Samuel Casey Jr.
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Samuel Casey Jr. (1724 - 1784)

Samuel Casey Jr.
Born in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Islandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married about 1753 in Rhode Islandmap
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 60 in Rhode Island, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 13 Feb 2014
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Samuel Casey of Kingston, craftsman, was colonial Rhode Island's most accomplished silversmith. From his shop in Little Rest (Kingston), Casey crafted teapots, tankards, and porringers that are highly prized by collectors and featured in the top museums in America.
-Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame
Samuel Casey Tankard at Metropolitan Museum

Contents

Biography

Samuel Casey was a silversmith, goldsmith, merchant, and convicted counterfeiter. He was one of the most established and accomplished Colonial Rhode Island Silversmiths, but his life took an unfortunate turn when his house, tools, store and supplies burned down as a result of an overly hot goldsmith fire. The fire and subsequent events of his life were recorded in the colonial newspapers of the time. Various retellings of his life events can be found in the sources of this profile below.

After the fire, Samuel Casey got in trouble with creditors and eventually in 1770 was tried in court for passing fake dollars. Around the time of the trial, some damning evidence was found in a stone wall in Little Rest showing that he had the materials to produce fake dollars, fake Spanish pistareens and fake Portuguese josephuses.

A jury of his peers had delivered a "Not Guilty" decision, but the judge did not accept this and later the decision was changed to guilty with the penalty of hanging to the death. Not long after that, under the cover of dark, some citizens took the law into their own hands:

Saturday last a considerable Number of People riotously assembled in King's County, and which their Faces black'd proceeded to his Majesty's Goal there, the outer Door of which they broke open with Iron Bars and Pick-Axes; they then violently entered the Goal, broke every Lock therein, and set at Liberty sundry Criminals, viz. William Reynolds, Thomas Clarke, Elisha Reynolds, and Samuel Casey, lately convicted of Money-making, one of whom (Samuel Casey) was under Sentence of Death.
-Essex Gazette, November 13-20, 1770

Samuel Casey was provided with a horse and left town that night. A sizeable bounty was offered for his capture. He was rumored to have gone west to New York and died in 1773 at which point his "widow" sold his land. But there was no proof he died there and then. Was that counterfeit too?

There was later circumstantial evidence that Samuel Casey lived at least to 1779 when his wife, Martha Casey, requested a pardon from the State General Assembly on September 17th, 1779. She asserted that Casey had "wandered in exile nine years forlorn and forsaken and destitute of every means of support to make his life even desirable, separated from his wife and offspring;” on that same day he was pardoned.

Samuel and Martha had been married about 1753, and their children included Mary, Samuel, William and Willet. Records for Willet Casey in Canada indicated that when Samuel Casey died in 1784, Martha moved the family to Dutchess County, New York.[1] Martha died in Ontario where two of her sons, Loyalists in the Revolutionary War, had relocated by 1786.[2]

The wikipedia entry for Willet Casey asserts that his father Samuel Casey died in the Revolutionary War. Kingston Historian Christian McBurney reports in Rhode Island's Founders: From Settlement to Statehood that a Canadian Descendant of Casey remembered that he had been a Loyalist and died in the War.

Silversmiths of Colonial Rhode Island

A Silver Teapot Must Have A Wooden Handle.
-Benjamin Franklin 1753


Samuel Casey Teapot 1750 National Museum of American History

The above style of colonial teapot demonstrated a scientific curiosity that Benjamin Franklin was exploring. Why did some materials conducted heat differently than others. Why was a wooden handled teapot so much more pleasant to use? Casey's teapot design melded a high level of artistry with practicality. It was commissioned for the marriage of Abigail Robinson to John Wanton of Newport in 1752. Sadly Abigail died a few years later.

Silversmithing was a craft learned through apprenticing. Samuel Casey was thought to have apprenticed with Jacob Hurd of Boston whose silver forms bear a strong resemblance to Casey's. Casey in turn was master to silversmith Jonathan (John Athan) Waite of Wickford, Rhode Island.

Samuel's brother Gideon Casey was also a Little Rest Silversmith. Like Samuel he tangled with the law and disappeared later in life. It is said that Gideon was the head of a counterfeiting gang.

Tankard Handle Tips

From American Silver of the XVII & XVIII Centuries by Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater, expert in Colonial Silver. Clearwater was the donor a major donor of Colonial silver upon his death.

The Babcock Tankard

Babcock Silver Tankard

The Babcock Tankard is shown as a plate in the 1903 Babcock Genealogy by Stephen Babcock and while it is unidentified, it shows the distinctive features of Samuel Casey's work.

Nearly identical versions of this tankard are located at:

  • The Museum of Fine Art Boston (Made for Job and Bridgit Almy)
  • The Detroit Art Institute of Art
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Bequest of Alphonso T. Clearwater)
  • Yale University. (The handle tip lacks the cherub , and an associated ledger book shows 30 ounces of silver was delivered for the raw material and the charge for crafting the silver was of 30 pounds)

The Babcock tankard had been passed down in the family for generations. It was likely commissioned by George Babcock of South Kingston which is near Little Rest. Babcock was a wealthy contemporary of Samuel Casey, and an adherent to the Seventh Day Baptist faith which may explain the initials in the tankard (GB and SD). By 1903 this family heirloom had been handed down to Emma Babcock Horton. Her son George Terry Horton writes of having inherited it. The tankard's current location is unknown. Hopefully it has found its way safely to a museum as it is an important cultural artifact.

Research Notes

Research note: Very rare book, no online access, supposedly has extensive information about Casey by William Davis Miller titled The Silversmiths of Little Rest. A box of Miller's research notes on Casey is archived somewhere.

Willet Casey's wikipedia entry says his father Samuel Casey died in the Revolutionary War, but there is no clear source for this assertion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willet_Casey

Sources

  1. St. Alban the Martyr U.E.L. Memorial Church Memorial Tiles: Casey Willet : CASEY, Willet: 1763 - 1848
  2. An Old Adolphustown Burying Ground : Old-Time Records by Thos. W. Casey from the ‘Napanee Beaver’ Aug 16, 1901. ‘Some Familiar Names’

Samuel Casey Jr. Silversmith

Various accounts about Samuel Casey's trial and breaking out of jail





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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Samuel by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. Y-chromosome DNA test-takers in his direct paternal line on WikiTree: It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Samuel:

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