering ribbon” three and a half inches wide across the top of the
wig, one from front to back, the other from side to side, basting them
to the net and sewing them firmly to the mounting ribbon. He may add a
drawstring or even a small strap and buckle at the back so the wearer
can keep his wig on tighter.

(6) _Sewing the Strip of Weft to the Caul_—Following his pattern for
length of rows and length of hair, the wigmaker now sews to the caul the
strips of weft he has previously woven, using a simple straight stitch.
Except for the rows framing the face, which start at the front edge and
go backwards, the rows are sewn beginning at the bottom and back and
working upward and forward. Rows of short fine hair are sewn very close
together, the rest in parallel rows a quarter of an inch apart.
Different styles, of course, may require a particular sequence of sewing
the proper combination of short, long, curled, straight, or horsehair
tresses to achieve the desired result.

    [Illustration: _Here are a group of wig blocks, one on an adjustable
    stand for easy pinning of the caul, the others with cauls in various
    stages of completion. Wigs not in use at the time or being taken on
    the owner’s travels were kept or carried in wig boxes like that
    shown._ GARSAULT]

(7) _Finishing and Dressing the Wig_—As the words imply, these processes
call for the deft use of comb, fingers, curling iron, and scissors to
trim and shape each curl and each bunch of straight hair to graceful
perfection. Finally, the wigmaker adds a rosette, a bag, or ribbons as
the style demands, and pomade, powder, and perfume to the customer’s
desire. The powder, incidentally, may be had in various colors and
serves to maintain the wig in the proper shade or tint of brown, black,
gray, or white. In fact, blue powder was not unknown.



                          _STYLES AND PRICES_


If brown dress bob wigs at 43 shillings each were by far the most
popular of Edward Charlton’s products—he sold sixty in one year—they
were by no means the only style he made. Perukes not only came in almost
endless variety; their prices differed likewise. Even wigs of the same
style from the same maker could vary widely in price (according to the
kind and quality of materials, care in workmanship, etc.) as the
accompanying advertisement shows.

Clendinning’s prices were in the same range as those charged by
Williamsburg wigmakers through most of the eighteenth century. It is
worth remark that Charlton’s price for a brown dress bob wig was the
same in 1770 as Andrew Anderson had charged in 1752 and as Jean Pasteur
had received in 1726, though the earlier models were probably more
elaborate than Charlton made.

From prices charged for various articles of clothing at the same period,
it appears that a man could outfit himself with hat, coat, shirt,
breeches, hose, and shoes for about what his wig would cost him. Put
another way, a suitably cheap wig might easily cost a journeyman his
wages for two to three weeks, while a wealthy planter might pay nearly
as much for one “Grisell Tye Wig” as a servant’s board cost for a year.

    [Illustration: _This advertisement is dated “_At_ Glasgow _the 25th
    February, 1744-5_.” It actually appeared in the _Virginia Gazette_
    of June 6, 1745, more than three months after Thomas Clendinning
    penned it. With transatlantic postal service so slow, the mail-order
    business that Clendinning solicited must have been less than
    rushing. It appears that he did not advertise in the _Virginia
    Gazette_ again._]

                          THOMAS CLENDINNING,
                        Wig-Maker, in _GLASGOW_,

  UNDERTAKES to furnish all the Gentlemen in _Virginia_, that are
  pleased to favour him with their Commands, in WIGS of _all Sorts and
  Fashions_, at the Prices under-mentioned, according to the Goodness
  and Size; in which Particular he promises to restrict himself to the
  lowest Rates he charges any of his Customers living in _Glasgow._

  He is always posses’d of a large Stock of the _best HAIRS of all
  Colours_; and, as he proposes to keep the _best Workmen in his
  Employ_, and to regulate his _Fashions_ by the _present Mode_ at
  _LONDON_, he makes no Doubt of giving _entire Satisfaction_ both in
  the _Goodness_ and _Cheapness_ of his WORK, which will be considerably
  under the _London_ Prices.

