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Saint John’s Loyalist Coffee House – Part One of Two
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Loyalist refugees began arriving at the mouth of the St. John River in the spring of 1783. A year later the portion of northwestern Nova Scotia where they had found sanctuary became the colony of New Brunswick, and then, in 1785, the settlements at the river’s mouth became incorporated into the city of Saint John. It did not take too long for taverns, public houses, and other drinking establishments to spring up in the first years of the Loyalists’ arrival, and within a year of the Loyalists’ arrival, they would have their very own coffee house.
The Loyalist scholar Lorenzo Sabine described this gathering spot with these words: “The Coffee-House was a famous place of meeting for a long time. Within it the Loyalists gathered year after year, to discuss their affairs, both public and private; to tell of their losses, sufferings, and expulsion from their native land; to hold high revelry; to read the news; to transact business; and to devise means to develop the resources of the Colony.”
To someone in the 21st century, the term coffee house either conjures up memories of the local drive-through shop or images of dimly lit nightclubs frequented by countercultural poets and musicians. However, the 18th century coffee house was much more — part social club, part embassy, and part hotel. The dozens of these establishments that could be found in the British capital’s financial district each catered to a particular clientele — lawyers, stockbrokers, actors and even merchants from the Thirteen Colonies.
Most crucially, the coffee house provided a venue for creating or extending one’s business network. Many such establishments were designed with a particular class of society in mind, as was the case in New Brunswick’s largest Loyalist settlement. Rather than being a place where blue-collar workers would rub shoulders with white-collar professionals, Saint John’s Exchange Coffee House served an elite clientele.
The story of the Exchange Coffee House begins with Charles McPherson, a Scot who settled in Kingsbridge, New York in 1776. During the revolution McPherson was a member of DeLancey’s Brigade. At the age of 30, he and his family were members of the Loyalist evacuation, sailing for New Brunswick on the Elizabeth in early July, 1783.
King Street, the steep road that led up the hill from one of the principle landing sites of the Loyalist refugees, quickly became the business hub of the new city. Benedict Arnold was one of the early settlers who had a house on this thoroughfare. When lots were drawn for property, McPherson received Lot #402. Eighty feet of the property faced King Street and 50 feet bordered on Prince William Street. At first McPherson did not see the commercial potential of his corner lot and tried to sell it for £15, a price that others thought was too high.
Within a year, McPherson had determined what to do with his “white elephant” property. In August of 1784, one of the city’s newspapers made mention of a new coffee house whose proprietor and owner was none other than Charles McPherson.
Initially comprised of two stories, the new building would, by 1789, eventually have three floors. The first floor was a store “equal to the best stand in the province” that had a large “convenient kitchen” at its back and a 36 by 24 foot wine cellar “built with stone”. On the second floor was “an elegant Assembly Room, 50 by 25 feet, one large Parlour, and a Bedroom.” The third floor featured “eight well-finished bedrooms” that served as lodging for travellers visiting Saint John.
The assembly room of McPherson’s coffee house is first mentioned in the January 18, 1785 journal entry of the Massachusetts Loyalist, Benjamin Marston. “Governor Carleton gave a ball and supper at the Assembly Room. Between 30 and 40 ladies were present, and near 100 gentlemen. The ladies were of the best families only, but the gentlemen were of all sorts. The business was as well conducted as such an entertainment could be where so large a company were to be entertained in so small a room.”
Not only could a Loyalist coffee house be the venue for a ball, it could also be a polling station for a colonial election. New Brunswick’s first election was a hotly contested one, especially in Saint John. Two political “parties” had formed – the Upper Covers that represented the interests of the city’s elite and the Lower Covers that represented middle and working class voters. Those in the Lower Cove “party” had their headquarters at the Exchange Coffee House.
Elections of this era took place over a number of days. Voting began at McPherson’s coffee house on Monday, November 7, 1785. A maximum of six electors at a time were allowed in the room where votes were recorded between noon and four in the afternoon. Rather than a secret written ballot, electors made their choice known by a voice vote.
The city’s sheriff, who oversaw the election, moved the polling station to various points in Saint John over the next few days. On Thursday (the 10th) the sheriff decided that votes would be made at Mallard’s Tavern, the headquarters for those who lived in the city’s Upper Cove.
However, on Wednesday evening, drunken supporters of the Lower Covers had gathered at McPherson’s coffee house. A fight broke out with an Upper Cove supporter who had the misfortune of being in the vicinity, a scuffle that quickly escalated into a riot. Forty to 100 men armed with clubs left the Exchange Coffee House to attack Mallard’s Tavern. Following assaults on those in the tavern and the destruction of its windows, troops from Fort Howe dispersed the angry mob. Loyalist era Saint John could be a tempestuous spot whether fuelled by alcohol or caffeine.
The story of Saint John’s Loyalist coffee house will conclude in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Atlantic Loyalist Connections: New Brunswick Loyalist Journeys: Two New Chapters (Counties)
Meet the Loyalist Youth.
Leah Grandy, !7 Nov. 2021.
We are pleased to announce that two new chapters have now been added to the New Brunswick Loyalist Journeys story map project. You will now find twenty additional biographies of loyalists from Kings County and St. John County, New Brunswick. Please visit the project site for the complete biographies of the loyalists featured in this post and others: https://loyalist.lib.unb.ca/story-maps.
A continuing challenge to loyalist studies is the inclusion of the biographies of “average” loyalists. It is, however, possible to reconstruct individual paths of less prominent refugees of the American Revolution by gathering a variety of documents spanning the American and Maritime colonies. Alexander Fairchild, Gabriel Fowler, and Gasper Maybee were young men at the outbreak of the American Revolution and came from families involved in trades and/or of middling farming backgrounds. They each chose to join a provincial (loyalist) regiment, went on to have varied and geographically widespread experiences throughout the war years, and then resettled in New Brunswick and started families.
Alexander Fairchild (b. 1753, New Fairfield, Connecticut; d. 1787/8, Kingston, New Brunswick) Through the course of the American Revolution, Alexander Fairchild was transformed from a young, outspoken loyalist who escaped from the most notorious prison in Connecticut, into a seasoned, military veteran in the Prince of Wales’ American Volunteers Regiment. He strived to establish a family and farm after his post-war migration to New Brunswick but died at a fairly young age…
Gabriel Fowler (b. c. 1756, Harrison’s Purchase, New York; d. 1832, Hampton, New Brunswick) Harrison’s Purchase, Westchester County, New York, became a major centre of conflict during the American Revolution and the turbulent location of Fowler’s hometown shaped his experience during the war and also his subsequent migration. As a teenager when the war erupted, Fowler engaged in the conflict by joining various loyalist military and militia groups. He then moved to New Brunswick with members of his family in 1783 where he developed a farm in French Village, Kings County…
Gasper Maybee (b. 1750, Paramus, New Jersey; d. 1822, Saint John, New Brunswick) Like many loyalists who migrated to New Brunswick, Canada, Maybee was a young man at the beginning of the American Revolution and chose to join a provincial regiment, the King’s Orange Rangers. He stayed with the regiment throughout its years in New York and Nova Scotia, then was one of the few members who settled the land they were allotted at St. Martins, New Brunswick. Maybee was married to Abigail, and most likely had several children who were born in New Brunswick…
Read more about each of these three Loyalists here, or explore the two new chapters (counties) and twenty added Loyalists in New Brunswick Loyalist Journeys

