Dusty, dog-eared reports that seem to
sit unloved on office bookcases can bring to light a wealth of fascinating
information; the William Paca cuff-link is a good case in point. Though this
artefact has been known to us for some time, and even exhibited, it is
revealing to revisit it and deepen our understanding of William Paca and
late-eighteenth-century Annapolitan society as a whole. This brass cuff-link
(or sleeve button as they were called in the 18th century) was
recovered from the archaeological excavations of the William Paca garden in the
1960s. From pottery fragments in the same archaeological layer, we can date
this sleeve button to the time when William Paca lived in Prince George’s
Street meaning that this sleeve
button was almost certainly worn by William Paca himself. Although the design
has lost its clarity over the centuries, we can still make out the image of a
running fox and the word “tallio”. This gives the sleeve button a novelty
appearance and shows that during his free time, William Paca was a keen foxhunter (as
well as a snappy dresser) .
William Paca was not the only colonial to own such a cufflink. The same design was
incredibly popular in eighteenth century America and identical sleeve buttons
have also been found at Williamsburg
and Ferry Farm, George Washington’s childhood home.[1]
The use of accessories to express a love of a particular sport is still
practiced by many Americans today. Think of the modern baseball cap. Originally
an essential and purely practical element of the outfit, the baseball cap (like
Paca’s cufflink) now carries various baseball related designs intended to mark
the user out as an enthusiast. The men of the 18th century would
have used their sleeve buttons to show that they were a fan of foxhunting much
in the same way.
Figure 1:
Brass ‘tallio’ cufflink. The
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Museum Purchase.
Hunting
in Colonial America
The motif and lettering gives us a
clear indication that the owner enjoyed foxhunting. “Tallio”,
a quaint misspelling of Tally-Ho,
demonstrates that the vernacular of the British hunting gentry was easily
transferred to America where the sport continued to be practiced. The British
citizens of colonial America wished to continue the leisurely pursuits of their
homeland.
Who participated in American foxhunts?
In Britain, hunting was a marker of high society. Due to the Game Laws Act of
1671 which ruled that one’s land had to be worth upwards of £100 per annum to
participate, hunting in Britain was restricted to the landed gentry.[2]
The right to foxhunt was less restricted in colonial America.
However, only the Anglo-American landed elite would have had enough leisure
time and have owned enough hounds and horses to be able to run their own pack. Though
slaves and servants did not hunt the foxes on horseback, they still
participated in the sport as huntsmen who controlled the hounds.[3]
American fox-hunting in the colonial
period did not generally consist of organized clubs. Instead, men would hunt in
informal packs.[4] An
exception to this was the Gloucester Fox-hunting Club, probably the first
formally organized club of this kind in America. Formed in 1766 in a
Philadelphia Coffee house, this club was full of important men such as Benjamin
Chase who each paid a subscription fee of £5 for the maintenance of foxhound kennels.[5]
William Paca himself probably hunted in private, informal packs with men of his
station, perhaps on their plantations. His interest in hunting is clear from his
sleeve button. It is also known that he had a keen interest in horse sports as
he was a member of the Maryland Jockey Club.[6]
Its members in 1783 included other Annapolitan elites such as Charles Carroll
of Carrollton.[7]
Charles Carroll was known for his love of foxhunting; perhaps the two neighbors
and signers spent a few afternoons hunting together.
Many of William Paca’s contemporaries
expressed in writing their fondness for the sport. George Washington in
particular records diligently in his diary the pleasant and sometimes
frustrating hours he spent indulging his hobby. In September of 1768 he laments
that he “Went fox hunting in the Neck. Started and run a fox or foxes three
hours and then lost”.[8]
John Adams, at a Sons of Liberty meeting in 1769 records in his diary that they
watched a Mimickry of “The Hunting of the Bitch Fox” indicating that it was an
accepted part of the culture of the Anglo-American elite.[9]
Figure 2:
Fairfax Fox-hunting with Washington. Engraver Henry Bryan Hall (after Felix
F.O.C. Darcey). in: Irving, W. (1855) The Life of George Washington.
