Dummer, Jeremiah, 1645–1718, early American silversmith and engraver

Dummer, Jeremiah, 1645–1718, early American silversmith and engraver, b. Newbury, Mass. He was apprenticed (1659) to John Hull and set up as a silversmith in Boston c.1666. He held several public offices, was known as a merchant, and engraved plates for currency (in 1710 he printed the first paper money in Connecticut). He may have painted the portraits of himself and his wife and of John Coney, silversmith, and his wife; these bear his inscription. Dummer's silverwork mark is ID enclosed over a fleur-de-lis in a heart or occasionally ID in a rectangle. He is represented in the collections of colonial silver of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum.

Bibliography

See H. F. Clarke and H. W. Foote, Jeremiah Dummer, Colonial Craftsman and Merchant (1935).

Dummer, Jeremiah, c.1680–1739, colonial agent for Massachusetts and Connecticut

Dummer, Jeremiah, c.1680–1739, colonial agent for Massachusetts and Connecticut, b. Boston; son of Jeremiah Dummer (1645–1718). He saw little opportunity for business in Boston and settled in England, where he became a prosperous lawyer. He became the agent in England of Massachusetts (1710) and of Connecticut (1712). Dummer helped persuade Elihu Yale, a wealthy English merchant, to donate books and valuable goods to the Collegiate School of Connecticut—which was renamed (1718) Yale College. Dummer himself collected nearly 1,000 books, which were sent to this institution. His most important service for the colonies was his well-reasoned Defence of the New England Charters (1721), written to answer the attacks in Parliament. Because Dummer recommended and supported the appointment of the unpopular Samuel Shute as governor of Massachusetts, he was dismissed as colonial agent in 1721 by the Massachusetts General Court and in 1730 by Connecticut.

Dummer, Jeremiah

(born 1681, Boston, Mass.—died May 19, 1739, Plaistow, Essex, Eng.) American lawyer and colonial agent. In England in 1708 he defended Massachusetts' claim to Martha's Vineyard. As colonial agent in England for Massachusetts (1710–21) and for Connecticut (1712–30), he was a diligent advocate for the colonies. In 1715 he wrote a pamphlet defending the charter rights of the New England colonies.

Dummer, Jeremiah (1645–1718) silversmith, engraver, painter; born in Newbury, Mass. Known as the first American-born silversmith, he completed a Boston apprenticeship with John Hull and went on to make some of the finest silver pieces of his time. He is said to have introduced the ornamentation known as gadrooning, curved flutings cut on the surface of silver.