SHEM DROWNE AND HIS HANDIWORK.
By Elbridge H. Goss.
The weird imaginings and romantic theories of our great story-teller, Hawthorne, must not be taken as veritable and indisputable history. Some of the Boston newspapers have recently run riot in this respect. Hawthorne, in his "Drowne's Wooden Image," in "Mosses from an Old Manse," says the figure of "Admiral Vernon," which has stood on the corner of State and Broad streets, Boston, for over a century, was the handiwork of one Shem Browne, "a cunning carver of wood." Upon this statement of the romancer, for there is no authentic history to warrant it, one paper, in an article entitled "A Funny Old Man," says: "Deacon Shem Drowne, the Carver. Concerning the origin of the carved figure of Admiral Vernon there can be no doubt. History, ancient records, and fiction all record the presence in Boston of one Deacon Shem Drowne, whose business it was to supply the tradesmen and tavern-keepers of the day with similar carved images to indicate their calling, or by which to identify their places of business."[1]
Another, discoursing of this same image, as "Our Oldest Inhabitant," after attributing it to the same man's workmanship, states: "Deacon Shem Drowne, whose name suggests pious and patriarchal, if not nautical associations, carved the grasshopper which still holds its place over Faneuil Hall, and also the gilded Indian,[2] who, with his bow bent and arrow on the string, so long kept watch and ward over the Province House, the stately residence of the royal Governors of Massachusetts."[3] This writer repeatedly spells the name wrong. His name was Drowne, not Droune.[4] In "Drowne's Wooden Image," Hawthorne makes his Shem Drowne a wood-carver, plain and simple: "He became noted for carving ornamental pump heads, and wooden urns for gate posts, and decorations, more grotesque than fanciful, for mantle pieces." "He followed his business industriously for many years, acquired a competence, and in the latter part of his life attained to a dignified station in the church, being remembered in records and traditions as Deacon Drowne, the carver," and he connects him with the real Shem Drowne of history, only by speaking of him this once as "Deacon Drowne," and saying: "One of his productions, an Indian Chief, gilded all over, stood during the better part of a century on the cupola of the Province House, bedazzling the eyes of those who looked upward, like an angel of the sun;" plainly indicating that he thought the Indian was carved from wood, instead of being made, as it was, of hammered copper.
The real Shem Drowne was not a wood-carver; no authority for such a statement can be found. His trade is given as that of a "tin plate worker,"[5] and a "cunning artificer" in metal;[6] nowhere as a wood-carver. He was born in Kittery, Maine, in 1683. His father was Leonard Drowne, who came from the west of England to Kittery, where he carried on the ship building business until 1692, when, on account of the French and Indian wars, he removed his family to Boston, where he died, a few years after, and his grave is in the old Copp's Hill Burying Ground.[7] At Boston Shem Browne established himself in his trade. He was elected a deacon of the First Baptist Church, in 1721. He was "often employed in Town affairs, especially in the management of Fortifications."[8]
He married Catherine Clark, one of the heirs of Nicholas Bavison, of Charlestown, who was a purchaser in the "Pemaquid Patent," or grant of the Plymouth Company, of some twelve thousand acres, to Messrs. Aldsworth and Elbridge of Bristol, England, made in 1631. Becoming interested in the claim of his wife, as one of the heirs, in 1735, he was appointed agent and attorney of the "Pemaquid Proprietors," in which capacity he acted for many years. It was sometimes called the "Drowne Claim." In 1747 he had the whole tract of land surveyed, and was instrumental in causing forty or more families to settle in that region. That he became blind, or nearly so, as early as 1762, is attested by a deed of land at Broad Cove (Bristol, Maine), made in that year to Thomas Johnston; a note in the margin of which states that it was "distinctly read to him on account of his sight;"[9] but the signature is written in a large, plain hand. He died January 13, 1774, aged ninety-one years. He had a daughter, Sarah, who, in 1757, was married to Rev. Jeremiah Condy, who, from 1739 to 1764, was pastor of the First Baptist Church, of which church Mr. Drowne was a deacon. As a metal worker he made the grasshopper, Indian, and other vanes; but that he ever carved a pump head, urn, gate-post, "Admiral Vernon," or any other wooden image, there is not a scintilla of evidence; nothing but the figment of a romancer's brain.
The following letter to his nephew, Honorable Solomon Drowne of Providence, Rhode Island, is here printed by the kindness of Henry T. Drowne, Esq., of New York, who has many of the old papers of the Drowne families. It was written soon after his nephew's marriage, and is an interesting document; full of a sympathetic and kindly spirit; showing that the customs of his church, the Baptist, of that day, were very similar to those of the Evangelical churches of to-day; and gives an instance of "Catholic Christian Spirit" worthy of note. The use of the colon instead of the period is also noticeable:
BOSTON [Massachusetts],
August ye 18, 1732.
