Captain George Curwen.
Let us turn to the old inventories for the various names of this neckwear.
A Maryland gentleman left by will, with other attire, in 1642, “Nine laced stripps, two plain stripps, nine quoifes, one call, eight crosse-cloths, a paire holland sleeves, a paire women’s cuffs, nine plaine neck-cloths, five laced neck-cloths, two plaine gorgetts, seven laced gorgetts, three old clouts, five plaine neckhandkerchiefs, two plain shadowes.”
John Taylor, the “Water Poet,” wrote a poem entitled The Needles Excellency. I quote from the twelfth edition, dated 1640. In the list of garments which we owe to the needle he names:—
“Shadows, Shapparoones, Cauls, Bands, Ruffs, Kuffs,
Kerchiefs, Quoyfes, Chin-clouts, Marry-muffes,
Cross-cloths, Aprons, Hand-kerchiefs, or Falls.”
His list runs like that of the Maryland planter. The strip was something like the whisk; indeed, the names seem interchangeable. Bishop Hall in his Satires writes:—
“When a plum’d fan may hide thy chalked face
And lawny strips thy naked bosom grace.”
Dr. Smith wrote in 1658 in Penelope and Ulysses:—
“A stomacher upon her breast so bare
For strips and gorget were not then the wear.”
The gorget was the frill in front; the strip the lace cape or whisk. It will be noted that nine gorgets are named with these strips.