Making Elias a Middy: Recreating a Royal Navy Midshipman, circa 1765

Overmantle painting of Newport Harbor circa 1740

During last year's commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Newport Stamp Tax "Protest", my friend Greg Hurley (one of the rioting seamen) observed that my then twelve-year-old son Elias would make a splendid midshipman, and said that he had always wanted to do a proper press gang scenario lead by an age-appropriate junior naval officer.  The seed of that casual remark germinated into a full on reenactment of an episode of resistance to Royal Navy impressment in Colonial Newport in 1765 that will take place under the auspices of the Newport Historical Society at the end of this month (August 27th, 2016).  Elias will indeed be a 13-year-old Royal Navy midshipman, and I will be among the American seamen opposing his efforts to man H.M.S. Maidstone with pressed seamen from the Colony.

Midshipman Augustus Brine (1782) by Copley
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

It helps that Elias looks remarkably like the adolescent (and even younger) boys who served as Royal Navy midshipmen during the latter half of the 18th Century - the golden age of the mullet.  Because he has hit a major growth spurt, adding as much as an inch of height every six weeks, outfitting him in hand sewn, authentic clothing that he may soon outgrow was a major commitment, but the opportunity to really pull off this impression convinced us to try.

As part of the research for his impression, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view the Copley portrait of Augustus Brine, at left, as well as reviewing a number of other images of portraits of Midshipman dating between 1770 and 1782.  Eli and I plan to return to NYC in full seafaring rig in September to pose alongside Copley's wonderful painting of his 18th century doppelganger.

The 1765 period of our depiction was a transitional one in Royal Navy uniforms and included both dress and undress "frock uniform" coats for commissioned naval officers, but just one coat used for all occasions by midshipmen. 

The midshipman, though a young gentleman, straddled the world of the seaman and sea-officer.  Prior to 1748, there was no official uniform prescribed for officers in the Royal Navy.  Orders from the Admiralty in April 13, 1748 specified that

“persons acting as Midshipmen should like-wise have a uniform clothing in order to distinguish their Class to be in the Rank of Gentlemen, and give them better credit and figure in executing the commands of their superior officers”

Captain John Bentinck and his son William Bentinck
(in the uniform of the Naval Academy at Portsmouth)
painted in 1775 by Mason Chamberlin,
in collection of Royal Museums Greenwich

It took a long time for sea-officers' clothing to become truly uniform, and within twenty years the gorgeous, heavily laced uniforms of Admirals and Captains gave way in 1768 to unlaced frock uniforms being used for formal occasions.  As for the midshipmen, their coats saw minor changed between 1748 and 1774, the most notable being the reduction in size of their white coat sleeve cuffs in accordance with prevailing fashion, and  a white collar tab and button on the outside of the collar instead of wearing the initial high collar of 1748 turned down to expose the white lining.  Buttons were either gold or brass, but the distinctive anchor associated with uniform buttons of sea-officers of higher rank after 1787 are extremely rare in portraits of midshipmen prior to the end of the American Revolution.  As Elias's coat was intended for sea service in the mid-1760s and perhaps beyond until he outgrows it, we settled on a coat that would work well from about 1765 to the end of the American Revolution.

Matthew Brenckle, an historian with the U.S.S. Constitution whose thesis research included examination of an extraordinary range of surviving artifacts and textiles recovered from 18th century shipwrecks, made both the Midshipman's coat and hat for Elias's impression.   During our event at Newport, Matthew will portray 1st Lieutenant Cuthbert Baines of H.M.S. Maidstone, a 6th rate ship on customs duty in North America between 1763-1766.  The precise cut of the uniform coat was determined by him, including the pleated skirts and dropped waist.  

Our choices for an appropriate wool were extremely limited.  Had their been any available, the most expensive option

RN Midshipman's Coat 1765-1782
by Matthew Brenckle

would have been to use Kochan & Phillips Superfine, but happily we discovered an excellent alternative that proved to be a perfect color match for surviving British navy coats of this period.  This was from Burnley & Trowbridge, listed as Indigo Fine Wool Broadcloth.  It is a shade too light for Continental Army uniforms but perfect for our purposes, and cheaper by 350% than K&P.   The coat lining and cuffs are white wool that Matthew had on hand, and the sleeves are also appropriately lined.  We used large, slightly domed gold plated buttons for the coat front and the non functional sleeve placets for its distinctive mariner's cuffs.  The coat has false buttonholes and closes with two hooks and eyes. The hat was made from rabbit fur felt and features a silk cockade and gold wire loop and button.  Matt is an incredible tailor and hatter and was extremely generous with his time and effort for this project.