  _Fair Bob Wigs_, from 30 _sh._ to 3 _l._
  _Grizled Brigadier Wigs_ and _Roses_, from 14 _sh._ to 30 _sh._
  _Grizled Spencer Wigs_ and _Roses_, from 14 _sh._ to 25 _sh._
  _Grizled Bobs, Long_ and _Short_, from 14 _sh._ to 30 _sh._
  _Brown Brigadier_ and _Spencer Wigs_, from 10 _sh._ 6 _d._ to 16 _sh._
          6 _d._
  _Black Bobbs_ and _Black Naturals_, from 8 _sh._ to 12 _sh._
  _Pale_ and _Brown Bobs_, of the best Kinds, from 8 _sh._ to 12 _sh._
  And all _Sorts_ for BOYS.

  The Method he would propose to take in answering his _Commissions_, is
  as follows:

  “That the Gentlemen forward their Orders to himself, or to any of
  their Friends in _Glasgow_, expressing the Colour, Fashion of the
  Wigs, and Dimensions of the Caul, and the Price about which they would
  have the Wigs made up.

  “Or, if they lodge a _Memorandum_, as above-mentioned, at the
  _Rawleigh_ Tavern in _Williamsburg_, several Copies of the same will
  be forwarded to him by different Opportunities, and he will
  immediately, upon a Receipt thereof, have the Wigs wrought up
  agreeable to the Directions, and sent to _Virginia_ by the first Ship
  that offers, directed to the same House, where they may be called for.

  “Upon Delivery of the Wigs, the first-cost Price to be paid at the
  current Exchange, together with the common Premium of Insurance, and
  Six Pence a-Pound, as Commission, for the Trouble of receiving and
  delivering the Wigs, and remitting the Money from _Virginia_.

  “He will charge nothing for the Boxes nor Freight: And, if the Wigs do
  not please at Sight, the Gentlemen are not bound to take them.

  “Each Gentleman’s Name shall be mark’d upon the Wigs; and along with
  each Box there will be sent an Invoice of the Whole, distinguishing
  the several Commissions, and including Insurance.

  “And, that the Gentlemen may be the better satisfied that Justice is
  done them in the Prices, _&c._ the Wigs will be examined, and the
  Invoice attested by Mr. _RICHARD OSWALD_ Junior, Merchant in
  _Glasgow_.”

  _At_ Glasgow the 25th February, 1744-5.

                                                     THOMAS CLENDINNING.

Charlton’s account book shows that shaving and dressing also came at
different prices according to the services given. The charge for a year
usually amounted to two pounds three shillings. It might, however, be as
little as the one pound five shillings that Peter Pelham twice incurred
or as much as the four pounds that Speaker Randolph paid. Pelham,
organist at Bruton Parish Church and keeper of the colony’s gaol, found
time in a busy life to father a family of sixteen children but never got
around to paying his little debt to the barber. The account book shows
it, along with 13 years’ accrued interest, still unpaid in 1784.

Besides the 60 brown dress bobs he made in 1770—seemingly a typical year
for him—Charlton sold 20 brown dress queue wigs, three grizzle bobs, one
each of three other styles, made curls or dressed ladies’ hair on 28
occasions, and had 42 annual customers for shaving and dressing. During
the court or Assembly sessions many additional patrons demanded these
last services. All of his 1770 business should have brought Charlton
well over £300 in 1771, when most payments would have been made.
Actually he received roughly £260 in that year, with the balance
probably dribbling in over the next decade—or in some cases never paid.

The difficulties of debt collection were among the reasons why so many
colonial Virginia craftsmen sought to augment their income by branching
into some other activity. Williamsburg wigmakers favored innkeeping as
their second occupation. No fewer than five operated ordinaries or
provided lodgings, and one of them, Robert Lyon, moved on to become a
merchant. David Cunningham served as the town constable for several
years, and Alexander Finnie, of course, left the wig trade entirely to
become host of the Raleigh Tavern.

    [Illustration: _A facsimile of Andrew Anderson’s bill to Colonel
    Thomas Jones, then of Williamsburg, for services to various members
    of the latter’s household, apparently including servants, during
    1741, 1742, and 1743. Note that there are more entries for pulling
    teeth and bleeding the sick than for making and dressing wigs.
    (Reproduced by permission from the Jones Family Papers, Library of
    Congress.)_]

In addition to wigmaking, shaving, and hairdressing, Andrew Anderson
practiced dentistry and phlebotomy (bleeding). But these were
traditional phases of the barbering craft, not extra occupations—albeit
only Anderson among Williamsburg barbers practiced them so far as we
know.

