Episode 1 of 3
Apocryphal Status of the Story
- When
- 1797 (claimed date of the apocryphal story)
- Where
- No specific location for the story's circulation
The riot story is apocryphal; top hats appeared in English fashion as early as the 1780s, contradicting the invention claim.
John Hetherington is an apocryphal English haberdasher, and the frequently republished story from the late nineteenth century claims he invented the top hat and caused a riot by wearing it in public in London in 1797. However, top hats appeared in English fashion as early as the 1780s, so the story's premise of a first wearing and invention is contradicted.
Sources
- John Hetherington (haberdasher) Wikipedia, revision of 2025-07-26
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.