  Patrick Beech, as his advertisement suggested, was obviously a jeweler as well as a Silversmith. James Craig of the Golden Ball, who made a pair of earrings for Washington’s Advertisement appearing in Dixon and Nicholson’s VIRGINIA GAZETTE on October 16, 1779.
This versatility of crafts was almost universal among colonial silversmiths, especially in the southern colonies. Not one of the Williamsburg smiths limited himself rigidly to the making and selling of silver and gold articles. Any who tried would probably not have enjoyed a large income in this essentially small town in an essentially rural colony. Even so, no Williamsburg silver worker was half so versatile as the most famous silversmith of them all—a Bostonian by the name of Paul Revere. Besides being a horseman of considerable note, Revere was an accomplished designer and worker in silver, and a skilled engraver on silver and copper. He drew and engraved political cartoons that helped stimulate the Revolution, then engraved and printed the first issues of Continental paper money to help finance it. As the owner and operator of a copper foundry, he cast church bells and Revolutionary cannon. He manufactured gunpowder for a while, too, and made and installed dental devices that he advertised as being not only ornamental but also “of real Use In Speaking and Eating.” Several other colonial silversmiths also doubled in dentistry, a fairly normal coupling of crafts since both demand On the other hand, there was not the least jealousy between silversmiths and goldsmiths—for these are but two different names for the same craft. All silversmiths are equally goldsmiths, and vice versa. But long-standing custom and the prestige attached to the more precious of the two metals often moved men who worked almost entirely in silver to proclaim themselves publicly as “goldsmiths.” James Craig advertised as a jeweler during his first two decades in Williamsburg. Then when he branched into silver work he asked to be addressed as “Goldsmith in Williamsburg,” and named his shop the “Golden Ball.” James Geddy, Jr., customarily advertised as a “goldsmith,” but this conceit seems not to have impressed the legal profession in Williamsburg. Deeds and documents drawn up by more prosaic hands refer to him twice as “silversmith” and once as “jeweler.” By combining several vocations, some if not all of the Williamsburg silversmiths seem to have made at least a respectable living. In addition to those whose names have already appeared in this account, three others deserve mention. John Brodnax was the first to follow the craft in Williamsburg. The son of a London goldsmith, he originally settled in Henrico County near what is now Richmond. The date of his arrival is unknown, but about 1694 he moved to a forest crossroads seven miles from Jamestown called Middle Plantation. Five years later this became the colony’s capital “city” and was renamed Williamsburg. In 1711 Brodnax was appointed “Keeper of the Capitol and publick Gaol” at a salary of £30 a year, later raised to £40. Frontispiece of A New Touchstone for Gold and Silver Wares by W. B., published in London in 1679. By William Badcock, a London goldsmith, it was the standard seventeenth-century reference book on metalwork. The forge, bellows, and tools are typical of those of the craft, of which St. Dunstan was the patron saint.
Brodnax died in 1719 leaving an estate of £1,000, a very considerable amount in those days, including nearly £200 worth of old gold and silver and close to £300 of finished work. Whether he acquired this estate through silversmithing alone cannot be determined now. It seems highly unlikely in view of the limited economy of that time and place and the experience of others in the craft at a later and more opulent period. He may well have gained his wealth by inheritance, by the sale of his backcountry lands to William Byrd in 1711, or possibly, as so many others did, from the sale of tobacco produced on those acres. Anthony Singleton was born in Williamsburg in 1750, possibly served as apprentice to James Craig, and opened his own jewelry and goldsmith shop in 1771 opposite the Raleigh Tavern. Little is known today about Singleton’s career as a craftsman in silver. After making his mark as a captain of artillery in the Revolution, he moved to Richmond and married Lucy Harrison Randolph, daughter of Benjamin Harrison the Signer, sister of William Henry Harrison the President, and widow of Peyton Randolph of Wilton. Although Singleton held a number of public and private offices of trust and responsibility, and by virtue of his marriage had gained membership in Virginia’s aristocracy, he most solemnly enjoined in his will that his sons “be brought up to some mechanical profession.” William Waddill announced in 1767 his intention to open shop “next door below the Old Printing Office” in Williamsburg. He called himself a “Goldsmith and Engraver” and offered to buy up old gold and silver and rework it “in any taste the owner chooses.” Whether he did open a business as intended is not known, but a few years later he was a jeweler and engraver—and perhaps a partner—in the shop of James Geddy, Jr. Since Geddy married Elizabeth Waddill and named one of his sons William Waddill Geddy, the two men were presumably brothers-in-law. Waddill followed Geddy by a few |
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