William Steel UEL and Family
by Ted Steele
Our roots begin with William Steel in Ireland.
Born in 1744, in Tipperary County or Enneskillin County, he was a weaver by trade. With no wife and one son (John) who was about 7 years old, he travelled to Liverpool, England, and sailed for the British colony of New York.
William was a known supporter of British policies, and apparently made no secret of this. As the rebellion brewed, he was vilified by the press and declared an enemy of the people.
I have recently found documentation that he was at some point tarred & feathered by a patriot mob, and a reward was offered for his capture, dead or alive. This likely propelled him into the revolution itself, as he joined Loyalist forces in New Jersey and became a New Jersey Volunteer.
In 1781, near the end of the rebellion, he was a spy carrying secret documents, was
caught and jailed at Morris Town (West Point). He escaped; I have read often that prisoners, even criminals, could often bribe their jailors and escape. The legend is true!
At the end of the war, he married one Deborah Dorson in Goshen, New York & departed for British Canada. He arrived in the Niagara area about 1787, in all probability crossing at Buffalo. In 1795, William was proven to be a Loyalist & received a grant of 200 acres. In addition, his children, as children of a Loyalist, each were eligible for 200 acres upon reaching 21 years (girls earlier, if they married). Steele roots were thus set down in Humberstone, near Port Colborne. William produced 7 children, several of whom have important histories of their own. Read more about William and his descendants…

