  If brown dress bob wigs at 43 shillings each were by far the most popular of Edward Charlton’s products—he sold sixty in one year—they were by no means the only style he made. Perukes not only came in almost endless variety; their prices differed likewise. Even wigs of the same style from the same maker could vary widely in price (according to the kind and quality of materials, care in workmanship, etc.) as the accompanying advertisement shows. Clendinning’s prices were in the same range as those charged by Williamsburg wigmakers through most of the eighteenth century. It is worth remark that Charlton’s price for a brown dress bob wig was the same in 1770 as Andrew Anderson had charged in 1752 and as Jean Pasteur had received in 1726, though the earlier models were probably more elaborate than Charlton made. From prices charged for various articles of clothing at the same period, it appears that a man could outfit himself with hat, coat, shirt, breeches, hose, and shoes for about what his wig would cost him. Put another way, a suitably cheap wig might easily cost a journeyman his wages for two to three weeks, while a wealthy planter might pay nearly as much for one “Grisell Tye Wig” as a servant’s board cost for a year. This advertisement is dated “At Glasgow the 25th February, 1744-5.” It actually appeared in the Virginia Gazette of June 6, 1745, more than three months after Thomas Clendinning penned it. With transatlantic postal service so slow, the mail-order business that Clendinning solicited must have been less than rushing. It appears that he did not advertise in the Virginia Gazette again.
Charlton’s account book shows that shaving and dressing also came at different prices according to the services given. The charge for a year usually amounted to two pounds three shillings. It might, however, be as little as the one pound five shillings that Peter Pelham twice incurred or as much as the four pounds that Speaker Randolph paid. Pelham, organist at Bruton Parish Church and keeper of the colony’s gaol, found time in a busy life to father a family of sixteen children but never got around to paying his little debt to the barber. The account book shows it, along with 13 years’ accrued interest, still unpaid in 1784. Besides the 60 brown dress bobs he made in 1770—seemingly a typical year for him—Charlton sold 20 brown dress queue wigs, three grizzle bobs, one each of three other styles, made curls or dressed ladies’ hair on 28 occasions, and had 42 annual customers for shaving and dressing. During the court or Assembly sessions many additional patrons demanded these last services. All of his 1770 business should have brought Charlton well over £300 in 1771, when most payments would have been made. Actually he received roughly £260 in that year, with the balance probably dribbling in over the next decade—or in some cases never paid. The difficulties of debt collection were among the reasons why so many colonial Virginia craftsmen sought to augment their income by branching into some other activity. Williamsburg wigmakers favored innkeeping as their second occupation. No fewer than five operated ordinaries or provided lodgings, and one of them, Robert Lyon, moved on to become a merchant. David Cunningham served as the town constable for several years, and Alexander Finnie, of course, left the wig trade entirely to become host of the Raleigh Tavern. A facsimile of Andrew Anderson’s bill to Colonel Thomas Jones, then of Williamsburg, for services to various members of the latter’s household, apparently including servants, during 1741, 1742, and 1743. Note that there are more entries for pulling teeth and bleeding the sick than for making and dressing wigs. (Reproduced by permission from the Jones Family Papers, Library of Congress.) In addition to wigmaking, shaving, and hairdressing, Andrew Anderson practiced dentistry and phlebotomy (bleeding). But these were traditional phases of the barbering craft, not extra occupations—albeit only Anderson among Williamsburg barbers practiced them so far as we know. Charlton at one time took a flier in real estate along with John Stretch, bookbinder and bookkeeper in William Hunter’s printing office. The partners bought the playhouse and lot (about where Mrs. Campbell’s Tavern now stands) from Lewis Hallam, proprietor of the Company of Comedians recently from London. The evidence is inconclusive, but suggests that the venture was not a glittering success. From time to time Charlton recorded the sale of such items as a “Ferkin of butter,” a gross of bottles (apparently empty), “eight pounds Chooklate,” stockings, “five Hundred Limes,” a piece of linen, three dozen strong beer, one “cheas,” and part of a lottery ticket. However intriguing these entries may be, they are too infrequent and irregular to support a conclusion that the barber was running a retail store on the side. When so much business was done by barter, any craftsman might have incongruous articles to sell. Like the Silversmith James Geddy, Jr., and other craftsmen of Williamsburg, Charlton once served on the city’s common council. This position carried no compensation, but election to it showed that a man’s neighbors trusted and respected him. The tradition of the humble artisan whose industry and integrity earned him the esteem of his fellow citizens ran strong in colonial America. Unfortunately for the wigmakers, however, no bulwark could withstand the ebb tide of fashion. George Lafong, whose Williamsburg wig shop rivaled Charlton’s in the early 1770s, ended as a beggar in |
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