In Flecity Hebditch’s interesting paper in part 385 of SDNQ, mention is made of the anthropology of hats at the time of King Charles II. A further Somerset connection to this subject can be found in the 16th century in the churchwardens’ accounts for Banwell. When abstracts from these accounts were made by George Bennett, a solicitor, who served as churchwarden in 1811 and 1817, he included a brief commentary against several entries relating to the wearing of hats.
The first entry from the accounts he noted in his ‘Historical and topographical account’ of the parish was taken from the year 1575: ‘Pd for the wholl parrishe for wearinge Hats agaynste the Statutt to the comysheners at Langford 5s’. Against this entry he noted:
By an Act of Parliament 13 of Eliz.C.19 Persons were obliged to wear Wollen Caps (made in England) on the Sundays this however was repealed by 39.Eliz.C.18.S.45.
The Parishioners were find [sic] for wearing Hats and in pages 147 & 148 we again observe they were find for wearing Caps contrary to the Statute. – There is a Vulgar saying (much used even at present) when a person is uncertain about anything, “That he is determined to make either a Hat or a Cap of it” – and I am much mistaken if that saying did not take its rise from the uncertainty of what was the legal covering for the Pates of our sturdy Ancestors in the reign of their superlatively study “but most dread Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth – What would our modern top-knotted Croppies say if they were compelled by Law to cover their wise noddles with a Wollen Cap instead of a fashionable Beaver?
Three years later three entries from 1578 were extracted by Bennett:
Pd for the wardens expencis when theye were aboutt the wearinge of Caps, for the whole parishe, at Chedder 1s 4d.
Pd for weringe of Caps for the parish agaynste the statutt 6s.
Pd the Constabell for a Bill for the wearinge of Caps 4d.
Against these entries he repeated some information above but added: ‘In the reigns of Edwd 6th & Mary the most usual covering for the head, were Bonnets or Caps, & they are still retained among the peasantry in the North of England’.1 Clearly Bennett had a passing interest in this subject as it was something that he chose to note during his trawl through records of the parish.
1. S.H.C., DD/SAS/G1740/1/1/5 An historical and topographical account of the parish of Banwell in the county of Somerset, pages 144, 147-8.
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