Bobby Shafto’s Shirt and Britches: Contracted Clothing and the Transformation of the Trade

Abstract

Thousands of Bobby Shaftos left for sea over the long eighteenth century. They travelled in merchant brigs to the Caribbean, manned naval vessels in a continuing circuit of wars and manoeuvres, staffed the ships and outposts of merchant companies from the fur-rich territories of Hudson Bay to tropical forts on the Gulf of Bengal. Their lives at sea and the fate of these ventures are well known for the most part. Less familiar is the history of one of the major supply industries on which the crews depended, the clothing trade. The expansion of the military is the starting point for this study.

Bobby Shafto’s gone to sea, Silver buckle on his knee^l