Ye Pirate Brethren

Okay, the inventory of Thomas' Hewson's estate in 1677 has been listed here, and two things in particular catch my eye:

Tennis cape
Greeke watch coate

Maybe this has been discussed here, but I can't find it. So, what the heck are these things? I suspect the Greeke watch coate is a spanish-style hooded capote, but I don't have any evidence for it. It's just a suspicion I have. But I am at a loss as to what a tennis cape might be.

A cape worn by tennis players?
I have no idea, but if I was going to research it, I'd probably start with real tennis and branch out form there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_tennis

Everytime I attempt a long post on this freaking website it times out before I can finish it, so when I click 'post' it asks me to sign in and I've lost the work of ten or fifteen minutes. I don't feel like posting again.

Okay, I am going to try this again.

Nothing about real tennis so far. All the pictures so people wearing what appears to be regular clothes.

However, the tennis ball was covered in something like melton wool. or so it is claimed. Haven't seen a good reference for that, and Melton wool wasn't coined as a phrase until 1823, as far as I can tell. So a 'tennis cape' might be a cape made out of a melton-like fabric, maybe. Melton is the traditional fabric of peacoats, or so I've been told.

However, the 17th century enjoyed no shortage of terms for fabric, and I am surprised I haven't seen 'tennis' as a term before. However, I haven't checked the OED yet, and the answer is probably already in there. In any case, the relationship between "tennis ball = melton = peacoat = sailor's clothes = sailor's clothes of the 17th century" is all conjecture.

There was an Egyptian textile center called Tennis/Tanis, but I think it lost prominence after the 7th century and I still need to check the OED to see if 'tennis' was a term for fabric.

The best the OED has to offer is:

3. attrib. and Comb. a. Of, belonging to, or used in playing real tennis, as tennis coat, tennis game; see also TENNIS-BALL, -PLAY, etc.

1516 Harl. MS. 2284 lf. 21 Blew velwete for *Tenes Cote for the king.

Thanks, Foxe. At least we know that there was a type of garment called a "tennis coat." Looks like I'll have to learn french and check out Garsault's L'Art du paumier-raquetier et de la paume. Well, I suppose I don't have to learn french to look at the pictures, do I?

Great. Looks like my alma mater has a copy of Tudor Costume and Fashion, which references King Henry's Tenes Cote. Apparently "These 'tenes cotes' were used by Henry to wrap around him after the heat of a vigorous game."

I'll pick up a copy from the university library and see if they give more info.