Charlton at one time took a flier in real estate along with John
Stretch, bookbinder and bookkeeper in William Hunter’s printing office.
The partners bought the playhouse and lot (about where Mrs. Campbell’s
Tavern now stands) from Lewis Hallam, proprietor of the Company of
Comedians recently from London. The evidence is inconclusive, but
suggests that the venture was not a glittering success.

From time to time Charlton recorded the sale of such items as a “Ferkin
of butter,” a gross of bottles (apparently empty), “eight pounds
Chooklate,” stockings, “five Hundred Limes,” a piece of linen, three
dozen strong beer, one “cheas,” and part of a lottery ticket. However
intriguing these entries may be, they are too infrequent and irregular
to support a conclusion that the barber was running a retail store on
the side. When so much business was done by barter, any craftsman might
have incongruous articles to sell.

Like the Silversmith James Geddy, Jr., and other craftsmen of
Williamsburg, Charlton once served on the city’s common council. This
position carried no compensation, but election to it showed that a man’s
neighbors trusted and respected him.

The tradition of the humble artisan whose industry and integrity earned
him the esteem of his fellow citizens ran strong in colonial America.
Unfortunately for the wigmakers, however, no bulwark could withstand the
ebb tide of fashion. George Lafong, whose Williamsburg wig shop rivaled
Charlton’s in the early 1770s, ended as a beggar in 1796. Someone, it
seems, must pay the price for every forward step in the march of
progress. Were it not so, all of us might still be wearing wigs today.



              _THE BARBERS AND WIGMAKERS OF WILLIAMSBURG_


_Andrew Anderson_—Apprenticed for seven years to John Peter Wagnon of
      Williamsburg in 1731. After only five years became his own master
      and bought Wagnon’s shop next to the Raleigh Tavern. The only
      Williamsburg barber known to have practiced dentistry and
      phlebotomy. Frequently in court as witness, plaintiff, or
      defendant in suits over property, debts, etc. Sold out to William
      Peake, Yorktown barber and wigmaker, and was preparing to leave
      for England when he died suddenly in 1752.

_Stephen Besouth_—Died April 3, 1726, leaving an estate appraised at £40
      12_s._ 1_d._ and consisting almost solely of articles suitable to
      barbering and wigmaking.

_Daniel Blouett_—Arrived in Virginia in 1700 as a Huguenot refugee.
      Bought a lot in Williamsburg in 1713, the deed identifying him as
      a “Peruke-Maker.” Died in 1720. His name was variously spelled (or
      misspelled) in different records: Blouet, Bluet, Bleuet, Blewitt,
      Blewit, Blewet, Blouett, and Blouette.

_John Borton_—The _Virginia Gazette_ of March 3, 1768, published a list
      of letters in the post office waiting to be claimed by their
      addressees. One was for “John Borton, perukemaker, Williamsburg.”
      Nothing more is known of him.

_Simon Brazier_—A partner of Anthony Geohegan, Williamsburg barber and
      wigmaker, from April to about November 1768.

_John Bryan_—A partner of Alexander Maitland in the wigmaking craft in
      1752 and later sole proprietor of a shop on Williamsburg’s main
      street. Possibly moved away from the town in 1756.

_Edward Charlton_—In 1752, soon after arriving from London, became a
      partner of Richard Gamble in the latter’s shop next door to the
      Raleigh Tavern. Continued the business after Gamble’s death and
      was the town’s foremost wigmaker until the Revolution. Died
      sometime between 1783 and 1792.

_Richard Charlton_—Presumably related to Edward. Probably was not
      himself a barber or wigmaker, but was briefly an inactive partner
      of James Nichols, Williamsburg wigmaker, and on occasion purveyed
      wigs to customers of his well-patronized tavern.