As for small clothes, there were several factors to consider.  The greatest of these was to find a tailor willing to take on this project after an initial proposal with another tailor fell through due to completely understandable life challenges.  Much to my delight and relief, the partner of one of the other regular participants at Newport living history events agreed to take on not only Elias's waistcoat and trowser needs for this impression but also a pair of breeches he badly needed in order to participate in other events last June.  Lorraine Scripture did a phenomenal job with all three hand-sewn garments using measurements and materials that I provided and I recommend her work most highly.
I decided to go with a more formal waistcoat in Natural White K&P wool backed and lined in 5.75oz.

Waistcoat fabric and notions

100% Shirt Linen from William Booth, Draper.  The waistcoat has 5/8" small slightly domed gold gilt buttons from Benno's Buttons and Trimmings, and they are corded so that other buttons could be substituted if desired. 

Because Elias is growing very rapidly and because he will be leading a shore party on press duty, I elected to go with less formal trowsers rather than breeches.  These were made from 100% Hemp 12.5 oz Russia Sheeting from Wm. Booth, Draper and would have been issued directly from the ship's slops.  There are several portraits of midshipman and naval cadets between 1775-1782 wearing trowsers, including HRH Prince William Henry, Midshipman of H.M.S. Prince George.  The Prince wears his trowsers long, and Elias has some room in the leg as well as the waist in his pair.  With luck he will still be able to use them next year, though undoubtedly with ankles bare.

H.R.H. Prince William Henry (1782)
 engraving after Benjamin West

Elias wears a black silk neck handkerchief and clocked silk stockings (though the latter are barely visible).  He has a plain white linen shirt but I fashioned a small jabot for him to wear poking above the waistcoat collar and beneath the neck cloth.  His long blond hair will be left loose and undressed, which is startling to some 18th century reenactors who expect his hair to be worn in a formal queue, but is true to naval fashion in this period.  HRH Prince William Henry (shown at right) wears his in a queue, but other Middies, be the lordings or middlings, are shown in portraits with their locks unbound. 

Likewise, while midshipmen of the Napoleonic period wore a distinctive dirk, those of the mid to latter 18th century seem to have carried hangers or cutlasses more typical of this period, most often shown in portraits as worn from a waist belt carriage.  After much deliberation, I elected to have Elias carry a 1750s -1770s era hanger with a lion's head pummel, worn with a 1750's era waist belt with a Double D buckle, the latter of which I already owned.  Very little of this belt is visible but what shows is period appropriate.

Midshipman Hickey Brayton (1780)

He also needed new shoes.  Having invested considerable time and treasure in this impression, I decided that he needed shoes appropriate to his station but settled for machine made.   I found what I needed in the smooth side out Ligonier model from Fugawee, with a wide, rectangular pair of roped shoe buckles in tinned brass.

We had the chance to photograph Elias wearing his full kit with Buzzards Bay as the backdrop during a family vacation in Wareham, MA last week.   The impression will have its shakedown cruise this Sunday when he portrays Midshipman John Loring, 3rd youngest of the notorious loyalist Joshua Loring, at the Loring Homestead in Jamaica Plain, Boston. 

Then, on August 27th in Newport,  he will stand in for 2nd Lieut. William Jenkins of H.M.S. Maidstone, 1st Lieut. Cuthbert Baines, acting Commander in the absense of Captain Charles Antrobus.  There will be half a dozen royal navy seamen in authentic 1760s kit serving in his press gang, and a motley crew of wharf rats, coasters, wood-boat men, merchant seamen and other denizens of the town and Colony on hand, as well as a 36-foot RN gig and a 17-foot fishing dory as part of this event.  I'll post more about that in the coming weeks.  

For now, enjoy the debut of Midshipman Elias, the sharpest snotty that ever was.  He has a bit or room to grow in the sleeve and pant leg, a bit more at the waist, which is a blessing considering how fast he is sprouting.

