An American Silver Two-Handled Cup from the Church of Medford, Josiah Austin, Charlestown Massachusetts, Circa 1759

Medford Church, Medford, Massachusetts

Jonathan Trace, Portsmouth, NH, January 31, 1994

E. Alfred Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches, 1913, p. 274, pl. LXXXIX

Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1998, p. 158 

Jeanne Sloane, Artistry and Enterprise: American Silver 1660-1790 - Survey of American Colonial silver held in the collection of Roy J. Zuckerberg, New York, Smallwood & Stewart, 2018, no. 38, p. 78-79

This cup was a gift to the church from Thomas Brooks (1705-1784), yeoman, of Medford, Massachusetts. The shape repeats that of a group of six communion cups already in the Church of Christ in Medford, presented between 1719 and 1742. The earliest, which set the model, were made by John Dixwell of Boston; at this time the pastor of the church was Rev. Aaron Porter, married to Susanne Sewell, whose uncle presided over the Salem Witch Trials. In 1724 Rev. Ebenezer Turell was hired, and two more silver communion cups were made by John Burt in 1725. Turell served until 1778, building a new meeting house in 1727, receiving two more silver communion cups to match by Jacob Hurd in 1742, and the current example in 1759.

When this cup was presented, it was a rare example of gift from a living donor, rather than a bequest. Thomas Brooks would make an additional gift on his death (unmarried) in 1784: "Thirteen Pounds Six Shillings & eight pence-- for the Use of the Poor of said Town [Medford]"

(Middlesex County Probate Records, Will of Thomas Brooks, August 2, 1782, cited by Jeanne Sloane).