Lot 321: AN IMPORTANT SILVER BEAKER

Mark of Jacob Hurd, Boston, 1744 Bell-form, on molded spreading circular foot, engraved with a presentation inscription within a bellflower and shell cartouche, marked on shoulder with Kane mark F 5 9/16in. high; 9oz. PROVENANCE Brice Blair (d. 1758) tailor, and his wife Ann Blair (d. 1756). ENGRAVED The Gift of Mr: Brice. and Mrs: Ann Blair For the Use of the presbyterian Church. in Long-Lane. where of. The Revd: Mr. Iohn Moorhead is. Pastor in Gratitude to God for His. Goodness. to them and thiers in a Strange Land BOSTON: may 1: 1744. Set Deo Maxima Laus. LITERATURE Patricia Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1998, p. 587. Hollis French, Jacob Hurd and His Sons, 1939, pp. 31-32, cat. no. 25. E. Alfred Jones, Old Silver of American Churches, 1913, p. 78, illus. Pl. XXX. EXHIBITION "American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911, cat. no. 676, p. 79. NOTES [Image caption on will] Anne Blair's will of 1756 donating her pew, numbered one, to Rev. John Moorhead, courtesy Massachusetts State Archives Brice Blair and his family were admitted to the city of Boston on December 31, 1722. The Records of Boston Selectmen noted "At a Meeting of the Select men Decr. 31th. Brice Blare Tayler from Martins vineyard [sic], Desired to be admitted an Inhabitant of this Town with his wife & four Children, which is now granted by the Select men on Condition he procure Soficient Surtyes to Indemnifie the Town from Charge By Josiah franklin & James Davenport in the Sum of one hundred pounds which they Entered into accordingly." Blair was earlier recorded as a resident of Martha's Vineyard in 1719. The diary of Reverend William Homes of Chilmark recorded that "Mr Bryce Blair by a fall yesterday in the evening broke his left arm above the elbow." In Boston, Blair, a tailor by profession, was soon able to purchase property. He acquired a house and land on North Square and Prince Street in 1726 and a house and land on Purchase and High Street in 1742. The connection between the Blair family and the church at Long Lane and Rev. Moorhead was long-standing. Rev. Moorhead married two of the Blair children at Long Lane in 1740 and 1746. In 1747 John Moorhead was noted as trustee for Ann Blair relating to the real estate transaction on Purchase Street. Rev. Moorhead was appointed executor of Ann Blair's estate upon her death in 1756 and she dictated in her will that "I give, devise, & bequeath to ye sd. John Morehead, my Pew, in ye. Presbyterian Meeting House Numbered one of wch he is now Pastor, to him, his Heirs, & assigns forever." Moorhead is also noted in an account of guardianship for Brice Blair, following his death in 1758. (Sources: A Report of the Record Commissioner of the City of Boston containing the Records of Boston Selectmen, 1716 to 1736, 1885, p. 108; The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1896, p. 157).