Description:
English creamware baluster-shaped jug with strap handle, decorated with black enamel inscriptions (very worn): "The GRATITUDE of / MASSACHUSETTS, / Follows CALEB STRONG to / NORTHAMPTON" and on the reverse "Success to Our / NEW GOVERNOR / GENERAL BROOKS." There is a black enamel band at the top and the bottom, and on the top of the handle. This small creamware jug was created to commemorate the Massachusetts governorships of Caleb Strong (1745-1819) from 1800-1807 and 1812-1816, and Governor General John Brooks (1752-1825) from 1816-1823. Born in Northampton, Massachusetts, Caleb Strong served on the Northampton Committee of Safety during the American Revolution; was a delegate to the 1779 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention; sat on the first Massachusetts' Governor's Council; and was a state senator from 1780 to 1789. Strong was elected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the American Constitution; however, the illness of his wife caused Strong to leave the convention early and he did not sign the document. General John Brooks had established careers in the military and in medicine before he entered public life. After training as a medical doctor in his hometown of Medford, Brooks began his medical practice in Reading, where he became the Captain of the Reading Minutemen. He accepted a commission as Captain in the Continental Army and took part in the battles of White Plains, Valley Forge, and Long Island. He was appointed Major General of the Middlesex Militia in 1786, which he led in suppressing Shay's Rebellion. He was appointed Adjutant General and won the governorship with the Federalist party in 1816. During Brooks' tenure Maine became an independent state from Massachusetts.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2008.15 |
