Part 1

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THE SILVERSMITH in Eighteenth-Century _WILLIAMSBURG_

An Account of his Life & Times, & of his Craft

_Williamsburg Craft Series_

_WILLIAMSBURG_ Published by _Colonial Williamsburg_ MCMLXXX

_The Silversmith in Eighteenth-Century_ Williamsburg

Through many years before the Revolution and for a time early in the war, James Craig and James Geddy the younger were probably Williamsburg's foremost craftsmen in the jewelry, watch repairing, and silversmithing way. Geddy's shop stood on Duke of Gloucester Street "next door below the Church," Craig's Golden Ball still farther down.

At one time Craig advertised in the _Virginia Gazette_ that he had "Just imported from London--A choice Assortment of Jewellery, Plate, Toys and fine Cuttlery. There are some fine visual Spectacles fit for all ages." Not long afterward in the same paper Geddy listed in some detail "A NEAT Assortment of PLATE, WATCHES, AND JEWELLERY," and emphasized that "the Reasonableness of the above Goods, he hopes, will remove that Objection of his Shop's being too high up Town ... and the Walk may be thought rather an Amusement than a Fatigue." A much more typical notice was that of Patrick Beech reproduced on the following page. It bears little resemblance to a modern newspaper advertisement, but it is so characteristic of its own time that any one of Williamsburg's several pre-Revolutionary silversmiths might have penned it.

Fifteen men, possibly sixteen, followed the silversmith's craft in Williamsburg between 1699 and 1780, while this small city was the capital of the Virginia colony. Through the years, most of them took advantage of the newspapers to announce the location of their shops, the arrival of shipments of goods from London, and the kinds of articles and services they had to offer.

All of them combined with silversmithing some other craft, most often that of jeweler or watch repairer. Time and again they assured prospective purchasers that their wares, whether country made or imported, were in the very latest fashion. Each one without exception offered the "highest" price for old gold and silver, including gold lace, either in cash or to be credited against new work. And very often they felt it necessary to specify that sales would be "for ready money only."

PATRICK BEECH, _At the_ BRICK SHOP, _opposite Mr._ Turner's _store_, WILLIAMSBURG,

BEGS leave to inform the public that he makes and sells all sorts of GOLD, SILVER and JEWELLERY WORK, after the newest fashions, and at the lowest prices, for ready money only. Those who are pleased to favour him with their commands may depend upon having their work done in the neatest manner, and on the shortest notice; and their favours will be most gratefully acknowledged.... He gives the highest prices for old GOLD, SILVER, or LACE, either in cash, or exchange.... Commissions from the country will be carefully observed, and punctually answered.

Interestingly, it was a Williamsburg silversmith of a generation earlier who established a high water mark of colonial newspaper advertising. After a preliminary notice, the _Virginia Gazette_ appeared on August 19, 1737, with its entire back page occupied by the announcement of a lottery to be held by Alexander Kerr, jeweler and silversmith of Williamsburg. As if this extravagance on the part of a Scotsman like Kerr was not startling enough, the same full-page notice appeared again two weeks later.

HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE DIEU ET MON DROIT

_Thomas Heming_ GOLDSMITH to his MAJESTY

_at the King's Arms in Bond Street FACING CLIFFORD STREET_

_Makes and Sells all sorts of Gold & Silver Plate in the highest Tastes. Likewise all sorts of Jewellers work, Watches_, Seals in Stone, Steel & Silver, Engrav'd. _Mourning Rings, &c. &c. &c. and at the most Reasonable Prices._

NB. Gives most Money for the above Articles _or Lace burnt or unburnt, &c._

Kerr proposed to sell 400 tickets at one pistole each and give 80 prizes worth, at "common saleable Prices," a total of 400 pistoles. (A pistole was the old quarter-doubloon of Spain, or a similar gold coin, worth about four dollars.) The top prize in the lottery, a combination of a diamond ring, an amethyst pin, a heavily jeweled pendant, and an ornamented gold box, was to be worth 62 pistoles; the other prizes ranged down to 40 valued at two pistoles each. The list included rings, earrings, snuff boxes, toothpick cases, spoons, tongs, gold buttons, buckles, and boxes of various sorts.

After two postponements, probably in order to sell every last ticket, the drawing took place "at the Capitol." This doubtless meant on the steps or portico or in the yard, rather than within the building itself. The outcome was recorded in a single sentence in the _Gazette_: "Yesterday Mr. Kerr's lottery of Jewels and Plate was drawn; and the highest Prize came up in Favour of Mrs. Dawson."

