Background
John Edwards was born, and probably served his apprenticeship, in Limehouse, London, England, from which place he migrated to Boston. His father, John Edwards, a “chirurgeon, ” was mentioned in the diary of Samuel Sewall in 1689.
John Edwards was born, and probably served his apprenticeship, in Limehouse, London, England, from which place he migrated to Boston. His father, John Edwards, a “chirurgeon, ” was mentioned in the diary of Samuel Sewall in 1689.
According to the records, the younger Edwards was a faithful citizen. He served as tithing-man in 1701, 1708, 1711; as a sergeant of the Boston Artillery Company in 1704; as a constable in 1715; as an assessor from 1720 to 1727; and he was an attendant of the Brattle Street Church. He produced a great deal of silverwork of fine quality, marked with crude capitals in plain qutrefoil, or in quatrefoil with four projections; or Roman capitals in two semicircles with two projections; or crude capitals crowned, fleur-de-lys below in shield (Hollis French, A List of Early American Silversmiths and their Marks, 1917). Prosperous in his business, at his death he left an estate of £4, 840, a fairly large sum for his day.
In the Supplement to the Boston Evening-Post of April 14, 1746, appeared this notice: “Tuesday last died, and Friday was decently interred, Mr. John Edwards, Goldsmith, in the 75th Year of his Age; a Gentleman of a very fair Character, and well respected by all that knew him. ”
His first wife was Sybil Newmann, the granddaughter of the second John Endecott; his second wife was Abigail Fowle, the widow of William Smith, whose grand-daughter, Abigail Smith, became the wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States. His sons Thomas, Samuel, Joseph, and his grandson Joseph, followed his trade. His sister was the wife of the silversmith, John Allen, who was related by marriage to Jeremiah Dummer, another worker in precious metal. These interrelationships among the craftsmen were the natural result of the apprenticeship system.