_David Cunningham_—In addition to barbering and wigmaking, operated an
      ordinary (inn) at his house near the Capitol and for several years
      served as constable of Williamsburg. Died in 1720.

_James Currie_—Took over in 1752 the former shop of Andrew Anderson in
      partnership with William Peake of Yorktown. Later moved across the
      street to his own shop. Ordered in 1759 to pay the support of
      “Mary Seveney’s Bastard Child.” May have left town thereafter, as
      his shop and the lot it stood on were sold in 1761.

_William Davenport_—An inventoried appraisal of his estate in 1770
      listed a number of items used by barbers and wigmakers.

_Mr. Davidson_—The register of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg
      records the death on October 1, 1749, of “Mr. Davidson—the
      Barber.” Nothing more is known of him.

_William Duncan_—Was an indentured servant in 1753 of Robert Lyon,
      Williamsburg wigmaker. Died two years later, leaving an estate
      appraised by three other wigmakers at £28 and consisting mostly of
      wigmaking articles and supplies.

_Alexander Finnie_—Seemingly successful as wigmaker, tavernkeeper, and
      property-owner. Advertised in 1745 for two or three journeymen,
      luring one from Andrew Anderson, and imported more the next year.
      Acquired the Raleigh Tavern in 1749 and the new (second) theater
      in 1751, actively managing the former until he sold both
      properties in 1752. At his death in 1769 also owned Porto Bello
      plantation outside Williamsburg.

_Richard Gamble_—From 1743 onward regularly cited in court records for
      failing to attend church and to pay debts. In 1752 took Edward
      Charlton into partnership to run his shop next to the Raleigh.
      Died in 1755 leaving no known family or real property and only £14
      worth of barbering and wigmaking articles.

_Anthony Geohegan_—Opened shop next door to Mrs. Vobe’s tavern across
      from the Raleigh in 1768. Took Simon Brazier briefly into
      partnership the same year. Moved to Richmond sometime between 1770
      and 1775, having in the meantime married Martha Lavia,
      Williamsburg widow.

_William Godfrey_—Announced in 1766 that he had opened shop between the
      Raleigh Tavern and the Capitol. Nothing more is known of his
      wigmaking activities, but he figured in several court cases during
      the following seven years.

_Thomas Hewitt_—Was an indentured servant of Robert Lyon in 1753 and may
      have had his own shop in Williamsburg before moving to Annapolis
      about 1762.

_Cuthbert Hubbard_—In 1771 advertised that he was still carrying on his
      wigmaking business in addition to offering lodgings. Died in 1779.
      His will mentioned only two articles used by wigmakers and the
      inventory of his estate listed none.

_George Lafong_—Kept shop in Williamsburg from 1762 to 1783, at one time
      selling a pair of curls to Patsy Custis, Washington’s
      stepdaughter. Advertised on several occasions for a journeyman to
      help him, and in 1777 took Alexander Wiley into partnership.
      Nineteen years later Lafong turned up as a beggar on the streets
      of Norfolk.

_Walter Lennox_—First appeared in Williamsburg court records in 1759.
      From 1768 had his shop at the Sign of the Red Lion, where he also
      offered lodgings. His frequent advertisements for a journeyman
      indicate that he did a lively business. Lodged and boarded sick
      soldiers in the Revolution and supplied provisions to the army.

_Robert Lyon_—In various businesses from 1749 to 1771, first as barber
      and wigmaker. Took up tavernkeeping at the Sign of Edinburgh
      Castle, near the Capitol, in 1755. Four years later had become a
      merchant whose store faced on Market Square.

_Alexander Maitland_—With his partner, John Bryan, advertised wigmaking
      services once in 1752. Thereafter Maitland appears to have moved
      to Yorktown.

_James Martin_—Court records and the like show him to have been in
      Williamsburg from 1760 to 1766; he never advertised in the
      _Virginia Gazette_. At his death he left a large estate including
      18 wigs and other barbering articles as well as items that point
      strongly to his being also a tavernkeeper.

_James Nichols_—Coming from London, he opened shop first in Petersburg
      in 1772 and three years later in Williamsburg. Took Richard
      Charlton into a brief and unsuccessful partnership in 1776.
      Advertised his property for rent in 1779, and by 1784 was located
      in Norfolk.

