@daverod,
What was the average height for a male in the 18th Century? Mr. George Washington, who lived within the 18th Century, is reported to have been 6 feet 1 inches in height. Some articles say that the average 'height' of males in Europe and in Colonial U.S America was 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 7 inches. Which is more accurate for males in the 18th Century?
The clothing that people wore in the past has the ability to fascinate and involve us as few objects of their material culture do. Clothing is intimate.
"Dress" clothing meant formal clothing with a different set of conventions and accessories from "undress," or informal clothing. In 1775, for example, a woman could still don a pair of exaggerated side hoops, or "panniers," to support her wide skirt for a dress occasion, while her undress clothing ;although it would appear quite formal to our eyes;had a more modest skirt size that may not have needed hoops at all. Similarly, the clothes in which a wealthy planter conducted his daily business differed significantly from what he wore to a ball at the Governor's Palace. The garments worn by a blacksmith or dairymaid for daily work were different from their best outfits, reserved for Sundays at church and infrequent special occasions.
Some questions about people's appearance cannot be answered to our satisfaction, even after poring over all the surviving sources. We would very much like to know the size of the "average" person in the eighteenth century, but we can offer only partial answers. We do know that the unaltered bodices and stays in Williamsburg's collections have waistlines ranging from 21 1/2 inches to 34 inches, with an average of slightly over 25 inches. Two hundred and twenty-five men advertised as being runaways in the Virginia Gazette between the years 1750 to 1770 had an average height of 5 feet, 7 1/2 inches. Based on limited, non-scientific samples, these figures cannot be taken as averages for an entire period. Research continues in all aspects of appearance and clothing.
http://www.history.org/history/clothing/intro/clothing.cfm
Table 2: Mean height by status, sex and number of convictions
Males/Females
One recorded conviction Multiple convictions
One recorded conviction Multiple convictions
Born in the Colony (aged 21-50)
67.23 ins (n = 3,990) 66.76 ins *** (n = 1,753) /62.49 ins (n = 834) 62.30 ins (n = 336)
Arrived free (aged 21-50)
66.43 ins (n = 2,705) 66.39 ins (n = 493)/ 61.85 ins (n = 254) 62.72 ins (n = 54)
Arrived as a convict (aged 21-70)
65.33 ins (n = 4,412) 65.05 ins *** (n = 1,188)/ 61.33 ins (n = 1,196) 61.42 ins (n = 319)
http://www.academia.edu/16189059/HEIGHT_CRIME_AND_COLONIAL_HISTORY
70 inches is 5 feet 8.3 inches.
67.23 inches is 5 feet 6.025 inches.