Cait Burk, MA student at the University of Glasgow shares her discoveries about an unusual item in the Paxton House costume collection.

The costume collection at Paxton House includes a remarkable Jacobean nightcap that dates to around 1590-1620. Nightcaps were a common garment worn by men in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As with most dress of that time, its purpose was multifaceted. It kept the head warm in draughty houses and was thought to ward off ailments, but it was also a way to show off wealth. Embroidered nightcaps, like Paxton’s, were a form of informal dress, which meant they could only be worn within the privacy of the home where they functioned as a way to advertise wealth to friends and tradespeople visiting the home. Though a small item, it is the oldest object in the Paxton House costume collection.

What it is like?

The Paxton nightcap is made of linen and embroidered with silver and gilt metal thread making it an expensive item that not many people of the time could afford to wear. The metallic embroidery is exquisitely done and appears to be professionally worked. Very little metal thread was used on the reverse side in order to preserve the expense of such a valuable item. Acorns and oak leaves connected by scrolling branches and vines make up the motifs. It fits close to the head in a skullcap shape and has an upturned brim edged with gilt bobbin lace intertwined with oblong spangles. Internally, the cap is lined with another layer of linen to both protect the head from the metal thread and keep the expensive nightcap clean. The lining could easily be removed and washed, or replaced, when it became dirty or worn.

How Was It Made?

Nightcaps of the time were usually made from one piece of linen. The cap pattern and embroidery design were transferred to the linen through pinpricking the paper design, done in charcoal, into the fabric. Another option was to hold the design under the fabric to a light source and trace the pattern onto the linen. It was then stretched in an embroidery frame, embroidered, cut out, and stitched together. Paxton’s nightcap was similarly made, but the turned back brim is a separate piece of linen.

Embroidery stitches

The embroidery on this cap makes use of a variation of a braid stitch on the vines and stems connecting the acorns and oak leaves. The swirls coming off the stems are done in a chain stitch. For the acorns, both the nut and the cap are done using the single corded Brussels stitch. The variation in texture comes from the direction of the stitch. The oak leaves are done using a variation of the raised stem band stitch. All of these stitches are worked over-top of the linen, only anchoring occasionally through the fabric, leaving very little gilt thread on the backside of the linen. To assemble the cap, the arches were stitched together, and the back seam sewn up. A final embroidery of chain stitches in gilt thread went over the seams to hide them. To finish it off, the gilt bobbin lace was attached to the brim edge.

While many nightcaps were embroidered with both coloured silk and metal threads, Paxton’s nightcap features only silver (or silver-alloy) and gilt thread embroidery. The nut of the acorn is the only section that uses silver thread. The oak leaves, acorn caps, and remainder of embroidery was done in gilt thread. To produce these threads, it is likely the metal was hammered or rolled into thin sheets and then cut into small strips. The metal strips were then wrapped around a core yarn. The gilt thread was achieved through the same process, but gold leaf was burnished onto the base metal before it was hammered, cut, and wrapped around a core. Gilt threads are easily identifiable because areas of burnished gold tend to rub off. Paxton’s nightcap has evidence of this.

Who owned it? Was it George Home, Earl of Dunbar?

It seemed most likely that the nightcap belonged to George Home, Earl of Dunbar and came to the house with his portrait that now hangs at the top of the main staircase. I set out to try and prove if this theory was correct, but unfortunately was unable to find irrefutable evidence. George Home, Earl of Dunbar, (1556-1611) was a favourite of King James VI and I, and held many titles throughout his career, lavished on him by the King.  One was Master of the Great Wardrobe, to which he was appointed in 1603. Home met the young King James sometime in the 1580s and quickly worked to become indispensable to him. Because of his position within James’ court, Home undoubtably could have afforded a nightcap like the one at Paxton. Additionally, undress became a popular fashion within the court of James VI and I, especially with the Union of the Crowns in 1603. The King brought the Scottish preference for using the bedchamber for official business to England, so that the bedchamber quickly replaced the privy chamber.

Even though nightcap etiquette demanded one only be worn in the presence of people from a lower social rank, it is well-known that ‘the chief lords and favourite [wore] on their heads richly embroidered caps’ while in the King’s presence. Therefore, it is likely, as a favourite and servant of the king, that George Home owned one or more nightcaps. The Earl of Dunbar’s association with Paxton House is still a bit of a mystery, although he is an ancestor of the Homes of Paxton. As the Lord of Berwick, the Earl had land holdings there and began to build a house on the site of Berwick Castle that was never finished. How his portrait from 1610 ended up in Paxton’s collection is still unknown, since the house was not built until 1758 by Patrick Home of Billie (1728-1808). Both the painting and the nightcap date to around the same time and are some of the oldest pieces in the house but there is no discernible link between the portrait and the nightcap. Additionally, the nightcap’s dates fit into the later years of the Earl’s life. It remains possible that the nightcap once belonged to George Home, Earl of Dunbar and came to Paxton House by inheritance along with his portrait.

Or could it be Sir George Home of Wedderburn?

Through more research, I was also able to track down two other possible owners: Sir George Home of Wedderburn (1552-1616) and his younger brother, David Home of Godscroft (1558-1629). For a year, in 1597, Sir George Home of Wedderburn was the Comptroller of the Household to James VI of Scotland. His great-great-grandson was the George Home who lost the land on which Paxton would eventually be built, after being convicted as a Jacobite traitor in the uprising of 1715. The Paxton lands passed to Patrick Home of Billie by 1750 and he built a new house around 1758. When he inherited Wedderburn Castle, Sir George’s ancestral home, in 1766, he left Paxton and rebuilt Wedderburn as well. If the nightcap did indeed belong to George Home of Wedderburn, it likely came to Paxton from Wedderburn Castle.  When Paxton House was inherited by yet another George Home in 1795, he had various family possessions including books and paintings moved from Wedderburn Castle to Paxton. Therefore, if the nightcap belonged to George Home of Wedderburn (1552-1616), it likely stayed in the family until it was transported to Paxton almost 200 years later.

Or David Home of Godscroft?

The same backtracking can be done for David Home of Godscroft (1558-1629), the younger brother of Sir George Home of Wedderburn (1552-1616). David was a major intellectual figure in Scotland during this time, and nightcaps were often signifiers of academics or clergymen. Additionally, if he could afford the gilt embroidery, it was legal for him to wear the nightcap under Scottish sumptuary laws. Scottish sumptuary laws differed from English sumptuary laws which were not repealed until 1604 by King James VI and I.  However, the nightcap would have had to find its way to Paxton House in some manner, but, since he was related to Sir George Home of Wedderburn (1552-1616), it is not impossible.

My second candidate, Sir George Home of Wedderburn is, in my opinion, the most likely owner of Paxton’s beautifully worked nightcap as he has the most direct connections to Paxton House.

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