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"Murdaugh" Punch Ladle

Date1760-1780

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Williamsburg or Norfolk

MediumSilver and wood

DimensionsLength: 12"; Depth of Bowl: 1 1/8"; Diameter of Bowl: 2 5/8"

Credit LineGift of Pembroke Hoffmier

Object number2026-24

DescriptionPunch ladle composed of a round bowl with a slightly everted thin lip soldered to a plain tapered socket with a heart-shaped reinforcement. Tapered, swelling wooden handle, incised with four lines at its widest and a turned ring at the socket, and ending with a knop.Label TextIn an age where every drink seemingly required its own specialized paraphernalia, punch was no different. With the punch bowl came the strainer, and an array of elegant vessels from which to drink it from. Dispensing it from the former into the latter was the punch ladle, usually of silver and mounted with a handle of different material like wood or the baleen of a whale. Delicate and light, it was not to be confused with its stout cousin the soup ladle.

Colonial Virginians loved punch as much as anyone in London or the larger cities to the North, and sought the appropriate ladles to accompany and compliment their punch bowls. While silversmiths in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia made ladles to rival the most fashionable rococo examples coming from Britain, those made in Virginia tended to be plain and serviceable.

This punch ladle is no less elegant, though not ornate or complicated in form. It is one of a few similar examples known, believed to have been made in the Tidewater area, of which two others of which are in Colonial Williamsburg's collection. One descended in the family of Edmund Randolph (1942-36), and the other descended in the Prentis family (2023-101).

Believed to have been made for James Murdaugh (1743-1798) and Mary (Molly) Walke of Nansemond County, Virginia around the time they were married on February 20, 1765, it carries their initials engraved into the bottom of the bowl. James was appointed Captain of the Nansemond Minute Men by the Virginia Committee of Safety on March 12, 1773, and served in that capacity with the Militia during the Revolutionary War. According to family tradition, Murdaugh was chosen as an elector, and had the privilege of voting for George Washington and John Adams as President and Vice-President in 1792.

Sadly, most of Nansemond County's records were lost in a disastrous fire on February 6, 1866, so more could not be learned about the early Murdaughs, and their house no longer stands. However, this wonderful wedding gift has survived from the 1760s as a treasured family relic. Once lent to the Norfolk Museum and placed on exhibit, it was plated in George Barton Cutten's "Silversmiths of Virginia," published in 1952.

It descended directly to the donor, James and Mary's 5th great-granddaughter, who gave it to Colonial Williamsburg in 2026.Inscription(s)Bottom of bowl engraved with marriage initials "M" over "I • M" in block capitals.ProvenanceJames and Mary Murdaugh (Nansemond Co., VA); descended to Pembroke Hoffmier (Williamsburg, VA); 2026 - present, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)