Shem Drowne
Shem Drowne | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 4, 1683 near Sturgeon Creek, in what is now Eliot, York County, Maine |
| Died | January 13, 1774 (aged 90) |
| Resting place | Copp's Hill Burying Ground, North End of Boston, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | |
| Spouse |
Katherine Clark (m. 1712) |
| Children | |
| Parents | |
Deacon Shem Drowne (December 4, 1683 – January 13, 1774) was a colonial
Background
He was born near Sturgeon Creek in what is now
Shem married Katherine Clark on September 18, 1712, in Boston. Katherine was the daughter of Capt. Timothy Clark and sister of Boston brazier and pewterer, Jonas Clark.
Shem's older brother Solomon was the grandfather of Revolutionary War Surgeon Solomon Drowne. In 1721, he was made a deacon of the First Baptist Church of Boston.
Simeon Drowne, Shem's younger brother, was the fourth son of Leonard Drowne. Born April 8, 1686, and died in Boston on August 2, 1734. Buried in
Life
Shem[1] was a coppersmith with a shop on Ann Street (now North Street) in the North End. He was baptized in the First Baptist Church of Boston in 1713 along with the future pastor of that church. In May 1721, he was elected a Deacon of the church and served this position until his death in 1774.[2]
Career: pioneering metalworker and North America's first weathervane maker
According to the colonial diarist Thomas Newell, Shem Drowne "was the first tin plate worker that ever came to Boston, New England."[3] He worked as a tin plate worker and a coppersmith. He is on lists of colonial silversmiths as a result of a silver beaker marked "SD," tentatively attributed to him.[4] However, antiquarian Francis Hill Bigelow wrote "the attribution to Shem Drowne of Boston is probably erroneous. There seems to be no evidence that Drowne was a silversmith".[5] This corresponds with Suffolk County deeds which lists Drowne's occupation as tinplate worker.[6] Drowne's nephew, his sister-in-law's child[7] Timothy Parrott, was a Boston silversmith.[8] His grand-nephews, Samuel Drowne and Benjamin Drown, and Samuel's sons, Thomas Pickering Drown and Daniel P. Drown, were all notable practicing silversmiths from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[9]
In 1716, he created America's first authenticated weathervane, a gilded
The Grasshopper Weathervane
His most famous work is the weathervane on top of
In 1768 Thomas placed a note labeled "food for the grasshopper" in the belly of the grasshopper. It read:
Shem Drowne made it, May 25, 1742. To my brethren and fellow grasshoppers, Fell in ye year 1753 (1755) Nov. 13, early in ye morning by a great earthquake by my old Master above. Again, like to have met with Utter Ruin by Fire, by hopping Timely from my Public Station, came of the broken bones and much Bruised. Cured and Fixed. Old Master's son Thomas Drowne June 28, 1768, and Though I will promise to Discharge my office, yet I shall vary as ye wind.
The weathervane is the only part of Faneuil Hall which remains totally unmodified from the original 1742 structure. In 1805, Charles Bulfinch expanded the building and moved the cupola from the middle of the building to the front. In 1974 the vane was stolen but recovered in less than a week.
Drowne's Wooden Image
Nathaniel Hawthorne credited Shem Drowne for being the inspiration for his retelling of Pygmalion (mythology), Drowne's Wooden Image, in his collection of shorts in Mosses from an Old Manse. His short story, first published in 1844, recasts "Deacon Drowne" as a woodcarver who made trade signs and wooden figures for various shops and a notable statue of Admiral Edward Vernon in Boston.[10] In the story "Deacon Drowne" is approached by a ship-captain to produce a figurehead for his brig, claiming "nothing like the brig ever swam the ocean, so I am determined she shall have such a figurehead as old Neptune never saw in his life" and giving secret instructions for its completion. During the story, Drowne is visited by contemporary Bostonian artist John Singleton Copley who is impressed by his craftsmanship and inquires about his unfinished work and returns daily to check on the progress of the figurehead.[11] There is no evidence that the real Shem Drowne did any carving, but the story clearly references him as the creator of the American Indian Archer weathervane.
The Drowne claim of the Pemaquid Patent
In 1631, the
Drowne's wife Katherine Clark, was a partial heir to the Davidson claim of the Pemaquid Patents, and Drowne acquired power of attorney from the other heirs. What became known as the "Drowne Claim" encompassed Bristol, Bremen, Damariscotta, and parts of Newcastle and Nobleboro.[14] Other claims of the time included the "Brown Right" and the "Tappen Right." Starting in the 1730s, Drowne filed a number of depositions in order to gain control of the Drowne Claim.
On June 12, 1746, he bought
In popular culture
Shem Drowne is mentioned in the video game Fallout 4, and the grasshopper weathervane atop Faneuil Hall and the note Thomas placed within are central to the sidequest "The Gilded Grasshopper", in which the player is tasked with finding Shem Drowne's grave to recover his treasure and a unique weapon.[16]
References
- ^ "Shem Drowne, born 4 Dec 1683, died 13 Jan 1774".
- ^ Wood, Nathan. "The History of the First Baptist Church of Boston (1665-1899)" American Baptist Publication Society, 1899. p201-206, p368
- ^ Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for October 1877 xv 348
- ^ Kane, Patricia. "Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers." Yale University Art Gallery, 1998. p1039
- ^ Bigelow, Francis Hill. "Early New England Silver." Antiques 8 (September 1925), p156
- ^ Suffolk County Deed 34:205, 208; 47:311; 48:1; 50:207-08; 99:163-64; 118:215-16
- ^ "Timothy Parrott, born 1 Mar 1719, died bef 13 May 1757". Archived from the original on 9 Apr 2010.
- ^ Kane 1998, 764
- ^ Stephen Decatur (March 20, 2009). "The Drowne Silversmiths of Portsmouth".
- ^ Gross, Elbridge H. (1885). "Shem Drowne and His Handiwork". Bay State Monthly. Vol. 3. p. 33.
- ^ Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1844). "Drowne's Wooden Image".
- ^ Otis, James. "The Story of Pemaquid". T.Y. Crowell & Co., 1902. p35-36
- ^ Cartland, John Henry. "Ten Years at Pemaquid: Sketches of Its History and Its Ruins". S.N. 1899, p56
- ^ Greene, Francis Byron. "History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905: With Family Genealogies" Loring, 1906. p165
- ^ Wood 1899, 370
- ^ "Fallout 4: Detective Case Files - The Gilded Grasshopper walkthrough". Polygon. 12 Nov 2015.