The Well-equipped 17th-century Soldier

Buff coats were made to be worn under armor (breast and back plates), but, over time, became the principal protection of both cavalrymen and foot soldiers. A buff coat was made from thick ox hide panels sewn together (the Leverett coat is made up of 14 separate quarter-inch-thick pieces). The skirting consists of free-floating panels that would extend over the hips and upper legs of a rider, or allow greater mobility for a soldier on foot. Material was removed from the inner arms of the coat to make them flexible; undersleeves and heavy gauntlets would provide more protection for the wearer’s arms and hands. John Leverett’s coat bears the signs of heavy use and contains both cuts and bloodstains, so he appears to have been wounded while wearing it.

A portrait of Leverett at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, shows him attired in his coat and related gear, but in the painting the coat is closed with a wide sword belt and both fastened and decorated with a row of elegant silver clasps (now all missing, although a belt loop and the marks of pins used to attach the clasps remain).

The coat was given to the MHS by another John Leverett, a descendant of the original owner, in 1803. A brief, but helpful video conveys close-up details of the coat..

Who was John Leverett?

John Leverett was born in Boston, England, in 1616, the son of Thomas and Anne Fisher Leverett, parishioners at the church of the celebrated Puritan minister, John Cotton. John immigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1633 with his parents who followed Rev. Cotton to America, and settled in the “new” Boston, named for his place of birth in England. Here he met and in 1639 married Hannah Hudson, another recent immigrant. They had four children. After Hannah’s death in 1646, John Leverett married Sarah Sedgwick and they had fourteen children although only seven of his combined eighteen children survived to adulthood.

In Boston, Leverett became a merchant, but he devoted much of his time and energy to public and military affairs. He returned to his mother country to serve as a cavalry officer in the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War, returning to Massachusetts in 1648. In 1651 he was elected to represent Boston in the Massachusetts General Court (the colonial legislature). On behalf of the colony, he made a second trip to England in 1653 seeking aid in the war against the Dutch. He later served in military operations against the Dutch and then against the French in Maine and Canada—receiving personal instructions on at least one occasion directly from Oliver Cromwell—before being sent back to England yet again as the colonial agent for Massachusetts.

Leverett returned to Massachusetts for the last time in 1662 and held increasingly important government and military positions. He was a major general in the colonial military forces, speaker of the colonial legislature; selected deputy governor in 1671 and then elected governor in 1673, a post he held until his death in 1679.