Join me in welcoming author Margaret Porter to
William-and-Mary-Dyer-World. From time to time, I run articles on the 17th-century
English culture that was so familiar to the Dyers and their associates, Anne
Hutchinson, John Winthrop, Henry Vane, Roger Williams, John Clarke, and so many
others. Margaret Porter has recently released a book that begins in 1684, the
last of the reign of King Charles II, and the beginning of the reign of James
II, the former Duke of York.
To put this time in perspective with the Dyers, this was the adulthood of their
children. Their son William Dyer was mayor of New York
and a customs official, and is mentioned in the “Diary of Samuel Pepys” as
assisting James, Duke of York, in investigating
a scam on Long Island.
© 2015 Margaret Evans Porter
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| An English public house much like the Dyers would have known. |
For
centuries, Britain’s
main beverages were ale and beer—at all times of day—brewed at home or locally,
in households and in the monasteries. For ale, the necessary ingredients were
water, ground malt, and yeast, mixed together and left to ferment. From the
fifteenth century, influenced by Continental methods, hops were added to create
beer. Small ale or small beer, watered versions of the fully-brewed sort, were
consumed with breakfast and given to children. There were other variations:
buttered beer, derived by brewing eggs and butter, and the unpalatable-sounding
cock-ale. If interested in making the latter, here are instructions:
Take eight gallons of Ale; take a Cock and boil
him well; then take four pounds of raisins…two or three nutmegs…three or four
flakes of mace…half a pound of dates…beat these all up in a mortar, and put to
them two quarts of the best Sack; and when the Ale hath done working, put these
in and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and after a month
you may drink it.
Sack was a
wine obtained from Spain or
the Canary islands. Sherry, its fortified
cousin, is the Anglicized term for Jerez (in
Andalusia) where it originated, and at the start of the 17th century
it became popular in England.
French wines—from Bordeaux, Burgundy,
Champagne,
and other regions—were traded by Dutch merchants, although in wartime such
goods might be obtained via smugglers. This was equally true of brandy,
sometimes referred to as Nantz or Nantes,
the area where it was produced.
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| Bristol-made vessels |
The
Gaelic peoples of Ireland
and Scotland
had long been distilling their “water of life” (uisce beatha) from malt, which by the 17th century was
Anglicized to usquebaugh
and eventually to whisk(e)y. At that time there was no aging process, and the
liquor was extremely potent and unrefined.
During the
17th century, rum began to be produced in Barbados
and other sugarcane islands of the Caribbean, where molasses was fermented, distilled,
and exported to England.
The first rum distillery in the American Colonies started in New
York in the 1660s, and rum-making soon became New
England’s most notable industry. The British Royal Navy had
initially provided French brandy as part of a sailor’s ration, but in the
mid-17th century rum replaced it.
As well as
delivering French wine and spirits to Britain, the Netherlands’ most
significant contribution was gin—genever, or Hollands—made from juniper berries
(often with turpentine as an additive), originating in the 16th
century. Military men drank it when serving in the Low Countries, and Prince
William of Orange’s accession to his deposed
father-in-law’s throne resulted in its wider availability in Britain. Unlike
ale, beer, and wine, it was unlicensed and not taxed, and therefore was the
cheapest of spirits—prior to the Gin Act of 1736. Gin consumption was blamed
for widespread public drunkenness, crime, and degradation of the populace.
Whether in
city or countryside, taverns and alehouses were hubs of social activity, a
place to meet, eat, smoke tobacco, sing, dance, converse, debate, fight, and
receive messages. Female publicans—married or widowed—were not uncommon; they
also managed breweries.
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| A rich man's spirits flask |
Women were
also skilled in making wines and spirits and cordials for medicinal or
household use, from readily available plants. They distilled wine from
cowslips, dandelions, parsnips, birch, and elder-blossom. Using berries plucked
from hedgerow blackthorn bushes, they made sloe gin. Cider from apples and
perry from pears were widely available in regions where orchards prevailed,
especially Somerset, Devon, Dorset,
Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire.
Wine and
spirits were ingredients in many other drinks. Arrack or rack punch was
composed of a specific sort of East Indian brandy, double-distilled in Goa,
combined with sugar syrup, citrus,
cinnamon and other spices, and boiling water. Syllabubs were whipped using wine
or cider, fresh cream, and spices. Possets often included sack, with or without
milk or cream, ale, eggs and spices. Wassail was a combination of dark sugar,
hot beer, sherry, cold beer, and toasted bread, often with a roasted apple
added at the last. The beverage known as Bishop involved piercing an orange
with cloves and roasting it, then adding it to a saucepan of heated port wine.
The steaming liquid was then poured over lemon rind to steep, served warm with
grated nutmeg.
Alcoholic
beverages were transported and stored in wooden hogsheads and casks of various
sizes, and decanted to ceramic jars or bottles, the latter mostly manufactured
in Bristol.
Drinking vessels could be tankards of leather or wood or pewter, silver goblets
or blown glass stemware which might be etched with a coat of arms or a device
indicating political loyalties.
One of the
best-known drinking songs is probably “John Barleycorn,” hundreds of years old:
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Then they put him in the
mashing-tub,
Thinking to scald his
tale,
And the next thing they
called Barleycorn,
They called him
home-brewed ale.
Here’s the
verse of another 17th century drinking song:
Be merry, good hearts,
and call for your quarts,
and let not the liquor be lacking,
We have gold in store,
we purpose to roar,
until we can set care
a-packing.
Mine Hostess make haste,
and let no time waste,
every man shall have his
due,
To save shoes and your
trouble, bring the pots double
for he that made one,
makes two.
Seventeenth Century Drinking Vocabulary
Bawdy-house
bottle—very small in size
Bingo—brandy
Blackjack—leathern
drinking jug
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| The Drunkard's Cloak. Related article: Alcoholism and the Drunkard’s Cloak in this Dyer blog. |
Bowse—Drink
Bowsy
(Boozy)—Drunk
Bristol milk—sherry
Bumper—full
glass
Cut—drunk;
deep cut—very drunk
Fuddle-cup—drunkard
Half-seas
over—almost drunk
Hot
pot—ale and brandy boiled together
Maul’d—swingingly
drunk
Maudlin—weepingly
drunk
Mellow—almost
drunk
Muddled—half
drunk
Nazy-nabs—drunken
coxcombs
Nipperkin—half
a pint of wine, half a quarter of brandy
Noggin—quarter
pint of brandy
Pot-valiant—drunk
Romer—a
drinking glass
Rot-gut—small
or thin beer
Stingo—strong
liquor
Stitch—very
strong ale
Swill-belly—a
great drinker
Tall boy—a
pottle or 2-quart pot of wine
Tears of
the tankard—drops of the liquor that fall beside
Tipsy—almost
drunk
Tope—to
drink; old toper—staunch drunkard
Top-heavy—drunk
Vent—bung-hole
in a vessel
_________________________
MARGARET PORTER is an award-winning, bestselling novelist
whose lifelong study of British history inspires her fiction and her travels. A
PLEDGE OF BETTER TIMES, set in England’s
late 17th century royal court, is her 12th
novel. A former stage actress, she has also worked in film, television, and
radio. Author website: www.margaretporter.com
