Silver - Elias Boudinot, Princeton & Elizabethtown

Elias Boudinot III (1706-1770), one of New Jersey’s first silversmiths, was born in New York on July 8, 1706; his parents were Elias Boudinot II and Marie Catherine Carre. Boudinot was “apprenticed for the customary seven-year term to Simeon Soumaine, a prominent silversmith of the day.”(1) His original indenture paper, dated 1722, is in the collection of the New York Historical Society.

After living for a time on the island of Antigua, Boudinot settled by 1740 in Philadelphia, where his children were born. He moved again in 1752, this time to Princeton, New Jersey, where he would become a leading citizen. Boudinot’s last residence was in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he lived with his son from 1761 until his death in 1770. His son, Elias Boudinot IV, would be famous as an important patriot during the War for Independence and president of the first Continental Congress.(2)

(1) Walter Hamilton Van Hoesen, Crafts and Craftsmen of New Jersey (Rutherford, Madison, and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973), p. 109.

(2) Van Hoesen, pp. 104, 109-111.

Teapot for John & Abigail Stockton

Teapot, c.1750, silver. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society. Gift of the Friends of The New Jersey Historical Society (1953.22).

The silver teapot shown above ties together several threads of New Jersey history: not only was the maker a resident of New Jersey, but the patrons were also important residents of the Garden State. According to the New Jersey Historical Society, “Elias Boudinot . . . made this teapot for John and Abigail Stockton. They were the parents of Richard Stockton (a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey) . . .” They were also Boudinot’s in-laws, as their son Richard married his daughter Annis.”(1)

Elias Boudinot also made silver pieces for other prominent citizens including Benjamin Franklin, for whom he made a tankard.(2)

(1) New Jersey Historical Society web site (see link below).

(2) Walter Hamilton Van Hoesen, Crafts and Craftsmen of New Jersey (Rutherford, Madison, and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973), p. 110-111.