    [Illustration: _This page from François-Alexandre-Pierre de
    Garsault’s _The Art of the Wigmaker_, with illustrations similar to
    those of Diderot’s _Encyclopedia_, shows the following styles: (by
    letter, not in the usual order): (A) bonnet or short wig; (B) bag
    wig; (C) knotted wig; (D) clerical wig; (E) natural wig; (F) square
    wig; (G) brigadier wig; and (H) double pigtail wig._]

_Jean Pasteur_—A Huguenot refugee who had settled in Williamsburg by
      1703. Appeared in court in the usual roles with the usual
      frequency. Died in 1741, leaving a moderate amount of barbering
      and wigmaking articles.

[_John_] _James Pasteur_—Eldest son of the wigmaker Jean Pasteur, he
      followed his father’s craft for a while, then his own natural bent
      for learning. Became master of a grammar school and then an
      Anglican clergyman in Norfolk County.

_William Peake_—A Yorktown barber, wigmaker, and dealer in imported
      wigmaking supplies who made a brief appearance in Williamsburg,
      first opening shop in the tavern of William Dunn, then buying the
      old shop of Andrew Anderson and taking into partnership James
      Currie. Currie seems to have run the Williamsburg end of the
      combine while Peake returned to Yorktown.

_Edward Perry_—The Guardian Accounts of York County show that he was
      paid for shaving and a wig in 1748. Nothing more is known of his
      barbering or wigmaking activity.

_George Simmons_—An advertisement in the _Virginia Gazette_ of April 14,
      1774, mentions “Mr. George Simmons, Peruke Maker.” Nothing more is
      known of him.

_Robert Tennoch_—His name first appeared in court records of 1722.
      Described himself as “Perukemaker” in his will, probated in 1726.
      His estate included barbering articles.

_John Peter Wagnon_—Andrew Anderson was bound as apprentice to him in
      1731 to learn “the business of Barber and Peruke Maker.” After
      five years Wagnon gave Anderson his liberty and sold him the shop
      next to the Raleigh Tavern.

_Alexander Wiley_—Became a partner of George Lafong in 1775 and
      continued so at least until 1777, the last known appearance of his
      name.



                   _SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING_


Janet Arnold, _Perukes & Periwigs_. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery
      Office, 1970.

C. Willett and Phyllis Cunnington, _Handbook of English Costume in the
      Eighteenth Century_. Rev. ed. Boston: Plays, Inc., 1972.

Marshall B. Davidson, _Life in America_. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton
      Mifflin, 1951.

Charles De Zemler, _Once Over Lightly: The Story of Man and His Hair_.
      New York, 1939.

Alice M. Earle, _Two Centuries of Costume in America, 1620-1820_. New
      York: Macmillan, 1903.

Mary Evans, _Costume Throughout the Ages_. 2nd ed., rev. Philadelphia:
      J. B. Lippincott Co., 1950.

Francis M. Kelly and Randolph Schwabe, _Historic Costume: A Chronicle of
      Fashion in Western Europe, 1490-1790_. New York: Charles
      Scribner’s Sons, 1925.

Carl Köhler, _A History of Costume_. New York: G. Howard Watt, 1928.

Bernard Lens, _The Exact Dress of the Head_. London: The Costume
      Society, 1970.

Elisabeth McClellan, _Historic Dress in America, 1607-1800_.
      Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1904.

R. Turner Wilcox, _The Mode in Costume_. New York: Charles Scribner’s
      Sons, 1948.

——, _The Mode in Hats and Headdress_. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,
      1952.


_The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg_, based largely on an
unpublished monograph by Thomas K. Bullock and Maurice B. Tonkin, Jr.,
formerly of the Colonial Williamsburg research staff, assisted by
Raymond R. Townsend, former researcher in crafts, was prepared with the
editorial assistance of Thomas K. Ford, now retired as editor of
Colonial Williamsburg publications. It was first published in 1959 and
previously reprinted in 1965, 1968, 1971, and 1979.



                          Transcriber’s Notes


—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
  is public-domain in the country of publication.

—Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
  _underscores_.





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