Kerr's long list of prizes--and the items listed for sale in advertisements of other eighteenth-century Williamsburg silversmiths--reveal that the articles these smiths made in their shops, like the ones they imported, were of great variety but mostly of small size. Besides the silver buckles, sugar tongs, teaspoons, toothpick cases, and snuff boxes of the lottery list, other silversmiths advertised thimbles, soup and punch ladles, salt casters or shakers, watch chains, cream buckets or "piggins," and plated as well as solid silver spurs. Among these, the soup ladles were the largest items.

If Williamsburg smiths made larger items on special order as they may have, no such pieces have survived, nor has any mention of them been found in shop records. Custom-made articles would not have been advertised, of course.

_SILVERSMITHS AND GOLDSMITHS, BLACKSMITHS AND DENTISTS_

Patrick Beech, as his advertisement suggested, was obviously a jeweler as well as a Silversmith. James Craig of the Golden Ball, who made a pair of earrings for Washington's beloved stepdaughter, Patsy Custis, was primarily a jeweler rather than a Silversmith. James Geddy, Jr., combined the cleaning and repairing of watches and clocks with silver- and goldsmithing. John and William Rowsay, brothers and partners in a Williamsburg shop, sold not only plate and precious stones, but a wide assortment of general merchandise, to wit:

_Just imported and to be sold by the subscribers in_ Williamsburg,

A NEAT assortment of cutlery, pinchbeck shoe and stock buckles, plated do. watch chains seals and keys, paper snuff-boxes, playing cards, pins and needles, ivory combs, linen, muslins, cap lace, corded dimity, ginghams, calicoes, silk and thread flockings, bohea tea, _&c._ Also a few hogsheads of good RUM, by the hogshead or quarter cask. (1) JOHN & WILLIAM ROWSAY.

This versatility of crafts was almost universal among colonial silversmiths, especially in the southern colonies. Not one of the Williamsburg smiths limited himself rigidly to the making and selling of silver and gold articles. Any who tried would probably not have enjoyed a large income in this essentially small town in an essentially rural colony.

Even so, no Williamsburg silver worker was half so versatile as the most famous silversmith of them all--a Bostonian by the name of Paul Revere. Besides being a horseman of considerable note, Revere was an accomplished designer and worker in silver, and a skilled engraver on silver and copper. He drew and engraved political cartoons that helped stimulate the Revolution, then engraved and printed the first issues of Continental paper money to help finance it. As the owner and operator of a copper foundry, he cast church bells and Revolutionary cannon. He manufactured gunpowder for a while, too, and made and installed dental devices that he advertised as being not only ornamental but also "of real Use In Speaking and Eating."

Several other colonial silversmiths also doubled in dentistry, a fairly normal coupling of crafts since both demand skill in working silver and gold. This tendency, however, was deplored by the "real" dentists of the day, those who might or might not have had a touch of the slender medical training then available. But the displeasure of these practitioners was certainly no greater than that displayed by the trained silversmiths whenever a blacksmith tried to edge into their own craft.

On the other hand, there was not the least jealousy between silversmiths and goldsmiths--for these are but two different names for the same craft. All silversmiths are equally goldsmiths, and vice versa. But long-standing custom and the prestige attached to the more precious of the two metals often moved men who worked almost entirely in silver to proclaim themselves publicly as "goldsmiths."

James Craig advertised as a jeweler during his first two decades in Williamsburg. Then when he branched into silver work he asked to be addressed as "Goldsmith in Williamsburg," and named his shop the "Golden Ball." James Geddy, Jr., customarily advertised as a "goldsmith," but this conceit seems not to have impressed the legal profession in Williamsburg. Deeds and documents drawn up by more prosaic hands refer to him twice as "silversmith" and once as "jeweler."

By combining several vocations, some if not all of the Williamsburg silversmiths seem to have made at least a respectable living. In addition to those whose names have already appeared in this account, three others deserve mention.

John Brodnax was the first to follow the craft in Williamsburg. The son of a London goldsmith, he originally settled in Henrico County near what is now Richmond. The date of his arrival is unknown, but about 1694 he moved to a forest crossroads seven miles from Jamestown called Middle Plantation. Five years later this became the colony's capital "city" and was renamed Williamsburg. In 1711 Brodnax was appointed "Keeper of the Capitol and publick Gaol" at a salary of £30 a year, later raised to £40.