Maryland:
The home of American fox-hunting?
Colonial Maryland had a special association
with fox-hunting and it is apparent that its residents had a particular
fondness for the sport. Maryland, like other the other prominent hunting
colonies, Virginia and Delaware, was free from a puritanical influence which
condemned sport.[10] Foxhunting
could therefore flourish free from any moral condemnation. It was in Maryland
that the sport first came to America. An English settler to Queen Anne’s County
brought his pack of foxhounds and held the first fox-hunt on record in America
around 1650.[11]
It was also in Maryland in 1730, on the Eastern Shore that a few tobacco
planters, talking wistfully of the red foxes of ‘merrie England’, decided to
import eight red foxes from Liverpool to hunt in place of Maryland’s native
gray.[12]
An apocryphal tale of Charles Carroll
of Carrollton demonstrates the distinct sense of pride that Marylanders had in
their sport. The story goes that Charles Carroll claimed that “fox-hunting was
the grandest sport ever invented by man and [was] sanctioned by an all-wise
providence”.[13]
In response, Light-Horse Harry Lee commented that “tis hell if your nag is slow
and your hounds poor”.[14]
Charles Carroll immediately responded, with an unabashed sense of state pride,
“I refer to fox-hunting in Maryland, sir”.[15]
Fox-hunting held a special place in
the heart of Marylanders in the colonial period, so much so that it altered the
lawmaking process. The 1765 Dog Bill which imposed a tax on owning more than
two necessary dogs faced so much outcry and opposition that it was later
amended to include the exception that
the
keeping of Fox Hounds for destroying of Foxes is usefull and Necessary and that
therefore they should be Allowed to be kept Tax free.[16]
Considering all this, one can imagine
William Paca riding out on his prize horse, wearing his Tallio sleeve buttons
and spending an enjoyable afternoon hunting.
Bibliography
Black, J. (2005) A Subject
for Taste. Hambledon and London.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Museum Purchase [http://emuseum.history.org/view/objects/asitem/search@/0?t:state:flow=3744955c-83b4-4822-b4ea-ee4b940333e4]
Last Accessed: 09/04/2014
Culver, F. (1922) Blooded
Horses of Colonial Days: Classic horse matches made in America before the
Revolution. Kessinger Publishing.
Fine, N. (2010) “Tally-ho Back”Foxhunting in North America and
the MFHA. Centennial View. MFHA
Foundation.
Founders.archives (2014a). Washington
Papers. Online [http://founders.archives.gov/?q=Series%3AWashington-01&s=1511211112&r=1561]
Last accessed: 09/04/2014
Founders.archives (2014b). Adams
Papers. Online [http://founders.archives.gov/?q=%20Author%3A%22Adams%2C%20John%22&s=1511211112&r=1]
Last accessed: 09/04/2014
Schemmer, C. (2011). Scanning pieces of
past. Online
[http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/092011/09272011/654031/index_html?page=1]
Last accessed: 09/04/2014
Hiss, H. (1897) The Beginnings of Fox-hunting in America. Outing Magazine.
Maryland State Archives (2014). Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly,
1766-1768 vol. 61. Online [http://aomol.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000061/html/am61--242.html]
Last accessed: 09/04/2014
Stewart, S. (1971) A
Historical Survey of Foxhunting in the United States, 1650-1970. Ma Thesis.
Denton, Texas.
South, S. (1969) The Paca House: A Historical Archaeology
Study. Contract Archaeology Inc, Alexandria, Va.
[1]
Schemmer 2011
[2]
Black 2005, 72
[3]
Stewart 1971, 47
[4] Stewart
1971, 38
[5]
Stewart 1971, 45
[6]
Culver 1922, 70
[7]
Culver 1922, 70
[8]
Founders.archives 2014a
[9] Founders.archives
2014b
[10] Stewart
1971, 40
[11]
Hiss 1897, 13
[12]
Fine 2010, 3
[13]
Hiss 1897, 160
[14]
Hiss 1897, 160
[15]
Hiss 1897, 160
[16] Maryland
State Archives 2014
