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[Page 47]
No. 24 Pockets
The Close Garments of our ancestors did not admit of Pockets & they did not use them in their Gowns Each person male or Female wore a Purse or Pouch fastened to the Girdle which held money & the few necessaries they carried about with them See below #
we do not Read of Pickpockets till times not Long Past Ben Johnsons theif was a cut purse James the first in his Progress from Scotland to take Possession of the English Crown was accompanied by a Cut Purse who Committed frequent depredations among his Courtiers but was not detected till the king arrivd at Newark where the King exercisd his Prerogative Royal in a way that would not suit these times Howe tells the Story as follows " in this Town & in the Court, 1603 was taken a Cut Purse doing the deed, & being a base pilfering Theif (yet was all gentleman - like on the outside). this Fellow had good Store of Coin found about him & upon examination Confessd, that he had from (1) Barwick to that Place Played the Cutpurse in the Courte. The King hearing of this Gallant, directed a warrant to the Recorder of Newark, to have him hanged which they accordingly executed
Speed tells us that the Lord Chancellor wriottesley lost from his bosom the
1541 Kings hand & warrant for carrying Queen Catherine Parr to the Tower
visible Pockets do not occurr till the overstocking or the Skirts of the Doublet had swoln out into the Trunk hose that afterwards gradualy sunk down into Breeches Pockets of Trunk hose are mentioned in Geste Grayorum See Hose on the medal of the death of Sir Edmonbury Godfrey The chairmen who Carry him in a chair have clumsey Pockets both to their Coats & their breeches Evelyn medals p174
# instead of Pockets our ancestors wore Linnen bags fastend on the inside of their thighs by Two Points which being unknit made a way to them, these bags held every thing they carried about with them except there gloves which ever being very reverendly at the girdle, where hung also a Pouch made fast with a Ring or Lock of iron Englands variety 1683 Speaking of the dress of Former times p 123
for the form of these Pouches & the mode of wearing them See Strutt volume 2 Plates 18.25.27.33.38.48.49.57.58.59
(1) Either this theif was a Berwick man or the Kings Scots Council did not choose to press his Confession Further than to Berwick Lest he should be provd a Scotsman by having found the Court before the king arrivd there