Figure 1. Bartholomeus van der Hulst, The Banquet at the Crossbowsmen’s Guild, 1648. The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. of their prominence: a silver-plated rapier with baldric (the belt or sash across the chest) and a black hat with a plume to be presented to Rutger Hendrixsz van Soest in his capacity as officer and schout of Rensselaerswijck, four black hats with silver bands to be presented in his name to the schepens and councilors of Rensselaerswikck.5 A few years later, when a new schout was selected, he was instructed to visit the colony director, “to take the oath of fidelity and the receive the silver-plated rapier with baldric and the hat with a plume” which were waiting for him.6 Apparently, these accessories went with the office and were passed from one man to the next. They were also, it would appear, a common set of items for a man of position to have, as several paintings of the era show groups of men in these signifiers of status. Consider The Banquet at the Crossbowsmen’s Guild by van der Hulst (figure 1). The painter has captured the riot of the party, crowds of men, with rapiers and elaborate baldrics and hats of black and gray, some worn, some held aloft, each with a plume or decorative band to distinguish the owner and his rank. Camaraderie and community came through in more somber events as well. In July 1679, the will of Henry Clark, “late of Poynig Creek, Va., [now] of New Yorke” was filed. First, “a pair of large buttons shall be put in the pocket of my best suite” which should be sent to his brother in England.
After other matters are settled, Clark directs that scarves and gloves be given to the men who carry him to his grave “as the usual custom is.”7 The gift of items, often gloves and scarves, to funeral attendees was common in colonial America, especially in New England, for a period of about one hundred years. Mr. Clark’s note of this custom is an early example and somewhat unusual for New York, though not without parallel. Before it fell out of favor, the practice became rather extreme, with some family members giving away thousands of pairs of gloves to memorialize a lost loved one.8
special items and traditions surrounding a wedding or marriage is certainly familiar. This may be what Grietie Warnaers was counting on when she sued Daniel d’Stille in 1654, asking that he “be condemned to lawfully marry her.” She had his signet ring and letters proclaiming his affection. He had made a promise, and because of that she had felt it acceptable to have relations with him. There was apparently some confusion, with d’Stille unwilling to agree to marry. After Grietie Warnaers announced that she was pregnant, the court officers decided to ask the clergy for advice.10 What happened
Subjects of my affection and haste.
4 John Styles, The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven, 2007), 327. “The need to employ a wide range of sometimes neglected written sources is a consequence of the major evidential obstacles that confront historians of clothing worn by ordinary people.”
O
ther ornaments are less understood. A curious back-and-forth occurs in a series of court documents from Albany in December 1658. The wife of Abraham Vosborch sued Annetien Lievens, the wife of Goossen Gerrittsen, for four and a half beavers, “for the decorated crowns which the defendant borrowed from her and which have not been returned.” The defendant said that she borrowed them jointly with Maria Wesselsen, “as they were both bridesmaids” and she maintained that she should only pay one half of the replacement cost.9 It is unclear what these crowns, or headdresses, would have looked like, but the idea of
84
5 A. J. F. Van Laer, trans., The Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany, 1908), 205. 6
Ibid., 250.
“New York Probate Records, 1629–1971,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/) New York County, wills liber 1 (1665–1683) estate of Henry Clark, 216; William S. Pelletreau, ed., Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate’s Office, City of New York (New York, 1892), 54.
7
Steven C. Bullock and Sheila McIntyre, “The Handsome Tokens of a Funeral: Glove-Giving and the Large Funeral in Eighteenth-Century New England,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 69, no. 2 (April 2012), 305–46.
8
A. J. F. Van Laer, trans., Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, 1652–1660, 7 vols. (Albany, 1923), 2: 169
9
Berthold Fernow, ed., The Records of New Amsterdam: From 1653 to 1674 Anno Domini, 7 vols. (New York, 1897) 1: 235, 238. [hereafter cited as RNA].
10
de Halve Maen