Loving Kinsman:
Yours I received and have considered the Contents, and pray that your spouse may be directed and assisted by the grace and holy spirit of God to live in all good conscience before Him and this being the indispensable Duty of everyone when come to the use of Reason, with all seriousness to search the Scriptures, from thence to learn our Duty; and, then with Humility to devote ourselves to God, which is our reasonable Service; and, this being the awfulest solemnity that poor mortal man ever transacts in, whilst in this world: being to enter into Covenant with the Most High God. In the Concernment of a precious soul for a vast Eternity, ought to be entered upon with earnest prayer to God for his grace, that it may be sufficient for us, and that His strength might be made perfect in weakness: As for the order in which our Church admits Members into Communion: the Person who desires to joyn to the Church stands propounded a fortnight, in which time inquiry is made concerning their Life and Conversation: then they appear before the Church, make Confession, with their mouth, of their Repentance toward God, and their faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ: and, if nothing appears by information contrary to their Confession, then they are approved of by a vote of the Church, with all readiness; and so partake of the Holy ordinances—Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Our breaking-bread day is always on the first Sabbath in every month, and, always on the Friday before it, we have a Church Meeting, which is carried on by prayer, in order to prepare for our approach to the Lord's table: at which Meetings those are sometimes heard and sometimes on the Sabbath, as circumstances best serve—so that any Person at a Distance may send to our minister to propound them to the Church timely, and order their coming, so as to partake of both ordinances on the same day: The Reverend Mr. Cotton of Newton, on occasion of a man of his Parish desiring to join in Communion with our Church, gave him a Letter of Recommendation, not as a member with him, but as of one in Judgment of Charity qualified by the grace of God to be received amongst us: which the Church received as a mark of his Catholic Christian Spirit.
That you and your spouse may be directed to do what may be most for the glory of God: and for your own Peace and Comfort, both for time and Eternity: that you may both walk in all the commands and ordinances of the Lord blameless is the Prayer and Desire of your loving uncle.
SHEM DROWNE.
Two of the three best known weather vanes made by Drowne, are still on duty; and one, the Indian chief, which for so many years decked the Province House, is now the property of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in one of the rooms of which it is to be seen, still swinging on its original pivot. From the sole of his foot to the top of his plume, it is four feet, six inches; and from his elbow to tip of arrow, four feet; weight forty-eight pounds.
The old grasshopper on Fanueil Hall[10] was made in 1742, and has veered with the winds and been beaten by the storms of one hundred and forty odd years. It was last repaired in 1852, when there was found within it a much-defaced paper, only a part of which could be read:
SHEM DROWNE MADE ITT
May 25, 1742
To my Brethren and Fellow Grasshoppers
Fell in ye year 1755 Nov 15th day from ye Market by a great Earthquake ... sing ... sett a ... by my old Master above.
Again Like to have Met with my Utter Ruin by Fire, but hopping Timely from my Publick Situation came of with Broken bones, and much Bruised, Cured and again fixed....
Old Master's Son Thomas Drowne June 28th, 1763. And Although I now promise to Play ... Discharge my Office, yet I shall vary as ye wind.[11]
The other one still in use is the old "Cockerel" of Hanover Street Church fame. This was made for the New Brick Church in 1721, and is the oldest of the three. It held its position on this church and its successors, one of which was long known as the "Cockerel Church," for one hundred and forty-eight years, when it was raised on the Shepard Memorial Church of Cambridge, where it now is. "It measures five feet four inches from bill to tip of tail, and stands five feet five inches from the foot of the socket to the top of comb, and weighs one hundred and seventy-two pounds."[12]
Possibly some other specimens of the handiwork of this good Deacon Shem Drowne are still in existence. Who knows?
1 ([return])
Boston Globe, October 18, 1884.
2 ([return])
Neither of these were carved; they were both of metal.
3 ([return])
Boston Evening Record, January 10, 1885.
4 ([return])
Fac-similes of his signature are given in "Memorial History of Boston," vol. II, p. 110, written in 1733, and in John Johnston's "History of Bristol, Bremen and the Pemaquid Plantation," p. 466, written in 1762.
5 ([return])
Johnston's "Bristol and Bremen."
6 ([return])
Samuel Adams Drake's "Old Landmarks of Boston," p. 135.
7 ([return])
Mss. letter of Henry T. Drowne, Esq., of New York.
8 ([return])
Samuel G. Drake's "History of Boston."
9 ([return])
History of "Bristol and Bremen."
10 ([return])
Drake in "Old Landmarks," says: "the grasshopper was long thought to be the crest of the Faneuils."
11 ([return])
Boston Daily Advertiser, December 3, 1852.
12 ([return])
Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. XXVII, p. 422.