The Samuel Peckham Silver-Hilted Small Sword, Bennett and Son, London, England, Circa 1770

Samuel Peckham (1759-1835) m. Hannah Stanton (1760-1833);

To son, Peleg M. Peckham (1784–1872) m. Elanor Burdick;

To daughter, Sarah Peckham m. Nathan Edward Hoxie ;

To daughter, Sarah Peckham Hoxsie Marchant (1852-1922) m. Frank Edward Marchant (1855-1927);

to Frank E. Marchant’s older niece, Florence Clarke (1875-1958) m. Charles Samuel Prest (1875-1954);

to Frank E. Marchant’s younger niece, Alice Clarke (1876-1969), Cohoes, New York;

thus by descent to the current consignors.

Samuel Peckham (1759-1835) was a mariner during the American Revolution on the ship Providence under John Paul Jones and served several enlistments as a drummer in the Rhode Island line. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island and died in Lisbon, Connecticut. He married Hannah Stanton (1760-1833).

The silver hilt is fitted with a colichemarde style blade. William Kinman entered his mark as a smallwork, January 31, 1759, with an address of East Harding Street. In the Parliamentary Report list of 1773, he was specifically identified as a hiltmaker (Grimwade 1982 p. 572). Similar examples of small swords appear in paintings of prominent American military generals and officers during the American Revolution. 

For information on Peckham see General Horace Porter and Franklin B. Sanborn, Letters of John Paul Jones, (Boston, MA: The Bibliophile Society, 1905), p. 48 and Martha L. Moody, Lineage Book, vol. L. (Washington, DC: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1919), p. 115.