JAR: The Battle of Mamaroneck
by David Price 18 November 2021
The Battle of Mamaroneck, known to some as the “Skirmish of Heathcote Hill,” was one of the most obscure military engagements of the Revolution but noteworthy for being the first time in the war that organized infantry units composed entirely of Americans—including Continental Army soldiers—encountered each other. To that extent, it might be regarded as a significant moment in America’s first civil war.
Except for a few independent companies of New York volunteers, the only Loyalist contingent deployed by the Anglo-German army that invaded Long Island, Manhattan, and then Westchester County in the summer and fall of 1776 was a regiment commanded by Robert Rogers—best known for his frontier exploits as a major during the French and Indian War that had made him the most famous colonial fighter of the conflict. This unit was created when Gen. William Howe, commander of the British land forces, authorized Rogers to raise a “Corps of Provincials” on August 16, 1776, and it was known as the “Queen’s American Rangers” in honor of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of George III. These Tory provincials—fresh recruits who were well-armed but not yet wearing uniforms and with little military experience—totaled about five hundred and were largely from Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester, while also including some from as far away as Virginia.
During the prior war, Rogers, a native of Massachusetts now age forty-five, led colonial ranger units who substituted for the Indian allies the British lacked. Although his determined efforts to perfect their capacity for wilderness warfare enjoyed only limited success, Rogers compensated by proving himself an adroit self-publicist. The journals he published in London in 1765 bolstered his reputation as the quintessential frontier guerrilla leader. Read more…

JAR: Joseph McCracken: New York’s Wounded Revolutionary Warrior
by Philip D. Weaver 16 Nocember 2021
Following the failed assault on Quebec City, the Continental Congress resolved on January 8, 1776 to provide additional regiments for the defense of Canada. One of them was a new (unnumbered) battalion to be commanded by New York’s Col. Goose Van Schaick and his fellow field officers who had continued in the service from the old 2nd New York. The New York Provincial Congress wanted this battalion to “be raised in the Northern Quarter.”
Capt. Joseph McCracken was a former company commander with the 2nd New York Regiment from the first establishment of the Continental army. He had ended his service and was “reengaged” for the new establishment on November 20, 1775. McCracken did not know that compared to the heavy action he and his former company experienced the previous year, 1776 would prove to be relatively benign.
With Van Schaick in Albany and no brigadier general assigned to them, Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler took personal charge of McCracken’s new company. On December 29, 1775, he ordered McCracken to “send one of the Lieutenants of your Company with the Men you have already raised to Fort George to garrison that post.”[4] That lieutenant was undoubtedly 1st Lt. John Barnes. The same day, Schuyler sent an order to the commissary at Fort George that:
You will deliver to Lieutenant Barnes of Capt McCracken’s Company such necessary Cloathing and Blankets and of such Quality for the Men of that Company. Read more…

Boston King: Black Loyalist, Minister, African Colonial Leader
17 May 2021
When the British attacked Charleston (Charlestown), South Carolina in the spring of 1780, thousands of enslaved Africans fled to the British lines as Loyalists. General Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander, offered them freedom as an incentive to leave rebel masters. Among those who took up the offer was a young man named Boston King.
King was born enslaved on a plantation near Charleston owned by Richard Waring, around 1760. His father, who was literate, had been born in Africa but “stolen away into slavery when he was young.” King relates that Waring had been on good terms with his father and his mother, a skilled herbalist, and treated them well. Boston’s experience was less fortunate.
As a boy he trained as a house servant. When he was sixteen, Waring apprenticed him to a carpenter in a nearby settlement. His new master often beat him “without mercy. When the opportunity came, King joined the exodus of the enslaved fleeing to the British lines at Charleston. Read more…

