John Hetherington is an apocryphal English haberdasher. A frequently republished story from the late nineteenth century claims that in 1797 he invented the top hat and caused a riot by wearing it in public in London.
In 1899 the quarterly London journal Notes and Queries published [1] a letter by a Richard H. Thornton of Portland, Oregon, quoting a "note from a recent number of the Hatters' Gazette [lower-alpha 1] ". The note claims Hetherington as having decided to wear his invention of a "silk hat" in public on the 15th of January 1797 with the intention to "cause a sensation" only to be surrounded by a "howling mob".
The note claims to quote an unnamed gazette as having reported the following day that
John Hetherington... was arraigned before the Lord Mayor yesterday on a charge of breach of the peace and inciting to riot, and was required to give bonds in the sum of £500 [lower-alpha 2] [for having] appeared upon the public highway wearing upon his head what he called a silk hat... a tall structure, having a shiny lustre, and calculated to frighten timid people.... several women fainted at the unusual sight, while children screamed, dogs yelped, and a young [boy] was thrown down by the crowd which had collected and had his right arm broken.
The note concludes by claiming to quote a comment in The Times published on 16 January 1797 approving of the hat and stating that it was "destined to work a revolution in headgear".
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was an Anglo-Irish statesman, soldier, and Tory politician who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of the United Kingdom. He is among the commanders who won and ended the Napoleonic Wars when the Seventh Coalition defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
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A top hat is a tall, flat-crowned hat traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally made of black silk or sometimes grey, the top hat emerged in Western fashion by the end of the 18th century. Although it declined by the time of the counterculture of the 1960s, it remains a formal fashion accessory. A collapsible variant of a top hat, developed in the 19th century, is known as an opera hat.
Events from the year 1797 in Canada.
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Events from the year 1849 in the United Kingdom.
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Peter Peckard was an English Whig, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Church of England minister and abolitionist. From 1781 he was Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1782, appointed vice-chancellor in 1784, and created Doctor of Divinity (DD) per literas regias in 1785. In April 1792 he became Dean of Peterborough.
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