18th century short cloaks for women
This notebook page focuses on depictions of short cloaks as worn by working-class women in the 18th century, as opposed to more fashionable styles, such as silk capuchins, mantelets, and pelisses. The cloaks in this set of links are likely to have been made from wool, are generally unlined, and often have simple collars instead of hoods.
(Pages on full-length women’s cloaks and men’s cloaks are available elsewhere on this website.)
Colonial Williamsburg 2018-4 is a rare extant example, dated to c. 1770-1780: “Red wool (broadcloth) cloak, bound down the center front, around the hood, and interior neck edge with wide red silk tape. The cloak originally had a closure at the neck, but it is no longer present, only the scars remain from what appears to be ties. The main body of the cloak was cut geometrically as a half circle and the scraps were used to create the extensions down the front. Unless noted the seams are all stoated or joined together with no seam allowances. The hood is created with a box pleat at center back with radiating knife pleats to each side. The hood is very tall but shallow.”
Additional Resources
Cloathing for Girls: Cloaks and Cloathing for Poor Women: Cloaks in Instructions for cutting out apparel for the poor (1789)
Blogs/tutorials on making short cloaks: Burnley & Trowbridge (Part 1, Part 2), The Fashionable Past, A Fashionable Frolick, So Steady as She Sews
Kannik’s Korner patterns for short cloaks for girls and women
Depictions of women wearing short cloaks
The Blind Musician by J.S. Müller, c. 1740
Baby, Cloaths & All for Three Pence, 1740s
A woman leading a child with a toy and a woman carrying a child, figure sketches from Edinburgh and the neighborhood after 1745, by Paul Sandby
Street characters by Paul Sandby, c. 1747-1760
The Cryes of the City of London Drawne after the Life: Buy my great eels, buy my live eels; Diddle Diddle Diddle Dumplens ho
Elizabeth Canning by Thomas Worlidge, 1754
Salad girl, 1758
Two Standing Ladies (Demoiselles Quantin) by Daniel Chodowiecki, 1758
London Cries: Pretty little toys for Girls and Boys, c. 1759
London Cries: Do You Want Any Spoons by Paul Sandby, c. 1759
London Cries: A Milkmaid by Paul Sandby, c. 1759
London Cries: Turn your Copper into Silver Now before your Eyes by Paul Sandby, 1760
The Knowing One Taken In, 1760
The Press Gang by John Collet
A country footpath, with a distant view of Windsor Castle, c. 1760-1770
Background figures in The Return from the Fair by Edward Penny, 1765
The Recruiting Sergeant by John Collett, 1767
The Female Orators, 1768
Windsor Castle from Datchet Lane on a rejoicing night by Paul Sandby, 1768
The Female Barber, 1770
The Frenchman at the Market, 1770
The Gossips by Samuel Scott
The human passions, 1773
The Disbanded Soldier. So shall Desert in Arms be crown’d., 1775
A Market Girl (The Silver Age) by Henry Walton, 1776-1777
To the subscribers to the Lottery Magazine for 1777
Heyday! Is this my daughter Anne! 1779
The Watercress Girl by Johann Zoffany, 1780
The Flower Girl by Johann Zoffany
Elizabeth Pollard, 1781
The Farmer’s Wife and the Raven by George Stubbs, 1782
A Woman of all Trades, from Covent Garden, 1782
The Blind Beggar and His Granddaughter by John Russell (see also Filial Piety, 1788)
Donnybrook Fair by Francis Wheatley, 1788
The Encampment at Brighton by Francis Wheatley, 1788
Soldier with Country Women Selling Ribbons, near a Military Camp by Francis Wheatley, 1788
Landscape with figures by George Morland, c. 1790-1793
A Windy Day by George Morland, 1790s
The roguish boy, 1791
Breaking the Ice by George Morland, 1792
The Woodman at Labor, 1799
Cries of London No. 3: Last Dying Speech and Confession by Thomas Rowlandson, 1799
Woman, child, and dog on a road by George Morland
Figure study by John Opie
The Warrener by George Morland (see also Sportsman’s Return)
An old fisherwoman with two women digging for bait by Francis Wheatley, before 1801
Cries of Edinburgh: sellers of pease & beans, cress, and turnips, 1803
The Market Girl by Henry Walton
An old woman spinning silk by Margaret Sarah Carpenter, c. 1816
The majority of the short cloaks in the depictions and descriptions here are like the one illustrated in The Gossips: red (likely madder-dyed wool), with a simple collar and no hood.