The Intent of the Frontispiece. 1 _St._ Dunstan, _the Patron of the_ Goldsmiths _Company_. 2 _The Refining Furnace._ 3 _The_ Test _with Silver refining on it_. 4 _The Fineing Bellows._ 5 _The Man blowing or working them._ 6 _The_ Test _Mould_. 7 _A Wind-hole to melt Silver in without Bellows._ 8 _A pair of Organ Bellows._ 9 _A Man melting or Boiling, or nealing Silver at them._ 10 _A Block, with a large Anvil placed thereon._ 11 _Three Men Forging Plate._ 12 _The Fineing and other_ Goldsmiths _Tools_. 13 _The_ Assay _Furnace_. 14 _The_ Assay-_Master making Assays_. 15 _His Man putting the Assays into the Fire._ 16 _The Warden marking the Plate on the Anvil._ 17 _His Officer holding the Plate for the Marks._ 18 _Three_ Goldsmiths, _small-workers, at work_. 19 _A_ Goldsmiths _Shop furnished with Plate_. 20 _A_ Goldsmith _weighing Plate_.

Brodnax died in 1719 leaving an estate of £1,000, a very considerable amount in those days, including nearly £200 worth of old gold and silver and close to £300 of finished work. Whether he acquired this estate through silversmithing alone cannot be determined now. It seems highly unlikely in view of the limited economy of that time and place and the experience of others in the craft at a later and more opulent period. He may well have gained his wealth by inheritance, by the sale of his backcountry lands to William Byrd in 1711, or possibly, as so many others did, from the sale of tobacco produced on those acres.

Anthony Singleton was born in Williamsburg in 1750, possibly served as apprentice to James Craig, and opened his own jewelry and goldsmith shop in 1771 opposite the Raleigh Tavern. Little is known today about Singleton's career as a craftsman in silver. After making his mark as a captain of artillery in the Revolution, he moved to Richmond and married Lucy Harrison Randolph, daughter of Benjamin Harrison the Signer, sister of William Henry Harrison the President, and widow of Peyton Randolph of Wilton.

Although Singleton held a number of public and private offices of trust and responsibility, and by virtue of his marriage had gained membership in Virginia's aristocracy, he most solemnly enjoined in his will that his sons "be brought up to some mechanical profession."

William Waddill announced in 1767 his intention to open shop "next door below the Old Printing Office" in Williamsburg. He called himself a "Goldsmith and Engraver" and offered to buy up old gold and silver and rework it "in any taste the owner chooses."

Whether he did open a business as intended is not known, but a few years later he was a jeweler and engraver--and perhaps a partner--in the shop of James Geddy, Jr. Since Geddy married Elizabeth Waddill and named one of his sons William Waddill Geddy, the two men were presumably brothers-in-law. Waddill followed Geddy by a few years in leaving Williamsburg to find greener pastures in the growing cities of Richmond and Petersburg.

_SURVIVING WORK OF WILLIAMSBURG SILVERSMITHS_

William Waddill's known work illustrates how very slight is the amount of surviving silver that can be ascribed with any certainty to Williamsburg smiths. He engraved plates for the printing of paper currency in Virginia, and he made a silver nameplate and handles for the coffin of Governor Botetourt, whose remains lie buried beneath the chapel floor at the College of William and Mary. The coffin plate, purloined by Union soldiers during the Civil War, has since been returned to the college, which has loaned it to Colonial Williamsburg for display at the restored house and shop of James Geddy.

Also on display there are several articles of silver that can now be attributed to the hand of Geddy himself. One is a small saucepan or pot-like cup, with a straight silver handle added at a later time; the others are spoons. The saucepan and three of the spoons bear the "I·G" maker's mark of James Geddy, Jr., the "I" being the eighteenth-century equivalent of "J," at least in certain situations.

The saucepan is believed to have once been the property of Colonel William Preston, a burgess from Augusta County for a time before the Revolution. Preston is known to have purchased other articles from Geddy, and this particular piece of hollowware has come down through his descendants. One of the teaspoons marked "I·G" was found as long ago as 1930 at the site of the Palace kitchen, but its attribution to Geddy remained uncertain for nearly forty years. Then, in 1968, five more silver spoons were unearthed in the yard behind Geddy's house, two of them having the identical maker's mark. Another of the excavated group, a tablespoon, lacks any mark to show the maker, but does have the initials I^GE engraved on the handle, almost certainly those of James Geddy and his wife Elizabeth.

The teaspoon found at the Palace site is also engraved on the handle in the same fashion but with the initials C^AA. Christopher Ayscough was gardener at the Palace in the time of Governor Fauquier; his wife, Anne, was the governor's housekeeper. Fauquier thought so highly of Mrs. Ayscough's stewardship that he bequeathed her £250 sterling, a very generous sum. Possibly the silver teaspoon found beneath the brick floor of Anne Ayscough's kitchen was also a gift from the governor to her and her husband. How it got under the floor can only be guessed at.

St. Paul's Church in Edenton, North Carolina, possesses a silver chalice and paten bearing the inscription: "The Gift of Colonell Edward Mosely for the use [of] the Church in Edenton in the Year 1725." They show the initials AK and are of American make. George Barton Cutten, author of _The Silversmiths of Virginia_, does not hesitate, therefore, in ascribing them to Alexander Kerr of Williamsburg.

