18th Century Stockings

Stockings were made in a variety of fibers as well as mixes of fibers. C. Rathell advertising in the Virginia Gazette, offers for sale "Silk, Cotton and Thread (flax) Stockings". In Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" written in 1740, Pamela who is a superior maid servant is given on her mistress' death "four pair of fine white cotton stockings and three pair of fine silk ones". In Germantown and Philadelphia prior to 1775 a growing stocking industry employs 150 frames upon which brown & white thread and cotton stockings are made. By the late 1770's Colonel Leffingwell's stocking factory in Norwich Connecticut is producing cotton, thread, silk and worsted stockings.