shovel hat

English

Example of a shovel hat as worn by some Roman Catholic and English clergy, particularly in the 19th century.

Etymology

From the shape. Apparently originally "fire shovel hat" or "fire-shovel-hat".

Noun

shovel hat (plural shovel hats)

1. (informal) A broad-brimmed style of hat, varying widely in detail, generally turned up at the sides and projecting in front like a shovel, formerly worn by some clergy in Britain, especially clergy of the Church of England.
   • 1816 The NEW EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE AND Theological Review

     SIR,
     There are some Clergymen in the establishment, who indulge themselves with an innocent kind of distinction, by the wearing of hats of a peculiar shape, with a rose ribbon, vulgarly called by others the fire shovel hats. It is generally confined to such Clergymen as have become chaplains to some Noblemen, or persons of rank and title. No man of respectability in the church assumes this shaped hat, if he has any sense of decorum and good manners. without the official title.
     But the case is very different with our Dissenting brethren; among them, the increase of these shaped hats, is truly alarming and disgusting. At one period, our ministers, were distinguished and held in contempt for their Puritanism and Methodism; but now they excite risibility, by the use of the "fire shovel hat". This is an offence, which must excite painful emotions in the heart of well educated and intelligent Dissenters, to have their respective pastors, aiming, not only at clerical distinction, but imposing upon the public as they walk through the streets, by the assumption of a badge of distinction, which is contrary to decency and good manners. As well might they place upon the breast, the star and garter, and the emblems of royal dignity, or wear lawn sleeves — or the black cassock or the sylvan cap, as to wear "the fire shovel hat".

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     And while the moralist, who is holding forth on the cover ( an accurate portrait of your humble servant), professes to wear neither gown nor bands, but only the very same long-eared livery in which his congregation is arrayed: yet, look you, one is bound to speak the truth as far as one knows it, whether one mounts a cap and bells or a shovel hat; and a deal of disagreeable matter must come out in the course of such an undertaking.

2. Styles of tricorn hats worn by certain categories of Roman Catholic clerics in many countries, roughly during the nineteenth century, commonly described as "shovel hats" by Anglophones.
   • 1825 Lionel Lexicographer an Improved Roman Catholic Dictionary and Expositor of the Popish Religion and Policy

     On landing at Naples, I was struck with the large number of ecclesiastics, in different garbs that were to be seen in all the streets. They all looked extremely fantastical and self-satisfied. ... I soon learned that the fat, well-fed , and well dressed persons, with large shovel hats, were priests ...

   • 1870 S. Baring-Gould in Exitu Israel

     They touched their caps to the curé, who removed his shovel hat and bowed low, without, however, withdrawing his eyes from the book.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     Then came a picture of a cheerful and corpulent ecclesiastic in a shovel hat, sitting opposite a very thin European, and the inscription: "Lunch with Fra Cristofero at Rosario".

3. (obsolete, colloquial) During the period of the popularity of shovel hats as clerical hats: any ecclesiastic, particularly one in traditional garb.
   • 1822 William Cobbett: Cobbett's Weekly Political Register London, Saturday, August 10, p. 367

     In the mean while, let me recommend to you, and to all Parsons, to read Mr. Carlile's pamphlet, the Republican, of the 2nd of August. It will do your very hearts good. Give it to your parishioners to read. They will find out a great deal from it; and they will not want to trouble you much in future. I expected that the fire-shovel hats would get it in that Number; and they have got it, and laid on with a heavy hand!

   • 1825 Richard Carlile: To Mr William Cobbett. The Republican. No. 2, VoL. II. London, Friday, Jan. 14, 1825. price 6d. p. 33

     The enmity, which, in your Political Register, you have, for years, shewn to the "Fire-shovel Hats", or to the Clergy of the Church established by law, in particular, and to Dissenters from that Church, in general, in whatever state of mind it might have left you, has, I believe, not failed to persuade your readers, that, you are much about the same sort of Christian as I am.

   • 1828 A Late Scene at Swanage: Odes Upon Cash, Corn, Catholics, &c. selected from the columns of the Times Journal

     For he misses his parsons, his dear shovel hats, who used to flock round him at Swanage like rooks.