kept on hand in considerable quantities, to be consumed chiefly, however, in repairs.
A ware appearing on the table in the service of the meals less commonly than pewter or alchemy, but still not infrequently, was silver; plates and dishes were rarely found of thus metal in the Colony, but it entered very often into the composition of the cups, tumblers, tankards, porringers, and spoons. The author of Leah and Rachel, writing about the middle of the century, remarked upon the fact that there was a good store of silver in many of the planters’ homes.[1] This had either been inherited from English relations or been purchased in England. The instance of Margaret Chessman, of Bermondsea, was not exceptional; in 1679, this lady is stated to have bequeathed a great silver beaker and tankard with other plate to the children of Lemuel Mason, who resided in Virginia.[2] The far greater quantity in the Colony was doubtless bought in the mother country, like other articles in household use. Byrd, writing to his merchant in London in 1684, instructs him to send to him, “two new-fashioned silver mugs, one to contain half a pint, the other one quarter of a pint.”[3] Fitzhugh purchased silver plate from time to time upon the principle that it was a form of property which would never lose its value, and, therefore, the parent was fortunate who could transmit much of it to his children as a part of his estate. In 1687, he directed Hayward to invest certain bills of exchange which stood to his credit in London in a pair of middle-sized silver candlesticks, a pair of snuffers, and a snuff-dish, and half a dozen trencher salts, the remainder to be expended in a
