18th Century Women’s Bonnets

Last updated: Jan 5, 2024

This page covers two styles of bonnets seen in the 18th century; silk bonnets for fashionable ladies, and poor women’s bonnets, which may have been made of wool. Calashes and related bonnets are discussed on a separate linkspage.

A few different types of bonnets are described in The Annals of Philadelphia:

I have seen what was called a bath bonnet, made of black satin, and so constructed to lay in folds that it could be set upon like a chapeau bras, — a good article now for travelling ladies!

… The “wagon bonnet,” always of black silk, was an article exclusively in use among the Friends, was deemed to look, on the head, not unlike the top of the Jersey wagons, and having a pendent piece of like silk hanging from the bonnet and covering the shoulders.

… As a universal fact, it may be remarked that no other colour than black was ever made for ladies’ bonnets when formed of silk or satin. Fancy colours were unknown, and white bonnets of silk fabric had never been seen. The first innovation remembered, was the bringing in of blue bonnets.

In contrast, Gottlieb Mittelberger describes bonnets worn in Philadelphia in the 1750s: “On their heads they wear black or beautifully-colored bannerts (bonnets) of taffeta instead of straw hats. These bannerts are of a peculiar structure and serve instead of parasols, but are much prettier. If our women could see such bannerts they would surely wish to have them likewise.”

The bonnets in this section are (or seem to be) made of silk, and of the type worn by fashionable ladies; note the use of trimmings, pleating, ruching, etc.

• Colonial Williamsburg 1993-335, England, c. 1770-1780; “Woman's hat or bonnet of black ribbed silk. Boned brim of doubled fabric with 7 baleen stays and a stiffening (probably baleen) around the outer edge of the brim. Puffy, mushroom-shaped crown is pleated to the boned brim, adjusted with a ribbon drawstring at center back. Ruffled fabric and front bow are tacked at the juncture between the crown and the brim. Unlined.”

Depictions of silk bonnets

• A view in St. Paul’s Churchyard on a windy day, 1740
• A female figure in a park by Paul Sandby, c. 1752
• Catherine Moore by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1752-1756
• Mrs Lane by Paul Sandby, c. 1755-1765
• The Ladies Waldegrave by Paul Sandby, c. 1760-1770
• Miss Palmer by Sir Joshua Reynolds
• Miss Theophilia Palmer, attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds
• Charlotte Grote by Sir Joshua Reynolds
• A figure group by Paul Sandby, c. 1770-1780
• Fording the Brook, 1772
• The Pretty Mantua Maker, 1772
• An Old Macaroni Miss-led, 1772
• A ladies maid purchasing a leek, 1772
• An Evenings Invitation; with a Wink from the Bagnio, 1773
• True Town Picture; or An Old Hag of Drury presenting a Chicken to his Lordship, 1775
• A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton in North Carolina, 1775
• Twelve fashionable Head Dresses of 1775 from The Ladies Own Memorandum Book
• All Sorts. From the lucious Tid bit to the bouncing Jack Whore - From the Bunter in Rags to the gay Pompadour, 1775-1776
• The Lover’s Disguise, 1776
• From Soho, 1776?
• The slip, or, Miss, willing to be in the ton, 1777
• Miss Tipapin going for all nine, 1778
• A visit to the camp, 1779
• The Fruit Barrow by Henry Walton, 1780
• A lady in waiting, 1780
• January, 1780s
• A lady and her children relieving a cottager by William Redmore Bigg, 1781
• Mr. Deputy Dumpling and Family Enjoying a Summer Afternoon, 1781
• Jack Oakham throwing out a Signal for Engagement, 1781
• The Fair Tutoress, 1782
• The Encampment at Blackheath by Paul Sandby, 1780
• The Fortune Teller, 1798
• Skating by George Morland, 1792
• An Ordinary on Sundays at Two O'Clock by Isaac Cruikshank, 1793
• Flannel Coats of Mail Against the Cold or the British Ladies Patriotic, 1793
• Haymakers by George Stubbs, 1794
• The Ballad Singers by Thomas Rowlandson

Instructions for cutting out apparel for the poor (1789) tells the reader to make bonnets from “black Durant,” (and later refers to A Black Stuff Bonnet”); Durant (per this glossary) is “thick, heavily felted woolen made to imitate buff leather also called Everlasting.”

The following bonnets, on poor women and working women, are less ornate than the ones above and may have likewise been made of wool. (Some may be miscategorized and may well be fabric-covered straw hats.)

• Marquess of Granby relieving a sick soldier by Edward Penny, 1765; additional version here
• The Abusive Fruitwoman, 1773
• A call to the unconverted, 1774
• Is This My Daughter Ann, 1774
• The man of business, 1774
• The young mendicant, 1776
• The Silver Age by Henry Walton, c. 1776-1777
• Heyday! Is this my daughter Anne!, 1779
• The Liberty of the Subject, 1779
• Youth and Age, 1780-1790
• Lord North in the suds, 1782
• Palemon and Lavinia, 1782
• An Edinburgh Lacemaker with a Distaff by David Allan, 1784
• The wife of Mr. Whitbread’s gardener at Woolmer, Herts by Paul Sandby, 1784
• A market girl holding a mallard duck by John Russell, 1787
• Hay Makers, 1793
• Sunday Morning a Cottage Family Going to Church, 1795