18th Century Men’s Great Coats

Last updated: Jan 01, 2025

Most illustrations of 18th century great coats show them being worn by night watchmen (often carrying lanterns and/or clubs), but inventories (such as probate inventories from Deerfield, Massachusetts or runaway ads from Rhode Island and Pennsylvania) indicate that other men owned great coats as well.

Extant Examples

A man’s greatcoat, c. 1780-1800, in Fitting & Proper: “taupe wool tightly woven and fulled, half lined with olive green wool shag and off-white linen”
Colonial Williamsburg 2001-835, man’s great coat, America or England, c. 1780-1820
Colonial Williamsburg 2023-19, green double breasted broadcloth coat lined in a buff worsted wool, Poland, c. 1790
National Trust 1350636, great coat made of interwoven blue and cream tabby wool, c. 1793-1794
William Cowper’s great coat

Greatcoats in Portraits and Illustrations

Honest Will Crouch, c. 1725-1726
Portrait of Captain Thomas Coram by William Hogarth, 1740
Paul Sandby figure sketches made in Edinburgh and the neighborhood after 1745: man seated on the ground, man walking, man with a staff
Figure study: a blind man in a tattered greatcoat by Paul Sandby, c. 1746-1751
A man asleep by Paul Sandby, c. 1750-1760
Voules, William, Duke of Cumberland’s bailiff by Paul Sandby, c. 1752-1765
An Election II: Canvassing for Votes by William Hogarth, 1754-55
A man standing, looking upwards by Paul Sandby, c. 1755-1765
Man asleep in a long blue coat by Louis Philippe Boitard
Bagpiper with a dancing dog by Paul Sandby, c. 1759
Cries of London: All Fire and No Smoke by Paul Sandby, c. 1759
Man standing in a landscape by Paul Sandby
Old man carrying a basket by Paul Sandby
Three men at a table by Étienne Jeaurat, 1763
Parsons, Bransby, and Watkyns in a Scene From 'Lethe' by Johann Zoffany, 1766
A Common Council Beaſt, returning from a Turtle Feaſt, c. 1766-1799
A scene in Love in a Village by Johan Joseph Zoffany, 1767; see versions at the Detroit Institute of Arts and Yale Center for British Art
Thomas Gent, 1771
A sailor centinel on the Pallas’s gangway by Gabriel Bray, 1774
Night Watchman, 1776
The Hireling-Constable, 1780
A woodcutter with a young boy and a dog in wooded landscape by Charles Gill, c. 1781
The Watchman, c. 1780s-1790s
The Westminster Watchman, 1784
Card players in a tavern by Jan Ekels, 1784
The Social Pinch by John Kay, 1789
A pencil and wash portrait of a gentleman in a great coat
A Journey to the Watch House, 1790
Outlines of figures and landscapes by Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1790-1792
A Deep One, and a Knowing One, 1791
Guy Vaux discovered in his attempt to destroy the King & the House of Lords – His companions attempting to escape –, 1791
Morning: Higglers Preparing for Market by George Morland, 1791
Skating by George Morland, 1792
The Departure by George Morland, 1792
The Shepherd’s Meal by George Morland, 1793
Scene from ‘The Register Office’ by Joseph Reed by Benjamin Vandergucht
An Unwelcome Visit by Thomas Rowlandson, 1794
The Elopement, 1795
Bodmin Cornwall: The Arrival of the Stage-Coach by Thomas Rowlandson, 1795
A halt of a soldier and his family by George Morland, c. 1795-1800
Inside of a Country Alehouse by George Morland, 1797
The Afflicted Family - A Child Lost, 1797
The Watchman of the State, 1797
The Child Lost, 1799
The Reckoning: A Farmer Paying the Ostler and Pot-Boy of an Inn by George Morland, c. 1800
Interior of a country inn by George Morland
Man with a pony outside a cottage
A brace of public guardians, 1800
The Benevolent Heir or the Tenant Restored to his Family by William Redmore Bigg, c. 1801

18th Century Men’s Great Coats

Additional Resources

Extant Examples

Greatcoats in Portraits and Illustrations