When the newly-trained physician, Dr. William Stoddard Williams (1762-1829) left Deerfield, Massachusetts, for his first job in the Berkshires town of Richmond, he packed books – more than two dozen medical texts plus English and French grammars, Locke’s work on philosophy, and a psalm book – and enough clothing to carry him through the change of seasons until he moved back to Deerfield in July of 1786. All of the items suggest a gentleman’s inventory. His list includes three coats and two overcoats, plus one white jacket “with French quilting,” nine vests (including two striped and one of cashmere), eight pairs of breeches, four hats, nine pair of gloves, and 12 pairs of stockings made of “thread,” “worsted,” and “yarn.” His seven shirts included two that were “ruffled.”
* Note especially the “1 Pair Breeches & Jacket Solo. [his younger brother] bro’t up to have ye Small Pox in.” He may have been planning to go to a “pest house” in order to be inoculated himself or to spend time in a pesthouse as a physician and wanted clothes specifically for that purpose.
