“King” Carter. Died 1732.
Bob-wigs, minor and major, came in during the reign of George II. The bob-wig was held to be a direct imitation of the natural hair, though, of course, it deceived no one; it was used chiefly by poorer folk. The ’prentice minor bob was close and short, the citizen’s bob major, or Sunday buckle, had several rows of curls. All these came to America by the hundreds—yes, by the thousands. Every profession and almost every calling had its peculiar wig. The caricatures of the period represent full-fledged lawyers with a towering frontlet and a long bag at the back tied in the middle; while students of the university have a wig flat on the top, to accommodate their stiff, square-cornered hats, and a great bag like a lawyer’s wig at the back.
Judge Benjamin Lynde.
“When the law lays down its full-bottom’d periwig you will find less wisdom in bald pates than you are aware of,” says the Choleric Man. This lawyer’s wig is the only one which has not been changed or abandoned. You may see it here, on the head of Judge Benjamin Lynde of Salem. He died in 1745. Carlyle sneers:—
“Has not your Red hanging-individual a horsehair wig, squirrel-skins, and a plush-gown—whereby all Mortals know that he is a JUDGE?”
In the reigns of Anne and William and Mary perukes grew so vast and cumbersome that a wig was invented for travelling and for undress wear, and was called the “Campaign wig.” It would not seem very simple since it was made full and curled to the front, and had, so writes a contemporary, Randle Holme, in his Academy of Armory, 1684, “knots and bobs a-dildo on each side and a curled forehead.”