Weaponizing Settlement in Nova Scotia with Dr. Alexandra Montgomery
Podcast (with transcript) at the Washington Library 4 Nov 2021
Although you might not realize it, in the years before the American Revolution, Nova Scotia was all the rage. People concocted various schemes to settle it, and the British government saw it as one of the keys to its new vision of empire after the Seven Years War.
Nova Scotia has a fascinating, often troubled history. Indigenous peoples and European powers competed for the land, and access to the colony’s lucrative fishing grounds, drawing maps to stake their claims, making war, and in the case of the British, using settlers to box out other competing interests, in a strategy that our guest today calls “weaponized settlement.”
On today’s episode, Dr. Alexandra Montgomery joins Jim Ambuske to chat about her research on Nova Scotia as an imperial place, and as a site of land dispossession, in the era of the American Revolution. Montgomery is our Postdoctoral Fellow in the Digital History and Cartography of the American Revolution here at the Washington Library. And in addition to telling us about an exciting new digital mapping project we’re working on these days, you’ll also learn about the donair, a Nova Scotian treat that should be on the top of your bucket list. Listen in (there is a transcript, but it is tough reading)

Refugees after the American Revolution needed money, homes and acceptance
The Conversation 312 August 2021
The U.S. has long been a destination for people fleeing war-torn regions of the world. But in 1783, the tables were turned: Between 60,000 and 100,000 disaffected colonists from diverse backgrounds were fleeing the American states newly independent from Britain.
The leaders of these exiles referred to themselves as “loyalists,” a title they chose to underscore the debt they believed the British Empire owed them. The largest group of refugees, around 32,000 people, went elsewhere in North America, to British-controlled Nova Scotia and the newly created British colony of New Brunswick. They had hopes of building a colonial society that would compete with the nascent United States.
By the end of the 18th century, however, many became disillusioned with Britain’s promises to aid its loyal refugees. Some even found repatriation to the United States preferable to eking out life in the empire. Examining the experience of the American loyalists reveals important lessons to consider as the United States prepares to welcome Afghan refugees. Read more…

Borealia: The Irish Charter Schools and the Long History of Residential Schooling in the British Empire
By Peter William Walker 15 November 2021
Earlier this year, activists in Canada toppled statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II amid nationwide protests at the Canadian residential school system. In Canada, much of the conversation surrounding the residential schools has focused on the responsibility of the churches (which ran them) and the Canadian government (which funded them). Yet, as those activists recognized, residential schooling also has deep roots in British history.
Long before the establishment of the Canadian residential school system in the nineteenth century, the English (and later British) experimented with residential schooling as a means of colonizing Ireland. These efforts drew on an Enlightenment belief in the malleability of the child, as well as debates among Protestant missionaries about the relationship between religious conversion, language, and “civilization.” The result was an elaborate project to assimilate the Irish population by systematically separating children from their relatives. Historians have not connected the 18th century Irish “charter schools” to the Canadian residential school system. Doing so suggests that the use of residential schooling as a tool of cultural genocide has a longer history than is usually recognized. Read more…

More background on Port Matoon Plaque in St. Stephen NB
In last week’s Loyalist Trails, we noted a new posting for “Plaque Honouring the Landing of the Loyalists” in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. There “the Port Matroon Association’ had a selling error. “Matroon” should have been “Matoon”
The place in Nova Scotia to which this refers is Port Matoon — a corruption of the French word “mouton”, meaning sheep. “Matoon” is the older spelling that was used in the Loyalist era.
P.S. On May 13, 1604, the French explorers Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain landed at Port Mouton and built a temporary camp at Bull Point. The village takes its name because a sheep, excited to see land after a long journey, jumped overboard one of the vessels and swam to shore.
Yes, St. Stephen is definitely in New Brunswick (the home of Ganong Chocolates!), but the folks who settled it had once lived in Port Matoon (Mouton), Nova Scotia. The plaque memorializes that connection.
Stephen Davidson UE

The Adams of Massachusetts
By Adam E. Zielinski at American Battlefield Trust
The story of the Adams family is the stuff of American legend, rightfully so. There is, however, far more in the people and events they participated in that make their true stories so enthralling to the rest of us. How is it that this esteemed family from what was formerly Massachusetts Bay became the original American political dynasty? Two presidents, a Secretary of State, a noted historian, several revering wives to match, and the man credited with sparking the Revolution. Without question, they remain the ascendance of one of the finest political families in American history.
The Adams arrived in the New World with some of the very first English settlers. Henry Adams, the family patriarch who arrived in the 1630’s from Somerset, England, likely came as a Puritan religious dissenter from the Church of England. Religion certainly held an important place in the family’s life, as many of Henry’s descendants worked as ministers in the town of Braintree where they eventually settled.
It is impossible to discuss the American Revolution, and its origins, without acknowledging Samuel Adams. Among his peers of the day, he was admired for his spirited oratories and advocacy for liberty. In the 1760s, like nearly everyone in Boston, Adams had been a devoted British subject. The passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, and the increasing presence of British troops in Boston, however, threw Adams into the emerging bands of protestors and propagandists. It is difficult to know exactly what he participated in, and what constitutes pure fiction. Read more…

