ence to a garment maker in Virginia is a petition
entered in the General Court, 1626, through which Alice Boyse, widow,
sought to reserve for herself and family indefinitely the services of
young Joseph Royall, who had been brought to the colony by her late
husband to make apparel for the family and such servants as Boyse
retained under him.

The costumes of the seventeenth century followed precisely the
prevailing styles in England though dress, through necessity, often was
less elaborate. Travel, by the colonials back and forth to England, and
the arrival of ships ladened with merchandise of all sorts, kept the
planters and their wives abreast of the changing modes in dress. There
were three major styles in the seventeenth century: the Jacobean, the
Puritan and the elaborate dress of the Restoration.

These styles when reviewed today seem much too elaborate for a
wilderness; however, news, circulated in England about the Colony, gave
only encouraging accounts of an opulent land; thus, the men and women,
who came, brought with them the essentials for a normal home life, and
dress was an important aspect of ordinary living in England.
Nevertheless, the authorities in Virginia took cognizance of the
emphasis on dress, and, in order to encourage expenditures for
necessities rather than the luxuries in clothing, the Assembly of 1619
enacted a provision taxing an unmarried man according to his apparel,
and a married man according to the clothing possessed by himself and
members of his family.

[Illustration: Photo by Thomas L. Williams through courtesy of the
Jamestown Corporation, Inc.

A Lady of Fashion

Garbed in a costume typical of the early seventeenth century a lady of
fashion displays jewels similar to those brought to Virginia by
well-to-do merchants.]

During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, men wore less
elaborate costumes than the puffed, slashed modes of the Renaissance.
The breeches were loose but covered the knee where they were fastened
with buttons or a sash of ribbon, which often also decorated the instep
of the high-heeled shoe. The doublet had fewer slashes and more padding.
A stiff beaver hat, decorated with a white plume, rested on the head,
with locks falling around the neck and often over the shoulders. The
women as well as the men discarded the huge ruff, replacing it with a
flaring collar known as the "falling band." The bodices of the women
remained cylindrical in shape with s