The Washington herald., 1907-03-17
HISTORY OF A SILVER MACE
Emblem of Authority in South Caro-
lina's House of Representatives.
IL Was Made in London $50 Years
Ago. and Was Carried on
During the Revolution.
- b. caInmbla 5. q So.

From ihe Columbia Is. c. state.
Visitors 10 the hail Of the house Of
representatives, doubtless notice. not
without some curiosity. the handsome sill
yer. gold-burnlshed mace tha. hangs
against the front Of the speakers desk.
That mace is just a century and a half
oid, and has more Of n history than the
average mace Of that age. As Is shown
by the hallmarks thereon. il was made
IN London in I756 by Magdalen Feline, a
plateworker then well known in Lon
don. In I779 Josiah Quincy, jr., dis
tinguished citizen Of Massachusetts. vis-
tied Charles Town (now ChaTlestown)
and on the 10Th OF March made the fol-
lowing entry in his diary:
spent all the morning IN hearing de-
bates in the house. and had an oppor-
tunity OF hearing the best speakers in
the province The first thing done at the
meeting IS to bring the mace-a Fery su-
perb and elegant one. which cost 80
guiness-and lay it on the table before
the speaker"
During the Revolution this mace was
carried Off by some British sympathizers
was offered for sale to the House Of As
sembly of the Bahama Islands.
The records Of the House OF Assembly
OF the Bahamas at Nassau show that on
the 18th Of June. 1870, Mr.. Mckenzie
moved that John Wells. esquire. be en-
powered and authorized to purchase from
the person or persons having custody Of
the silver mace of the late assembly Of
the Province Of South Carolina. and that
this house will provide for any sum OF
expenses incurred by reason of said pur-
chase"
The records do not show that any fur
ther action was taken in relation TO the
mace but many writer's have assumed
that it was purchased. and one writer has
gone so far as TO chronicle the wander
ings Of the mace from South Carolina to
the Bahamas, and another writer has as
serted that "as Il matter Of fact. it was
about ten years before the purchase was
effected and appropriation passed to COW
er the cost of the mace and the speak
er's robe. But. as matter Of fact" it
was never purchased at all, and the mace
now in Nassau and supposed TO be the
South Carolina mace was made in Lon
don In 1893, as shown hy. records in Lon
con. and by the hallmarks on the mace
%tself Harcourt @. Malcolm, q member
Of the Bahama House of Assembly and
an authority on such matters in the Ba-
hamas. says. il a letter 20 J. 5. Church
ill. colonial secretary of the Bahamas
dated February %. 1893: Last summer
when our mace was in London for the
purpose of being rcgilded and repaired,
it was inspected at the assay office. The
officials of that Office fixed the date Of its
manufacture at 1893, and the records Uf
thet Office also disclosed the fact that
It had been made by Lewis Pantin.
small worker. whose address was 81 ST.
Martins le Grand. at present part of the
site of the general pOst-Office building.
The date given By the assay office was
also cOTrOborated by ". II. 81. John
Hope. OF the Society of Antiqusries This
is further substantiated by the votes OF
the House of Assembly. For on the Sth
of December. 1S0o. the following item
appears in the resolution arrived at in a
committee OF the whole house on pc
titons, estimates, and accounts;
To Alexander C. WyIly. esquire, for
amount paid by him for a mace. speak
er's gown, &c. e269 -10-0."
The writer SOes on 20 say that Mr.
Wylly had been speaker of the house
from October 80. 179S, to November i.
1900, when it hecame necessary TO elect
a successor to him in consequence of his
absence from the colony; that he had
returned to Nassau or November q, 1900
and WAS refunded the amount which he
had paid out for the mace and robe as de-
scribed above and. that it seemed "a pIau-
sible suggestion that he brought it with
him."