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This armor consisted of five elements in addition to the helmet. There was a gorget to protect the neck and to support the weight of a back plate and a breastplate which were fastened together by straps which passed over the shoulders and attached by hooks at the front and by a belt that passed around the waist. At the lower edge of the breastplate were fastened two hinged plates called tassets which protected the thighs. Although each of these plates was made from a single sheet of metal they were embossed to resemble a series of overlapping plates, complete with false rivets.

Of all the forms of body armor worn in America during the early 1600’s, the pikeman’s suit was undoubtedly the most popular. There are numerous references to it in the contemporary documents. A tasset from such a suit was found behind the fireplace in the John Howland house near Plymouth and is now preserved in Pilgrim Hall. In the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston there are a helmet, a back plate and a tasset from another suit which belonged to an early colonist, and portions of similar suits have been found in Pennsylvania and at Jamestown, Virginia.