18th Century Greatcoats & Watchcoats

Most illustrations of 18th century great coats show them being worn by night watchmen (often carrying lanterns and/or clubs), but inventories (such as probate inventories from Deerfield, Massachusetts or runaway ads from Rhode Island and Pennsylvania) indicate that other men owned great coats as well.

In a letter dated November 30, 1759, George Washington wrote to Robert Cary & Company to request “a New Market great Coat with a loose hood to it made of Blew Drab or broad Cloth with Straps before according to the present taste — let it be made of such Cloth as will turn a good Shower of Rain and made long, and fit in other respects for a Man full 6 feet high & proportionably made — ”possibly the Measure sent for my other Clothes may be a good d[i]rection in these.”

Nora Waugh describes the gradual changes in 18th century men’s outerwear:

Capes were worn for travelling but became unfashionable by the middle of the century. A Roquelaure was a cape cut in three pieces, the side seams shaped to the shoulders. The great coat, or surtout, was a long loose overcoat, with just two side seams, slit up the centre back for riding, a standing or turned-down collar with sometimes a small cape as well. It was worn single- or double-breasted. When driving became the fashionable craze the sporting fraternity took over the coachman's great-coat with its multiple capes — the box coat. By the end of the century these great-coats were becoming fashionable town wear.

Additional Resources

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Keeping Warm in an 18th c. Gentleman’s Great Coat

Reproduction of Thomas Coram’s greatcoat by Ninya Mikhaila

Greatcoat

Greatcoat patterns in Fitting & Proper

Mill Farm 1750-1800 Men’s Greatcoat Pattern

18th Century Material Culture: Great Coats, Surtouts, & Cloaks

Le Surtout.

Garsault’s description of a surtout in L’art du tailleur (1769).

The surtout is properly a country coat, but it has become very common in the city; it is worn over the waistcoat, like a true coat, the only difference between them is the coat has buttons & buttonholes from the top to the bottom, whereas this only has them down to the waist level, and three buttonholes on the back vent; a collar is sometimes added to it.

Extant great coats

A man’s greatcoat, c. 1780-1800, in Fitting & Proper: “taupe wool tightly woven and fulled, half lined with olive green wool shag and off-white linen”

Colonial Williamsburg 2001-835, man’s great coat, America or England, c. 1780-1820

Colonial Williamsburg 2023-19, green double breasted broadcloth coat lined in a buff worsted wool, Poland, c. 1790

National Trust 1350636, great coat made of interwoven blue and cream tabby wool, c. 1793-1794

William Cowper’s great coat

London Museum 56.69/1, a slim-fitting double-breasted greatcoat in dark blue wool facecloth with a dark blue silk velvet collar, 1803