What people wore during the Siege
Clothing
There is a scene in the play Ireland Preserv'd, written in the late 1600's by siege governor John Michelburne, in which a group of Irish women literally try to rip the clothes off the backs of two Scotswomen and their child. It is a war of the poor animated by hate and the women's clothes in the bitter cold spring of 1689 are a matter of vital importance: it is all they have left and, naked and homeless, they risk death by hunger and exposure.
We will never know how many Ulster farming folk perished in this way, but there must have been many. In the pre-industrial age clothes and bedding were expensive, sought after commodities and stripping the enemy of them was part and parcel of the war in Ireland.
Textiles and clothing
The only textiles commonly available for clothing and bedding in the 17th century were wool, hemp and linen.
The Gaelic Irish had been famous for their colorful woolen mantles which served both as outdoor cloaks and indoor bedding. With the Plantation of Ulster, which began in 1606 with the Hamilton Montgomery plantation of Clandyboye, Scottish and English settlers brought European dress standards to the North of Ireland. Long saffron shirts, short jackets and "shag" mantle gave way to breeches and doublets which in turn gave way to jackets and waistcoats. The Scots probably brought their native weaving style with them for we know that tartan was a readily available commodity in the Londonderry area although we also know that it was primarily used at the time by the Irish troops to make breeches.
The Lowland Scots and English planters brought the habit of wearing shoes and boots with them. They were usually simple leather latchet shoes and with no distinction between right and left. The Irish rural population found them hard to wear and preferred traditional soft, cow-hide brogues although the Irish aristocracy had long since made the transformation to smart English clothing and handsome continental leather boots.
Women's clothes usually made up of a skirt gathered at the waist and a bodice although some Irish women may have worn a long shift-like dress. Under the skirt went petticoats and a linen shift.
Stockings were worn by both men and women and held up by a garter tied above the knee. They were made of wool or, for the rich, silk. Men sometimes wore an overstocking of linen to stop their wet boots staining their stockings.
Linen was used for shirts and smocks but Irish production was penalized by English trade barriers, so producers had therefore little incentive to compete with sophisticated continental standards. King William's government in London removed the tax on plain linens in 1696 and in 1698 Huguenot refugee Louis Crommelin brought 70 experienced French weavers to Lisburn. Their sophisticated skills were to contribute to the legendary rise in Irish linen during the 18th Century.
Weaving at a handloom, whether it be wool or linen, is a slow process and, before the age of industrialization, most people only had one suit of clothes to do them throughout the year although the better off will have had several changes, especially of linen shirts or flannel underwear which protected the main garment from sweat.
Even the wardrobe inventories of the rich were small by modern standards and passing used clothes on to poorer people or younger children was commonplace. Derry defender Colonel John Michelburne, in his very detailed will, left all his "wearing apparel" and linen to his manservant but his good grey suit went to a particular friend in Londonderry.
The Gaelic Irish were not fans of bed linen. Well into the 18th century overseas travelers were shocked to discover that the natives of such a cold, unwelcoming climate preferred to sleep naked on rush-covered floors with no sense of embarrassment about nudity and nothing to keep them warm but their mantle and the body-heat of other sleepers - which might include the whole family and even extraneous guests. Those of Scottish and English origin brought in the nightshirt the nightgown, the night-cap, the dressing-gown or banyan as it was called, beds, bed-linen and covers. For the poor this might mean little more than a wooden board between them and the cold earth with a straw mattress, a sheet and wool blanket to cover it. For the well to do the bed might be a four-poster, well raised off the floor with a feather mattress and canopy and thick curtains to keep the draughts out. Feather pillows and well-stuffed bolsters (a single thick pillow which runs all the way across the bed) were all part of the picture.
Hair depended very much on the owner and what he chose to do with it. The fashion was long and worn down for men and long and worn up for women. When Louis XIV began to loose his own beautiful chestnut hair and Charles II went prematurely grey both decided that wigs were the most convenient answer although Charles did not go as far as employing 55 wigmakers at court to keep him in headgear. Nevertheless royal fashions trickled down through the upper levels of society and soon people with perfectly good heads of hair were getting a short cut or a shave and a periwig. Although wigs were very costly items soon almost all gentlemen had one and army officers were expected to have larger ones the higher they climbed in rank. How they kept them on is hard to imagine although we know that they sometimes tied them back with a ribbon on active service. Ladies might add a pastiche piece of hair to improve their own, go all the way with a wig or not bother at all if nature had equipped them well.
