A Brief Note on Stockings

by
Lieutenant Cubbison, Royal Engineers


Material culture improvement and maintenance is a continuous process, and we should endeavor to regularly review the impression that we make to the general public, and other living historians, and to ensure that it is accurate. One shortcoming that I have recently noticed is that of stocking color. The Company of Select Marksmen have experienced a proliferation of colored stockings. Captain Bennett Cuthbertson said regarding stocking colors:
The greatest uniformity should be observed in the colour of the stockings, through a Regiment, as nothing more offends the eye, than a variety in this particular. White, besides being most showy, is the readiest colour to be obtained in all places, nor will they be found so difficult to keep clean, as those of a grayish kind (which next to white, are the only coloured stockings that can decently be admitted for a soldiers’ wear)…. Four pairs of stockings should at least be each Soldiers’ stock, three of which to be of fine yard, eighteen pence a pair, and the fourth of thread, worth about two shillings and four pence, to wear on Sundays, and other particular occasions. All these stockings should be knit, being stronger by many degrees than wove ones; they must also be well shaped, long enough both in the feet and legs…1.
I have carefully perused many colored paintings and drawings of the American Revolutionary period, and all stockings that I have seen are clearly white (overwhelmingly used) with a few gray. Note that Captain Cutherbertson specifically cautions against mixing colors of stockings, precisely what we are doing in the Marksmen.

British army stockings were white (preferred) or gray; and that is the Marksmen standard when under arms, in formation, or performing military functions.

Certainly soldiers could have purchased their own stockings. However, they would not have been permitted to have been worn when the men were under arms, performing a parade, or performing military duties. They could only have worn colored stockings to town, to tavern, or similar off duty occasions. Additionally, as frequently noted, other ranks were quite modestly paid, at a rate equivalent to that of a common laborer. We have to be careful that we don’t eat expensive sutler foods (that we purchased), smoke and drink expensive sutler tobacco and rum (that we purchased), wear ornate ornamental hairdos (that we would have had to pay extra to a hairdresser), and wear fancy clothing (that we purchased). A typical British other ranks quite simply did not have that much money available to him, and we need to deliberately restrict private purchases in our material culture impression.

NOTES

1. Captain Bennett Cuthbertson, A System for the Complete Interior Management and Economy of a Battalion of Infantry (London: 1779; reprint edition Sullivan Press, 2002), pg. 60


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