Thumbnail Molding Plane
Dateca. 1740-1760
Maker
John Walton Jr.
1710 - 1785
MediumBirch, iron, and steel
DimensionsLength: 10 1/8"; thickness: 7/8"
Credit LineGift of Thomas Elliott
Object number2024-327
DescriptionThumbnail molding plane with flat chamfers, mostly on the sides, which end with a sloped line and a lamb's tongue. It's shoulder is molded, and there is a hanging hole through the body towards the heel. Wedge is a recent repalcement.Label TextA Lieutenant during the French & Indian War, John Walton, Jr. of Reading, Massachusetts was listed as a joiner and housewright. As a sixty-five year old and in command of a company of the Reading Militia, Capt. Walton and his men the alarm of April 19, 1775. His son John Walton III, also a planemaker, was serving in his father's company, as was Joseph Gould, who served as an apprentice to Walton, Jr. in the 1750s.Walton, Jr.'s company was engaged with almost a thousand other militiamen at Merriam's Corner that afternoon, where they attacked the British column as it followed a bend in the road on the way back towards Boston. Richard Pope, a red-coated veteran of the fight described Regular described the affair as “a hot fire from all sides.”Mark(s)The toe of the plane marked with I x WALTON in relief within a serrated rectangle (Elliott, AWP, p.389, imprint A).ProvenanceMay 2000, purchased by Thomas Elliott (Westbrook, CT); 2024, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)
