The Silversmith
in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg

Through many years before the Revolution andfor a time early in the war, James Craig andJames Geddy the younger were probably Williamsburg’sforemost craftsmen in the jewelry, watchrepairing, and silversmithing way. Geddy’s shop stood onDuke of Gloucester Street “next door below the Church,”Craig’s Golden Ball still farther down.

At one time Craig advertised in the Virginia Gazettethat he had “Just imported from London—A choice Assortmentof Jewellery, Plate, Toys and fine Cuttlery. Thereare some fine visual Spectacles fit for all ages.” Not longafterward in the same paper Geddy listed in some detail“A NEAT Assortment of PLATE, WATCHES, AND JEWELLERY,”and emphasized that “the Reasonableness of the aboveGoods, he hopes, will remove that Objection of his Shop’sbeing too high up Town ... and the Walk may be thoughtrather an Amusement than a Fatigue.” A much more typicalnotice was that of Patrick Beech reproduced on thefollowing page. It bears little resemblance to a modernnewspaper advertisement, but it is so characteristic of itsown time that any one of Williamsburg’s several pre-Revolutionarysilversmiths might have penned it.

Fifteen men, possibly sixteen, followed the silversmith’scraft in Williamsburg between 1699 and 1780, while thissmall city was the capital of the Virginia colony. Throughthe years, most of them took advantage of the newspapers2to announce the location of their shops, the arrival of shipmentsof goods from London, and the kinds of articles andservices they had to offer.

All of them combined with silversmithing some othercraft, most often that of jeweler or watch repairer. Timeand again they assured prospective purchasers that theirwares, whether country made or imported, were in the verylatest fashion. Each one without exception offered the“highest” price for old gold and silver, including gold lace,either in cash or to be credited against new work. And veryoften they felt it necessary to specify that sales would be“for ready money only.”

Advertisement appearing in Purdie and Dixon’s VIRGINIAGAZETTE on October 6, 1774.

PATRICK BEECH,
At the BRICK SHOP, opposite Mr. Turner’s store,
WILLIAMSBURG,

BEGS leave to inform the public that he makes andsells all sorts of GOLD, SILVER and JEWELLERY WORK,after the newest fashions, and at the lowest prices, for ready money only.Those who are pleased to favour him with t

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