John Sage, Son of Benedict Arnold
Here is a bit more to the item Benedict Arnold in New Brunswick After the War from last week’s Loyalist Trails. I am not sure the information here is all correct as I have done only some basic research.
My research supports that of many earlier researchers that Benedict Arnold’s son by a woman named ? Sage (quite possibly an indigenous person) was John Sage Arnold who married Sarah Brunsen. had a number of children and lived near his half-brother in Leeds Co, ON
I have a photo of his tombstone.
Donna Magee UE
[Note: a Google — John Sage, son of Benedict Arnold — resulted in a number of items]

Ontario Heritage Trust: Digital Doors Open
Doors Open has become an annual event in many communities across Canada.
Of course Covid halted most of that the opportunities to see notable places in 2020 and again in 2021. Ontario’s Heritage Trust responded.
Join the Ontario Heritage Trust, Doors Open Ontario and its many partners throughout 2021 on a virtual journey across the province as we open Ontario’s doors — online!
Discover Digital Doors Open Ontario through the virtual experiences on this page, featuring many of Ontario’s treasured places and the stories behind their doors that draw us together and inspire our strong sense of community — even while we are physically distancing. Virtual experiences for sites on this page include photo tours, virtual tours, videos, searchable collections, and online games and activities.
Explore all of our Digital Doors Open sites
Bonnie Schepers UE

All Things Georgian: Georgian Warming Pans and Foot Warmers
Sarah Murden 2 March 2017
I thought that given it’s now becoming rather chilly that I would look at one method used during the eighteenth-century to keep warm at night, or when travelling; warming pans (for the bed) and foot warmers for everyday use and for when travelling.
During my research, I came across a blog post in which the writer set out to correct the misnomer about these warmers using coal. The writer personally tested out warmers and concluded that coals wouldn’t have worked and that in fact hot stones would have been used in them. Whilst this makes far more sense, not only from the perspective of the mess, but arguably, more importantly from the angle of safety it doesn’t appear to have been the case in the Georgian era as these newspaper extracts show. Read more…

National Trust for Canada: Battle Harbour
Welcome Battle Harbour as a Passport Place!
For two centuries Battle Harbour was the economic and social center of the southeastern Labrador coast. The location’s mercantile saltfish premises were established in the early 1770s and the Island developed into a thriving community known as the Capital of Labrador.
Today, Battle Harbour is a National Historic District, island retreat, and a priceless collection of natural and historic attractions. It is the last and most complete example of a traditional fishing mercantile premises in Newfoundland and Labrador. It preserves a complete settlement, and in the process, many of the oldest surviving heritage buildings in the province. It is also a classic example of a traditional outport fishing community.
This exquisite example of a traditional fishing mercantile premises is accessible to National Trust members for FREE. Read description at National Trust; Battle Harbour website.

Events:

Kawartha Branch: Old St. Edwards Church & the Loyalists, by Brian McConnell UE Today, Sunday 21 Nov @1:30 EST

Old St. Edwards Church at Clementsport in Annapolis County is one of the few remaining churches built by Loyalists.
Brian, President of Nova Scotia Branch, is an avid historian and researcher who has visited many historic sights and cemeteries in Nova Scotia. He has written a number of articles and books. He posts frequently on Twit5ter and Facebook and is referenced frequently in Loyalist Trails
Join Zoom Meeting – Meeting ID: 890 7538 5250 and Passcode: 854296
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89075385250?pwd=OVlYS0ZuQVY1L0dXUXRoSXpMVmhkQT09

Kingston & District Branch: AGM and The Triumph of Villainy by Dr. Tim Compeau Sat. 27 Nov. @2:00 EST

Kingston & District Branch, United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada will hold its Annual General Meeting on Saturday, November 27 at 2:00 pm EST on Zoom. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Tim Compeau of the Department of History at Huron College, Western University speaking on “The Triumph of Villainy: The Loyalist Search for Honour in Defeat.” Dr. Compeau was the UELAC Scholar in 2007, and winner in 2021 of his College’s Teaching Award, so we anticipate an animated and informative talk.
All are welcome to attend: visit our website www.uelac.org/Kingston-Branch for the link to pre-register for the Zoom meeting, or email kingston.uelac@gmail.com to request the link.