Hightlights from the 2016 Boston Massacre Reenactment

I got Massacred In Boston,
and all I got was this lousy Striped Calamanco Waistcoat

The March 5, 2016 reenactment of the Boston Massacre attracted dedicated historical interpreters from near and far, with contingents traveling up from Virginia, down from Ticonderoga and from many parts in between.  There were scores of impressions on display of the highest caliber, and still there is talk among participants about how to raise the bar for next year's event.  It was an honor to be involved with such a well-researched and presented depiction of this moment in history.  It was also a hoot.

Attention to detail: the Regimental Coat of the 29th Foot as issued before the 1768 Royal Warrant

Backstage (below stairs) at the Old State House

An apprentice and a gentleman of Boston

Grenadiers of the 29th and a seafaring man

Drummer of the 29th

Captain Preston of the 29th

Formation of the guard

Sentry by the Custom House

Samuel Gray in an uncharacteristically amicable association  with a Pve. of the 29th Foot.

Wharf Rats

At Union Oyster House (1st of several visits this day)

graveside

The Fallen

Enter, Stage Right

A dapper fellow

Samuel Gray at the Old State House

Lower sorts

The Vein Openers

Being Samuel Gray: Interpreting a Central Figure from the Boston Massacre (Part II)

Detail from the account of the funeral procession,
Boston Gazette and Country Journal,  March 12, 1770

Who was Samuel Gray? What evidence do we have for his family background, or any blood relationship to John Gray his employer? The only contemporaneous mention of another family member is found in the March 12, 1770 Boston Gazette and Country Journal account of Gray's funeral procession, above, which states that his brother was a Benjamin Gray who lived very near the Massacre site on what was then known as Royal-Exchange Lane.

There were several Gray families at this time Boston - a town of less than than 16,000 souls - and not all of them shared a common ancestor.  There are Boston marriage records from the 1750s and 1760s for a number of Grays, including some named Samuel, Benjamin and John.  There were also members of Gray families in neighboring communities who came to Boston in the 1770s.  One of these, Winthrop Gray of Lynn, became the owner in 1781 of the no-longer-Royal "Exchange" tavern on what is now Exchange Street.

Although Samuel Gray was claimed in the aftermath of the Massacre as one of the Town's own rather than a stranger, it is not easy to substantiate characterizations made about his Boston connections. The radical leader Samuel Adams, writing as "VINDEX" in a letter published in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal on December 31, 1770, claimed that "Mr. Gray was of a good family", but researchers have been unable to clearly connect him with the most prominent Grays of Boston.

It is known that Samuel Gray worked at John Gray's rope-walk.  He is alleged in loyalist accounts (and in John Adams summation in defense of the soldiers of the 29th Regiment)  to have been involved in brawling with British soldiers in the vicinity of the rope-walk just days before the Massacre. Captain Preston, who commanded the detachment of the 29th that ultimately fired on the crowd at the Massacre, confused Samuel Gray in his deposition with Gray's employer, stating that one of the three men shot dead was "Mr. Gray at whose rope-walk the prior quarrels took place."

While Samuel Gray's pedigree remains unconfirmed, much more is known about John Gray. He was the seventh and last child of the Edward Gray (1673 - 1757) and his first wife Susannah Harrison. Edward Gray was an immigrant success story, arriving in Boston as an apprentice rope maker in 1686. On his death in 1757 he left an estate valued at £5,500, including ten slaves and his own rope making business.  He left the rope-walks - seven hundred and forty-four feet in length, by twenty or more feet wide - to his son John by a will dated February 12, 1753 (witnessed by James Otis), which also included "a brick warehouse adjoining, with yarn houses, knotting house, dwelling house and land...valued at £1,000." 

John Gray was born in 1713, the year his mother died.  He married late in life and had no surviving issue.  His first wife was Mary Otis, daughter of James Otis, Sr. and sister of Mercy Otis Warren and James Otis, Jr.   John and Mary were married in Barnstable in 1761, but she died two years later.  Her husband had at least one mourning ring made in her memory, one of which is in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, along with another for their newborn son John who predeceased Mary by two months.  The MHS also holds this striking portrait, below, made of her in 1763 by Copley.

Mary Otis Gray by John Singleton Copley, 1763 (MHS)

In addition to John Gray, Edward Gray had six other children by Susannah Harrison, including Harrison Gray, who became Receiver-General of Massachusetts and was a loyalist who ultimately left Boston in 1776.  Edward had five more children with his second wife, Hannah Ellis, who died in 1726.  One of the sons of Edward Gray and Hannah Ellis was named Benjamin, who married Mary Blanchard, a distant collateral relation of mine, in 1761. 

