A Short History of Legal Wigs
Although legal dress has a long history, it has for the most part evolved in the same way as common law, without written regulation. Before the 17th century lawyers did not wear wigs, but professional discipline required that their hair and beards should be moderately short.
Nevertheless, the introduction of wigs into polite society in the reign of Charles II (1660-85) was an innovation which could not be resisted! After a period of disapproval, wigs were generally assumed by lawyers in the 1680s.
Early wigs are difficult to identify in portraits of the period because they were of a natural colour and were sometimes combined with a lock of growing hair at the forehead. However, wigs soon became larger and increasingly stylised.
By the middle of the 17th century wigs of powdered white or grey hair were the universal custom, but during George III’s reign (1760-1820) wigs went rapidly out of general use. Although bishops were given royal permission to abandon their wigs in the 1830s, this was not necessarily true of other officials.
There is a story that Lord Eldon, the Lord Chancellor of
the day, was refused permission to leave off his wig at
court! In the 1860s the counsel were permitted to remove their wigs
during a heatwave
- this attracted some comment in the press and it was suggested
that wigs were abandoned altogether by the legal profession.
However, the
proposal met with little support, though it has been a
common
occurrence ever since for judges to allow wigs to be left
off in very hot weather,
and sometimes turbans are allowed to be worn instead of
wigs on religious grounds