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Lot Essay
The handle was removed from the cup and added to the beaker in 1809. A letter written by Reverend Abiel Abbot, Pastor at the time that this alteration was made, is now in the possession of the Beverly Historical Society. The document states that the church would like to shift a handle "from a cup, which had two, to a vessel, which had none."
The following bill, dated 29 November 1809, identifies Israel Trask (1786-1867) of Beverly, as the silversmith who performed the transfer.
Silversmith Israel Trask's receipt to the Church in Beverly
Courtesy of the Beverly Historical Society
Robert Briscoe, the donor of this beaker, emigrated from England and held the offices of selectman, assessor, treasurer and representative among various other posts in Beverly and at the First Parish Church. He donated the meeting house bell in 1712. In his will, he bequeathed a sum of £10 to Reverend Thomas Blowers, allotted money to the poor of Beverly and promised the freedom of his slave.
Reverend Blowers bequeathed his cup to the First Parish Church in Beverly in his will (Essex County Probate Court, # 2650, courtesy Charles E. Wainwright):
I give to the First church of Christ in Beverly £15 to be laid out in a piece of plate for ye Communion Table to be paid by my executrix one year after my decease.
Reverend Thomas Blowers graduated Harvard in 1695 and was pastor of the First Parish Church in Beverly from 1701 to 1729. In A History of Beverly: Civil and Ecclesiastical, he was described by Edwin Stone as "a good scholar and an excellent minister...a distinguished example of warm devotion, of extensive goodness, meekness and sweetness of temper." (p. 225) His son, John Blowers, was a silversmith in Boston and thus a very likely candidate for the manufacture of the two-handled cup.
The following bill, dated 29 November 1809, identifies Israel Trask (1786-1867) of Beverly, as the silversmith who performed the transfer.
Silversmith Israel Trask's receipt to the Church in Beverly
Courtesy of the Beverly Historical Society
Robert Briscoe, the donor of this beaker, emigrated from England and held the offices of selectman, assessor, treasurer and representative among various other posts in Beverly and at the First Parish Church. He donated the meeting house bell in 1712. In his will, he bequeathed a sum of £10 to Reverend Thomas Blowers, allotted money to the poor of Beverly and promised the freedom of his slave.
Reverend Blowers bequeathed his cup to the First Parish Church in Beverly in his will (Essex County Probate Court, # 2650, courtesy Charles E. Wainwright):
I give to the First church of Christ in Beverly £15 to be laid out in a piece of plate for ye Communion Table to be paid by my executrix one year after my decease.
Reverend Thomas Blowers graduated Harvard in 1695 and was pastor of the First Parish Church in Beverly from 1701 to 1729. In A History of Beverly: Civil and Ecclesiastical, he was described by Edwin Stone as "a good scholar and an excellent minister...a distinguished example of warm devotion, of extensive goodness, meekness and sweetness of temper." (p. 225) His son, John Blowers, was a silversmith in Boston and thus a very likely candidate for the manufacture of the two-handled cup.