Abraham De Peyster.
In 1676 Wait Winthrop sent a wig (price £;3) to his brother in New London. Mr. Sergeant had brought it from England for his own use; but was willing to sell it to oblige a friend, who was, I am confident, very devoted to wig-wearing. The largest wig that I recall upon any colonist’s head is in the portrait of Governor Fitz-John Winthrop. He is painted in armor; and a great wig never seems so absurd as when worn with armor. Horace Walpole said, “Perukes of outrageous length flowing over suits of armour compose wonderful habits.” An edge of Winthrop’s own dark hair seems to show under the wig front. I do not know the precise date of this portrait. It was, of course, painted in England. He served in the Parliamentary army with General Monck; returned to New England in 1663, and was commander of the New England forces. He spent 1693 to l697 in England as commissioner. Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller both were painting in England in those years, and both were constant in painting men with armor and perukes. This portrait seems like Kneller’s work.
Governor De Bienville.
Another portrait attired also in armor and peruke is of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was appointed governor of South Carolina by the Lords Proprietors in 1702. The portrait was painted in 1705. It is one of the few of that date which show a faint mustache; he likewise wears a seal ring with coat-of-arms on the little finger of his left hand, which was unusual at that day. De Bienville, the governor of Louisiana, is likewise in wig and armor. In 1682 Thomas Richbell died in Boston, leaving a very rich and costly wardrobe. He had eight wigs. Of these, three were small periwigs worth but a pound apiece. In New York, in Virginia, in all the colonies, these wigs were worn, and were just as large and costly, as elaborately curled, as heavily powdered, as at the English and French courts.
Archbishop Tillotson is usually regarded as the first amongst the English clergy to adopt the wig. He said in one of his sermons:—
“I can remember since the wearing of hair below the ears was looked upon as a sin of the first magnitude, and when ministers generally, whatever their text was, did either find or make occasion to reprove the great sin of long hair; and if they saw any one in the congregation guilty in that kind, they would point him out particularly, and let fly at him with great zeal.”
Dr. Tillotson died on November 24, 1694.