"Plain bays for Jenny's"?

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>French Silks <---> plain Stuff
>>French Hoops <---> no Hoops
>>Tete de Mouton Heads (Bob Wigs) <---> common Night-Mobs
>>Sattin Smock Petticoats <---> plain Bays for Jenny's

If the parallelism is maintained (which it may not be), perhaps one should
add "&c." to "smock petticoats".

The last of the four contrasts probably would then be "satin underwear" vs.
"plain baize ...".

Then one can speculate that "Jenny's" means approximately "[feminine]
underwear".

I cannot find any example of this so far.

"Jenny's" can easily = "jennies" in any sense, but I don't see a good
candidate; the usual "jenny" in the _late_ 18th century was the spinning
jenny AFAIK.

Rank speculation only: "jennies" = "underwear" as a corruption of
"chemise". Cf. "shimmey" shown under "chemise" in OED with "chemise"
apparently taken as plural.

-- Doug Wilson


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