However, there are also depictions and descriptions of hooded short cloaks, as well as short cloaks in colors other than red — as in this detail from Donnybrook Fair.
Descriptions of women’s short cloaks
The descriptions here demonstrate the range of colors of these cloaks, though there are few other details provided. As with the illustrations above, red is the predominant color, though other colors appear as well. (N.B.: While “scarlet” referred to a type of fabric in the Middle Ages, here in the 18th century, Johnson defines scarlet as “a colour deeply red, but not ſhining; cloath dyed with a ſcarlet colour.”
Short cloaks are also listed among imported goods sold in the American colonies; advertisements in The Pennsylvania Gazette mentioning short cloaks include Huſton and Campbell (November 8, 1744), Thomas Preston (November 8, 1753), and Philip Benezet (November 18, 1756), while Hamilton, Wallace, and Company advertised “womens ſcarlet and colour’d ſhort cloaks” in The Pennsylvania Journal (November 15, 1744).
The preference for red cloaks is underscored in an advertisement in The Gloucester Journal (October 9, 1775):
RICHARD BUTT, Scarlet Dyer, in the Weſt-gate-Street, begs Leave to acquaint the Public, that he carries on the SCARLET DYING, and is allowed to be as good a Judge as any in England for dyihng Scarlet Cloaks: Whoever will pleaſe to employ him may depend on the quickeſt Diſpatch; and his Country Cuſtomers may be aſſured of having their Goods returned in a Fortnight without fail; and their Favours will be gratefully acknolwedged, by Their humble Servant, RICHARD BUTT. N.B. Short Scarlet Cloaks are dyed at 1s. 6d. each.
Some of the descriptions of female runaways’ cloaks may also be referencing these sorts of short cloaks.
“Kate Buck, she in the red short Cloak there” (trial of Jane Gale & Eleanor Walker, 6 December 1732)
“a Scarlet short Cloak, value 8 s.” (Trial of Rosannah Swann, 10 June 1736)
“a scarlet short Cloak, value 12 s.” (Trial of Dorothy Felton & James Calwell, 20 April 1737)
“Chevalier Rusca. She had then the same Cloak, which she has on now. (She had a light-coloured short Cloth cloak on at the Bar.)
Smith. I think she had a red short Cloak on, at that Time; and had a Velvet Hood, and a Hat over it.
Chevalier Rusca. I am sure it was the same she has on now.
Smith. To the best of my Remembrance, she was then in a red Cloak …
She then had a red short Cloak on; but it is possible she might have changed her Cloak, between the Chapel and my House.” (Trial of Margaret Newel, 16 April 1740)
“a scarlet cloth cloak” (Trial of Mary Page & Elizabeth Farrow, 14 October 1741)
“the Prisoner came to the left Side of me, untied my Cloak, took it off my Shoulder, and run away with it … I was in the Strand, and saw the Prisoner running along with a Scarlet-Cloak in his Hand” (Trial of William Burnet, 14 January 1743)
“a Scarlet Short Cloak” (The Newcastle Weekly Courant, July 30, 1743)
“Q. (to Eliz. Brooks.) Have you lost any thing?
Brooks. Yes, a strip'd Cotton Gown, and a white short Cloak …
The next Day I went into Rag-Fair, and I found it in Rosemary-Lane, as I was going along; it was hanging in the Window.