Gov. Simcoe Branch: Loyalists of Digby by Brian McConnell UE Wed. 1 Dec. @7:30pm EST

Although Digby, Nova Scotia received the second largest number of refugees from the American Revolution in the province the experiences of the United Empire Loyalists has not received much attention. Hear more about this Loyalist story.
By Brian, President of Nova Scotia Branch.
For presentation details, more about Brian and to register, go here.

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • To George Washington from Mary Watts Johnson, 16 June 1776. Albany June 16th 1776. I take the Liberty of Complaining to you as it is from you I expect redress. I was Compell’d to leave home much against my inclination & am detained here by General Schuyler, who I am Convinced acts more out of ill nature to Sr John than from any reason that either he, or I have given him, as I am not allowed to return home & my situation here made as disagreeable as it can be… Read more…
  • Portraits of King George III & Queen Charlotte hang on the wall of the Red Chamber at Province House, Halifax, Nova Scotia. King George III is the current Queen’s great-great-great-great grandfather. Brian McConnell UE, @brian564
  • Sunny but cool today in Clementsport, Nova Scotia settled in 1780s by United Empire Loyalists including the Ditmars, Purdys, Ryarsons, and Vrooms.
  • This week in History
    • 14 Nov 1770, some Bostonians complained to the town selectmen “the Warehouses at Wheelwrights Wharff” had “been taken up as an Hospital,” perhaps for the 14th Regiment, and they feared they would be exposed “to Infectious Distemper.”
      • Bostonians frequently complained that the British military kept their smallpox cases secret rather than reporting to them to city officials as required. Boston officials were unsure whether they had the power to forcibly quarantine British soldiers.
    • 14 Nov 1771 Colonial newspapers contributed to the perpetuation of slavery. Advertised 250 years ago today: “To be SOLD, A YOUNG, Sprightly, sober NEGRO BOY, about thirteen years of age..” (Massachusetts Spy 11/14/1771)
    • 13 Nov 1775 General Montgomery takes Montreal without a significant fight.
    • 14 Nov 1775 Tories assassinate North-Carolina militia leader Capt Francis Bradley.
    • 16 Nov 1776 Ft Washington NY falls to British under Hessian Knyphausen.
    • 16 Nov 1776 Andrew Doria under Capt. Isiah Robinson arrives at the Dutch island of St Eustatius. West Indies where it receives the first salute to an American flag by a foreign power.
    • 19 Nov 1776 Congress begs states to recruit for Continental Army in addition to their own militias.
    • 15 Nov 1777 After six days’ bombardment by British fleet, Americans abandon Ft. Mifflin PA.
    • 17 Nov 1777 Congress submits Articles of Confederation to states for ratification.
    • 18 Nov 1777 Ft Mercer near Phila abandoned when Lord Cornwallis lands 2K British troops nearby. The British now had control of the waterways flowing in & out of PA & could move supplies on the river.
    • 18 Nov 1781 British evacuate Wilmington NC in the wake of surrender at Yorktown.
  • Clothing and Related:
    • Woman’s sack-back (a la francaise or Watteau) style gown consisting of an open robe, petticoat, and stomacher. All three pieces are in a matching fabric of light to medium shade blue silk tabby weave decorated with an all-over, medium-sized brocaded design of floral sprigs in seven colors. The garment is a rare example of a largely unaltered 18th-century gown. Twitter. Article.
    • 18th Century wedding mantua and train, supposedly worn by Helena Slicher on her wedding day in 1759,
    • 18th Century dress, open dress with linen skirt, England, 1795. This dress had been altered from a Robe a l’Anglaise circa 1785 to follow the changing fashions and rising waistlines.
    • Dress & matching shoes, American ca 1775. The green Spitalfields damask is attributed to Anna Maria Garthwaite, about 1743-45
    • Detail of an 18th Century men’s red velvet Court suit, with silver embroidery and sequin detailing, c.1770’s
    • 18th Century men’s waistcoat of pink silk overlaid with machine-made net and embroidered in coloured silks, made possibly in France, 1775-1785
    • Rear detail of men’s 18th Century Court coat, silk embroidered with delicate floral sprigs, 1770-1790
  • Townsends:
  • Miscellaneous

 

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