None of the children of Edward Gray in either marriage was named Samuel, and it does not appear to be a name used by this branch of the family.  It is extremely unlikely, then, that Samuel Gray was any relation to John Gray who owned the rope-walk.  There was a Samuel Gray in another Boston family who was in 1738 to Samuel and Sarah (Emmons) Gray, but he died in 1784.

As for the Benjamin Gray who lived "on the North side the Exchange", he too remains an enigma.  A Mr. Benjamin Gray was among four Collectors of Taxes elected during consecutive years at Boston Town Meetings from 1771-1774.   An audit of the Treasury in November, 1776 found that through March, 1775, £1,529 was still due from these Collectors of Taxes, including £345 from this Benjamin Gray.  The delinquent collector may have been the same man who was half brother to John Gray, or he may have been the individual who the Boston Gazette identified as the brother of Samuel Gray.  He cannot have been both, and he might be an entirely different man altogether. 

Until additional evidence comes to light, the best we can say with confidence about Samuel Gray is that he was a laborer at a rope-walk owned by John Gray but it is highly unlikely that they were related.  As for his "anti-occupation" activities prior to the Massacre, his journey to King-Street the night of March 5th,  and his actions before the soldiers fired, we will examine the evidence in subsequent posts in this series.

Being Samuel Gray: Interpreting a Central Figure from the Boston Massacre (Part I)

"Building an event, even one that recreates an actual moment in the past, is as much as work of theatre or fiction as it is of fact: character development, motivations, costuming, setting, all of those combine with the documented words to create a scene that conveys an interpretive point for the public. It’s similar to a museum exhibition– it’s interpreted."  
                                                                                                         - "Kitty Calash"

I am fortunate to have been offered the chance to depict Samuel Gray during next month's annual reenactment of the Boston Massacre.  Meticulous scholarship on the part of the organizers - a true labor of love - has gone into making this annual interpretive event a faithful and authentic representation of the actual participants and their actions on March 5th, 1770. 

Samuel Gray was one of the members of the crowd, gathering on King-street that night, who was subsequently killed when soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot opened fire.  As such, he became a central actor in the story of the Massacre and its retelling, to be upheld by contemporary patriots as an early martyr to the cause of American liberty.

Boston Gazette and Country Journal, Monday March 12, 1770

Along with Gray, two other men were killed outright and eight more wounded (two of them mortally). Chances are, unless you have made a particular study of it, the one name that is familiar to you is Crispus Attucks, whose memory as an historic figure of African (and Natick Native American) descent would have particular relevance and significance for later generations. Gray and the other casualties, though, have generally faded from modern memory.

His part in the script is simple enough. Gray arrives on the scene just minutes before the soldiers fire, speaks a few words to one of the Town watchmen, folds his arms to warm his hands, and is shot in the head at close range when the first muskets go off. There is good evidence to support this narrative trajectory and the organizers have made a defensible interpretive choice.  Yet there could have been alternative interpretations based on other conflicting accounts.  

Detail from a Jonathan Mulliken engraving, after Revere

Because Samuel Gray was slain that night, there is a considerable amount of near-contemporaneous documentation - largely in the form of depositions and transcripts of sworn trial testimony - that concerns him personally. The murder charge brought against the soldiers of the guard hinged, in part, on whether Gray was targeted deliberately and also whether he offered sufficient provocation for their actions to constitute self defense. Not surprisingly, the evidence on these points offered by witnesses for the prosecution is contradicted by other witnesses for the defense.

Such accounts require critical assessment and have implications for historical interpretation.  Often it is a question of understanding what the surviving documentation helps to clarify and when additional confirmation is needed before a fact can be asserted with confidence.  Regarding the earliest published images of the Massacre, one of the organizers of the event advised me in a personal communication;

"Pelham and Revere shouldn't be taken as an exact representation. But I do very strongly believe that they can both be counted on for what clothing looked like in 1770."

Next month's Boston Massacre reenactment is not "The Samuel Gray Show".   Be that as it may, the actor in me needs to understand the motivation and backstory of my character, while  the historian in me cannot resist digging deeper into the evidence.  To do my part with fidelity and to remain in character when interpreting for the public, there are some questions about Samuel Gray's background, what he may have worn, and his activities both prior to March 5th and also on the night that he lost his life that need to be considered.  We will discuss and evaluate the available evidence that may help provide some answers in subsequent posts.