Q. Did you tell the Gentleman that you lost it?
Brooks. I told him it was my Gown, and I desir'd him not to sell it. I ask'd him, if he had such a Thing as a white Short-Cloak, which they had” (Trial of Mary Carter, 9 April 1746)
“a red short cloak” (Trial of Mary Wilks, 17 October 1750)
“One Women's new fine Purple Cloth Short Cloak” (New York Gazette, January 13, 1752)
“a Servant Irish Woman named Mary Kelley … had on an old short red cloak” (New York Gazette, November 29, 1752)
“a Servant Girl, named Elizabeth Rainey, lately come from Belfast, in Ireland, into Philadelphia; she is about 17 or 18 Years of Age … Had on, and took with her … a large short red napped Cloak, with a Hood to it, and Gimp round the said Hood” (Pennsylvania Gazette, October 6, 1753)
“Jean Andre, a ſhort, thick French Woman … had on, when miſſing, … an old ſcarlet Short Cloak” (Berrow’s Worcester Journal, May 23, 1754)
“a Mulatto Wench named Ohnech, but goes by the name Hannah and pretends to be free … had on when she whent away … Blue short cloak” (New York Gazette, July 24, 1758)
“an Iriſh Servant Girl, named Martha Steward, about 18 years of Age … Had on, when ſhe went away … a dark brown ſhort Cloak” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 1, 1759)
“a negro woman called Lucretia or Cretia … She had on when she went away … a blue short Cloak” (New York Gazette, March 5, 1763)
“a tall slim straight negro wench named Pegg, about 40 years of age … had on a short red cloak” (New York Gazette, December 13, 1764)
“Apprehended, and now detained in Prison here [at Newcastle upon Tyne] as Rogues and Vagabonds, and upon Suſpicion of being a Gang, or Part of a Gang of Thieves … A Woman, who calls herſelf MARY … She now wears … a red ſhort Cloak … a Woman who calls herſelf MARGARET … now wears … a red ſhort Cloak” (The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, February 8, 1766)
“a Negro Wench named Sal … about 28 Years of Age, had on … a red short Cloak” (The New-York Gazette, April 23, 1766)
“an Iriſh ſervant girl, about 21 years of age, named Agnes, or Ann Sorby … a ſhort cloth cloak, with ſilver buttons on it” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, November 13, 1766)
“a large white female, aged about 27 years … Carried of with her … one scarlet broad cloth short cloak, much worn with a silver lace about the same” (Connecticut Courant, July 29, 1770)
“Now in CUSTODY here. The two Scotch WOMEN hereunder deſcribed, who were this day detected ſtealing in a ſhop in this town in company together … One of them calls herſelf AGNES HENDERSON … wears … an old red ſhort cloak trimmed with black and white fur ſkin … The other calls herſelf AGNES otherwiſe ANN REED: 7ellip; wears … a dark-brown ſhort cloth cloak” (The Newcastle Weekly Courant, October 22, 1774)
“a Negro woman, named Hannah, about 19 years old … had on when she went away … an old red shag short cloak” (Connecticut Courant, May 11, 1778)
“a MULATTO WENCH named PATT; had on … a short brown bearskin cloak” (The New-Jersey Gazette, May 12, 1778)
“a young black girl, about 18 years of age named DIONA; had on when she went away … short red cloak with ermine on the fore part” (The Royal Gazette, May 15, 1778; was this a pelisse?)
“a NEGRO Wench,named Jane, she had on … a scarlet cloak with a hood on it” (The Royal Gazette, February 8, 1782)
“a Negro Wench named LISSA … had on when she went away … a blue short cloak unbound with a cap to it” (The Royal Gazette, February 12, 1782)
“a Negro Wench, his Wife, named VENUS, about 32 Years of Age … took with her a red short Cloak” (The Providence Gazette, October 24, 1783)
“a NEGRO WENCH, named ISABEL; ahd on when she run-away, a short whitish Cloth Cloak, with a hood” (The Royal Gazette, November 18, 1783)
“a Negro Servant Girl, named SILVIA. — She is about 17 Years of Age … Had on, when she went away … an old brown Camblet short Cloak” (The Providence Gazette, April 1, 1785)