Silver Colonial Shoe Buckle and Miniature Portrait

I have found these artifacts while metal detecting I use a Whites XLT and this is some of the information I have gathered.  My silver colonial shoe buckle and the “Lady” picture or miniature portrait may have a been from the same footsteps that have been lost to history. It is a very complicated series of events and I will try to explain them as clearly as possible. Christopher Hughes is the person who made my silver shoe buckle that I found in Bristol Pa his hallmark is on the buckle.

This is a picture of Lewis Morris                                                                    This story puts Lewis Morris signer of the Declaration of Independence at the exact spot I found the silver shoe buckle. And since there were only 40 made and 21 going to the signers of the document the odds of that shoe buckle not being his are very slim indeed. I cannot prove that it was his shoe buckle, but I’d like to find someone who could prove its not. Now to the miniature portrait I found that in the same field as the silver shoe buckle made by Christopher Hughes as I said earlier in the story, Charles Wilson Peale a famous American artist made full and miniature portraits in Philadelphia from 1770’s to the 1800’s. He made portraits of the Hughes family.

Here is the miniature portrait.  The closeup shows the initials CWP on the portrait. This is the portrait of Christopher Hughes wife Peggy Sanderson Hughes and Daughter Louisa made by Charles Wilson Peale in 1789

The resemblance to the miniature is uncanny, I personally believe that the miniature portrait is Peggy Sanderson Hughes, I cannot prove it, but I’d like to find someone who can prove its not.

Now full circle the child in the portrait is Louisa Hughes she married Lt..Colonel George Armistead the hero of Ft. McHenry!

The successful defense of Fort McHenry had secured for Baltimore and Armistead a place in American History, and for a young country, a new national song. Fancis S. Key wrote the “Star Spangled Banner” about the Flag that Armistead had ordered to be made. Soon after his arrival, Armistead informed General Samuel Smith: "We, Sir, are ready at Fort McHenry to defend Baltimore against invading by the enemy. That is to say, we are ready except that we have no suitable ensign to display over the fort, and it is my desire to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance." On August 19, 1813, two American Ensigns were ordered from Mrs. Mary Pickersgill, "a maker of colors" at Pratt and Albemarle Streets. One flag was to be 30 feet by 42 feet, first quality bunting. The second flag was to be 17 feet by 25 feet of the same quality. He received gratitude from the citizens of Baltimore, and the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel from President James Madison. But perhaps his greatest personal reward was the birth of his second daughter. Margaret Hughes Armistead, born one day after the bombardment of Fort McHenry. On October 26, 1810, Armistead married Louisa Hughes (1789-1861), the daughter of Christopher Hughes, Sr.

This is the portrait of Christopher Hughes Jr. The young Christopher Hughes, in February 1814 was appointed by President Madison as the Legislation Secretary to the Peace Commission at Ghent, Belgium. The commission negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, signed by British commissioners on December 24, 1814, which marked the end the War of 1812. (Due to the time needed for the terms of the Treaty to sail across the Atlantic and thereafter to be sent by horsemen up and down the American Atlantic coast, news of the peace settlement did not reach New Orleans until after the battle there in January, 1815.) Ok now here is where China hall comes back into the picture where I found the miniature portrait and the silver colonial shoe buckle, At China hall In 1834 Francis S. Key delivered an address before the Philogean Society on the "Power of Literature." The attendance fluctuated; one catalogue contained the names of 120 students, another 156, including preparatory pupils. Its amazing how history intersects in 60 year period Artists, royalty, politicians, military men, children, and women all walked in histories footsteps together at a single spot of property in Bristol Pa.

                      This is the buckle made by
Christopher Hughes.                                   

Charles Wilson Peale a famous American
artist made full and miniature portraits in
Philadelphia from 1770’s to the 1800’s. He
made portraits of the Hughes family. Here is
a portrait of Christopher Hughes painted in
1789 by Charles Wilson Peale.

         
This is the man that made my silver shoe buckle, He made
40 silver shoe buckles in his lifetime 21 of them went to
the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

 About 600 yards from where I found the silver shoe
buckle made by Christopher Hughes was a mansion
called China Hall, here is an excerpt from an 1876 book
detailing the history of China Hall. Andre Everade Van
Braam Houckgeest, builder of China Retreat, has an
interesting history. He was born in Holland, 1739, and
after serving in the Dutch Navy, in which two of his
brothers were Admirals, he took service in the Dutch East
India Company, in China. Amassing a fortune, he came to
America and settled near Charleston, S. C., bought a nice
plantation and became naturalized. Losing four of his five
children and much of his fortune he again accepted
service in the Dutch East India Company, and returned to
Canton as Chief Director. He gained the confidence and
esteem of the Emperor, and, by study and travel, became
a recognized authority on Chinese manners and customs.
He wrote an interesting book, dedicating it to Washington.
He returned to America at the end of nine years, and to
his surviving daughter, who, meanwhile, had married
Major Richard Brooke Roberts, U. S. A., upon landing at
Philadelphia, April 24, 1796; bringing with him a great
collection of Chinese curiosities, including a Chinese
coachman and footman. He now bought the "Benger
Mound" farm near Bristol on which he erected a princely
dwelling, in the prevailing colonial style, surmounted by a
pagoda from which were suspended silver bells. The
rooms were large and elegantly furnished; the music room
for his daughter was the width of the house, with vaulted
roof, gilded and frescoed, and was noted for its fine
acoustic qualities. Here Van Braam dispensed a generous
hospitality, numbering among his distinguished guests
Washington, Lafayette and Prince Tallyrand, then in exile,
the latter spending much of his time at China Retreat. On
a festive occasion, it is said, Washington and Lafayette
planted the two pine trees that stand in front of the house.
Being a man of education and scientific attainments, he
became a member of the Philadelphia Philosophical
Society, and of the leading societies of Europe. His wife
was a daughter of Baron Van Reede Can Oudtshorn,
Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. His daughter on the
death of Major Roberts, her first husband, married Capt.
Staats Morris, son of Lewis Morris, signer of the
Declaration of Independence at China retreat. The oldest
son of Major Roberts was named Lucius Quintius
Cincinnatus, after the Society of the Cincinnati, of which
his father was an original member. After the death of
Major Roberts, and the death of his widow, Van Braam
sold China Retreat and returned to Holland, his fine
collection of Chinese curiosities being lost at sea.