Samuel Vernon (December 6, 1683 - December 5, 1737) was an early American

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary gre ...

, active in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New ...

. Vernon was born in

Narragansett, Rhode Island Narragansett is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 14,532 at the 2020 census. However, during the summer months the town's population more than doubles to near 34,000. The town of Narragansett occupie ...

to Daniel and Ann (Dyer) Hutchinson Vernon, and was a direct descendant of

Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (née Marbury; July 1591 – August 1643) was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her ...

. Two of his cousins were also prominent silversmiths: John Coddington of Newport and

Edward Winslow Edward Winslow (18 October 15958 May 1655) was a Separatist and New England political leader who traveled on the ''Mayflower'' in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and also later at Plymouth Colony. Both Edward Winslow and ...

of Boston. He married twice: to Elizabeth Fleet of Long Island on April 10, 1707, and to Elizabeth Paine on January 12, 1725. His sons, including

William Vernon William Vernon (January 17, 1719 – December 22, 1806), of Newport, Rhode Island, was a merchant in the Atlantic slave trade who played a leading role in the Continental Congress' maritime activities during the American Revolution. In 1774, Ve ...

, were among the most prominent of the Newport Slave Traders. Vernon apprenticed about 1696, perhaps to John Coney in Boston or to his cousin Edward Winslow. He was made a freeman of Newport in 1714, in 1715 made engravings and printed Rhode Island's paper currency, in 1726 advertised his silver shop north of Goulds Tailors, and in 1733 was commissioned by the General Assembly of the Colony of Rhode Island to create three tankards for New York commissioners Col. Isaac Hicks of Hempstead, James Jackson of Flushing, and Col. Lewis Morris Jr. of Westchester. Vernon was also an active member of his community. In 1728 he was appointed Justice of the Peace in Newport, circa 1729-1737 served as Assistant in General Assembly and assistant to Governor investigating health conditions, and in 1737 served on the Committee to settle a boundary dispute between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His work is collected in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

Rhode Island School of Design Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877, and still shares multiple build ...

Winterthur Museum Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour," Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of ...

, and

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

References

"Samuel Vernon"
American Silversmiths.
"Tankard by Samuel Vernon"
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Newport Historical Society. * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', Volume 19, Scribner, 1937, page 251. * ''American silver at Winterthur'', Ian M. G. Quimby, Dianne Johnson, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1995, page 170. * ''The American Collector: A Monthly Magazine of Collector's Lore'', Volumes 1-2, Charles Frederick Heartman, William Newnham Chattin Carlton, Robert J. C. Lingel, Collector Publishing Company, 1925, page 361. * ''Rhode Island Colonial Money and Its Counterfeiting, 1647-1726'', Richard Le Baron Bowen, Rumford Press, 1942, pages 16–17. * ''The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870'', Hugh Thomas, Simon and Schuster, 1997, page 261. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Samuel American silversmiths 1683 births 1737 deaths