Further down the social order men generally wore their own hair long, as did women, and tied it back only when work made it necessary. This obviously encouraged the propagation of parasites. If early Irish thought it was a social nicety for ladies to pick the lice out of their beloved's hair, by the early 17th Century this was less common. In thee early years of the Plantation the wife of Bishop Knox of Londonderry complained that the native gentry, though civil, sometimes left the odd louse about the house. Evidently this was frowned upon by conscientiously clean Lowland Scots for whom cleanliness was next to godliness. Although standards of cleanliness must have improved over the century there were still plenty of lice and fleas about and in the confined quarters and unsanitary conditions of siege warfare they must have been legion. We know from contemporary sources that Irish soldiers were able to recognize defenders from the amount of vermin on their bodies.
Soldiers dress
In the Restoration period Irish wool was commonly used for British army uniforms since it was cheaper than its English counterpart. Red was the typical colour although grey fatigues were also worn. It should however be noted that many of those in the siege would not have done battle in smart regimentals. Although many of the men who had joined the Williamite regiments in the run-up to the Irish invasion of the North may have had smart red coats others will have had only their own clothes. Certainly those who joined regiments while the invasion was underway or in Londonderry itself at the beginning of the siege will have had civilian clothes.
The best portrait of the times comes from the highly observant Colonel John Michelburne who, in his play Ireland Preserv'd, gives detailed descriptions of his characters. Covenanter leader David Hewston struts through Coleraine "with a Large Grey Cap, Boat Fashion, Furr'd with Badgers Skin, a Grey Suit, a Plain Cravat, White Stockins, a Case of Side Pistols, sticking in his Girdle, a large Cutting Sword in a waste Belt, a Baggonet (bayonet), a large Scotch Durke by his side, hanging down" and a Londonderry smith fires a cannon dressed in his leather work apron. An Irish countrywoman has a handkerchief on her head and a mantle pinned around her shoulders while Michelburne dons a riding habit to rescue Lady Masserene from her Antrim home. Both his Williamite and Jacobite soldiers make frequent references to the benefits of getting officers clothes by whatever means. In fact red coats were an important item of booty during skirmishes, as were saddles, wigs and hats. An officers coat with its gold or silver buttons, embroidery and decorative bullion cords was particularly sought-after: this is hardly surprising since one aristocratic Jacobite officer spent more on his own uniform than on dressing his entire regiment! For a soldier on duty on the walls or in a cold wet trench it could also be a life-saver although it might also carry the former wearers disease and parasites with it.
Officers paid for their own scarlet uniforms and could choose the quality of the cloth, the buttons and the decorations which were often gold for higher officers and silver for lower ones. Officers wore large black hats, usually made of beaver, which might be pinned up at one side and decorated with plumes. They wore cravats or neckties, often of coloured ribbon.
The Jacobite Lord Deputy Tyrconnel raised a 40,000 strong Irish Army for James II in remarkably little time and when the king reviewed it he suggested sending the ill-equipped men home and keeping only those who perfectly turned out for service, but Tyrconnell refused. Certainly John Michelburne portrays the Irish army as a motley crew with the rank and file dressed in red, grey and blue coats. He also notes that it was impossible to get even his own native Irish grenadiers out of traditional brogues and into "Brogue de Sasinach" and so footwear must have been very varied. An army on the march consumes footwear quickly and anti-Irish observers bitterly complained that Irish soldiers had killed thousands of cattle during Lent 1689 merely to get the hides for brogues, leaving thousands of carcasses to rot and cause disease since meat was forbidden in the season of penitence. These soft shoes must have been of little protection in the water-logged trenches around Derry or marching on rough ground.
There was no difference between the garb of Jacobites and those of their Williamite counterparts, except that the former put a piece of paper in their hats and the latter a green sprig to distinguish them. Although most Williamites seemed to have worn red coats we know that when the Enniskillen Dragoons were formed amongst the defenders of the Fermanagh citadel their coats were grey since there had been such a run on red cloth.
Although some of the Williamite regiments at the siege may have been well dressed there must have been little uniformity of appearance or equipment and many defenders used their long-muzzled hunting guns rather than army muskets since these had better range and accuracy. Michelburne describes one defender wearing a little pouch of powder attached by a string to his cod-piece.
Some Irish regiments were undoubtedly smart and Michelburne tells us their Cavalry regiments entered the field with glittering kettle-drums and livried servants holding the commanding officer's extra horses. Body amour was already out of fashion but we know that it was used in the Siege. At the battle on the strand at the beginning of the siege the Irish cavalry onslaught initially seems unstoppable because the cavalry are wearing old fashioned body amour and only when it glistens in the sun do the officers hit on the solution of aiming at the horses. Derry cavalry commander Adam Murray also wore amour, suffering groin wounds despite his protective thigh pieces.
The Irish army on the march must have been a motley sight since Irish soldiers sometimes had little or no uniform and brought their large families on campaign, all of whom had to eat and find shelter at the expense of the occupied territories. It is hardly surprising that people feared their progress as if it were a plague of locusts. On the edges of this unwieldy army were the "raparees", roughly dressed peasants armed with long "skeanes" or knives who became predators upon the land.