Two theories are at hand to explain why these and a few other articles are the only ones still in existence that can be attributed to Williamsburg craftsmen. One is that marauding Union soldiers carried away in their knapsacks all the Williamsburg silver they could lay hands on. This theory is most often advanced south of the Mason and Dixon Line and has some truth in it, to be sure. But not the entire truth, apparently. Cutten declares that there is little silver of southern origin in the northern states today--less than might be expected had there been no Civil War.

The other and probably more reasonable explanation is that Williamsburg silversmiths fashioned few pieces of plate of any great size. Silver work in Williamsburg, it appears, was limited mainly to the manufacture of small articles and to the repair of items large and small.

Everything we know of the time and the people reinforces the belief that the planters of Virginia--the only ones who could afford large outlays in silver--bought their plate in London rather than having it made by smiths of the colony. To the older generation of planters England was "home." They were bound to the mother country by ties of sentiment and culture. Their church was the Church of England, their books and songs were English books and songs, and English-made goods were to them obviously better than the country-made variety.

So strong was this preference for wares imported from London that it persisted through the various nonimportation associations and buy-American movements. In Williamsburg, curiously enough, the leading silversmiths seem to have been less enthusiastic "associators" than were tradesmen elsewhere--certainly less enthusiastic than such leaders of the planter group as George Washington.

Washington, whose preference for British goods was as strong as anyone's, nevertheless sponsored the nonimportation agreement adopted at the Raleigh Tavern in May 1769. James Geddy, Jr., in a newspaper advertisement of that September, declared that he had

now on hand a neat assortment of country made GOLD and SILVER WORK, which he will sell at the lowest rates for cash, or exchange for old gold or silver. As he has not imported any jewellery this season, he flatters himself he will meet with encouragement, especially from those Ladies and Gentlemen who are friends to the association.

Geddy, however, did not subscribe himself as a member of the Association until July of 1770, and only three months later he ventured to advertise, along with country-made wares, "a small, but neat assortment, of imported JEWELLERY (ordered before the association took place)."

The boycotting of British goods, however, was a political technique adopted for a particular purpose--to put pressure on Parliament to repeal the Townshend duties or other offensive legislation. When that purpose was accomplished, or seemed certain to be, the old preferences for imported goods reasserted themselves. Thus we find Washington in August 1770 ordering from London a quantity of expensive clothing and some jewelry "if the Act of Parliament Imposing a Duty upon Tea, Paper, &ca, for the purpose of raising a Revenue in America shoud [sic] be Totally repeald before the above goods are shipped." And by the next spring Geddy was again advertising goods just imported from London.

Throughout the colonial period it was generally more convenient for Virginia planters to acquire high quality goods in London than in Virginia. This was a consequence of the narrowly channeled two-way trade between the great plantations of the Chesapeake Bay and the great commission-merchant warehouses along the Thames. The planters grew and exported enormous quantities of tobacco, almost all of it sent to London and sold there. Against the proceeds they ordered whatever they needed and wanted of manufactured necessities and luxuries: textiles, clothing, furniture, hardware, ceramics, glass, and silver.

To the planter aristocrats, silver plate (not to be confused with plated silverware) performed three functions at once. It was a form of stable investment, easily watched over, easily identified in case of theft, and easily converted into cash if needed. In the absence of safe-deposit boxes or bank vaults, silver in daily use was as safe a form of "savings" as the times offered. Secondly, plate was a form of social ostentation in which all members of the group indulged to a greater or lesser degree. Finally, plate was useful in the proper serving of the owners and their guests; a well-to-do planter would have thought it impossible to get along without quantities of food and drink on his table, and almost as unthinkable not to have some silver articles on the table, too.

Although only the wealthy families possessed an occasional large and elaborate silver piece of London manufacture--such as epergnes and monteiths--many Virginians not of the planter aristocracy did own silver. Alexander Purdie, for example, one proprietor of the _Virginia Gazette_, owned real estate, nine slaves, and 130 ounces of plate when he died. Other professional men and even artisans in colonial Virginia also owned silver in amounts that seem large in contrast to what their modern counterparts generally possess.

One other circumstance that helps explain the dearth of silver articles made in Williamsburg was the scarcity of raw material. There simply was not very much silver or gold in Virginia for colonial craftsmen to work with. Despite the great hopes of the early Jamestown settlers--hopes that in Captain John Smith's day nearly cost the settlement its life--no silver has ever been mined in Virginia, and precious little gold. For his raw material, the colonial Virginia silversmith thus had to depend on imports.