Here's something new

[Fox]

Today I decided to try to get all my wills, probate inventories, and other legal inventories for seamen of the 17-18th centuries together into one file, and in doing so I had a good read of some stuff that I've only glanced at before.

Would some of you lovely costume experts be kind enough to comment on the bit in bold in this inventory.

Inventory of the estate of Thomas Hewson which was detained by Anthony Roop: a Chest covered with a hide, 1li; 1 Coate & 2 payre of Britches, 3li; a Greeke watch Coate, 2li; a Dowless shirt and a new blew shirt, 12s; a Blew payre of Briches and a canvas payre of Briches & 2 Wastcoats, 1li; a hat and a Tennis Cape, 6s; a bed, Blankett and fether pillar, 1li 10s; a Gooners Scale & hights & compases, 10s; a payre of silver Buttons & a bill of forty shillings to bee paid in Boston, 2li 1s 6d; a 4 gallon Runlett & a 3 Gallon Runlett and a Jarr, 6s; 2 payre of stockins and a payre of shoes, 8s; a sarge Jackett and a shollone to Line a Coate and a striped pillibare, 1li; a Fishing line and hoocks, 3s; total, 13li 16s 6d

[JoshuaRed]

I'm not remotely qualified to respond to that one, sorry Foxe.

[kass]

Wow. Okay. I'm flabbergasted...

Tennis was well known in England since Elizabeth's time (at least -- I don't know about before then). It's even mentioned in Shakespeare.

But why would one need a cape to play tennis? Could we be assuming that this spelling is for the sport of tennis but perhaps there is something called "tenis" or "tunnes" or similar that we are misinterpretting because of the spelling? Foxe, got an OED?

He also doesn't seem to be a wealthy man (two pairs of stockings and one pair of shoes...) so I doubt he would have the money to have such a specialized garment.

But who plays tennis in a cape?!?!

[Fox]

I do have an OED but it's buried deep beneath a big pile of other books.

Interesting thought Kass about his being not too well off. It ought to be added that that inventory is only a list of stuff that he took to sea with him, he might have owned diamond encrusted drawers at home for all we know. In fact, looking at a random handful of similar "sea-borne" inventories with values, of the same kind of period, they range from £9 14s to £41, but most of them seem to be between £10-15, so I guess he's about average.

IF it really is a cape for playing tennis in then in addition to the "why wear a cape to play tennis?" question we also ought to ask "Who plays tennis on a small merchant ship?"

[JoshuaRed]

Perhaps it was intended for someone else? Maybe he came into it somehow and never unloaded it before he died.

Are there any known regions or towns named Tennis (or variant spelling)? Or perhaps it was a brand-name Tailor?

[Fox]

Another possibility is that it was a cape designed for tennis, but that it was just useful anyway. I mean, nowadays you don't have to be Tim Henman to wear tennis shoes or Prince Charles to wear a polo shirt.

[kass]

True enough...

Perplexing though. I wish *I* had an OED... and, you know, time to look up every variant of "tennis" I could think of...

But the printers grind away and they don't like when I ignore them...

[Monterey Jack]

What if its just a misspelling of "cap", i.e., some sort of headgear in use at the time? There was a tennis cap used in France in the 1600s I think, so this could be related.

[Monterey Jack]

On closer look, its mentioned with a hat, and if I remember the pictures I saw, a cap was an additional piece that went under the hat, like an arming cap went under a helm. I could be way off, so I'll shut up and go look it up again!

[kass]

Hmmm... That's an interesting idea, Jack, and certainly just as likely as anything else we've come up with.

[Fox]

One of the most infuriating things about inventories of this kind: sometimes items are listed together because it makes sense; for example, "jacket and breches, grene cloth" (clearly a suit), "1 pa. new and 3 pa. old shooes" etc. Other times there may be a connection, but the information isn't explicit enough to say for certain: "1 pa. briches, wast coat, and Jacket" (might be a 3 piece suit, might not be), "a coate and wastcoate". Sometimes though we find things lumped together which have absolutely no obvious connection: "a coat and Chest, 16s 6d", or "four pr old silke stockings and 1 combe".

So, the hat and the tennis cape might well be related, but equally might have nothing to do with one another.

As a side note, you guys remember GoF's "Dissecting the GAoP" threads where he'd post a period picture and we'd talk about it (God, doesn't that sound dull!). I'm thinking about reviving them with the written source. Let me find a couple of good inventories for the future, but we could start with this one.

[kass]

Boy, I must be a total snore because that sounds like fun to me!

Consider the sources...

[William Brand]

I seem to recall that a tennis cape was little more than a poncho, but for the life of me I cannot find the original reference.

Edit: Unless the hat reference is paired because it applies to a topless, billed hatband. Germans refer to this as a tennis cape...

So he may have owned a hat and a band with a kind of bill on it like a buccaneer hat. It might go a long way to explaining the pairing of the two items in the list. Sometimes we make the mistake of taking the words literally, such as cape meaning cape, instead of an earlier use for the same word. If anyone can show that this is indeed a reference to a German term or an older English term I would be greatly interested. I love word origins.

[JoshuaRed]

where he'd post a period picture and we'd talk about it (God, doesn't that sound dull!).

Count me in on the dork list...sounds like fun to me!

[Rumba Rue]

Well that certianly threw me a loop. Perhaps it's just a 'word' used to describe the item, just as women nowadays wear 'tennis bracelets'.

I'm taking a real wild guess here that it might be a short cape, say just over the shoulders perhaps similar to a mantle. Not necessarialy worn for playing tennis.