The historic sterling silver "Royal Mace,“ a gift from the British Crown’s Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Virginia, represents the political birth of the City of Norfolk during the colonial era. As a symbol of civic authority, it is the only municipal mace in the United States still retained by the city for which it was commissioned, having remained in Norfolk since 1754. As a gift from a crown official, it was an expression of his "great Regard and Affection“ for Norfolk.
Its untold history, however, like that of the Norfolk Chapter itself, is as shrouded in mystery as it is with interpretation, embellished with heraldic symbols depicted to represent the individual parts of the realm of King George II's dominion, at least one of which, the fleur-de-lis, documents the King’s putative claim, even as late as 1753, to the throne of France.
The Gift of the Hon.ble Robert Dinwiddie Esq.r Lieu.t Governour of Virginia to the Corporation of Norfolk, 1753
Given the inscribed date of 1753, the Mace must have taken longer than expected to reach Virginia's shore, as the minutes of the Norfolk Common Council record the actual presentation on April 1, 1754, thus climaxing a friendship between the colonial official and Virginia's principal seaport.
In the Middle Ages, a mace would have been used as a weapon to crush metal armor. Its spiked head was greatly feared. In later times maces, like this one, were used as symbols of honor to acknowledge the presence of a public official.At a Common Council held this 1st day of April, 1754, the Honourable Robert Dinwiddie, Esq., his Majesty’s Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of this Dominion, this day presented to the Borough of Norfolk a very handsome Silver Mace, which was thankfully received… as a Token of his great Regard and Affection for the said Borough.
Norfolk’s historic mace, commissioned by a British colonial administrator who served as lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia, symbolized the governor’s power bestowed upon him from the king of England.
It is made of ten interlocking sterling silver pieces centered around a wooden rod. Weighing 104 ounces, it measures 41½” long from the very bottom of the base to the apex of the crown.
The bowl, or head, its single largest piece, is surmounted by an openwork crown. Depicted in three places on the Mace, most prominently outside the bowl (below the crown and inside its base), are the Royal Arms of Great Britain during the reign of George II (1683-1760), its second German king and known for his poor grasp of the English language.
The national emblems of his realm are depicted in several places: around the center of the bowl are the emblems of Great Britain (the rose), Scotland (the thistle growing from the same stem), Ireland (the harp, signifying the Irish herald), and France (the fleurs-de-lis, lilies which surround the lid of the cup, revealing the king’s claim to the throne of France, maintained at the time and prominently depicted).
Crowned center of the Mace supports a globe or orb, above which is a cross. The staff of the Mace is ornamented with alternating leaves, scrolls, and spirals. Around the base of the cup are engraved the inscriptions marked on plain areas of the shaft in two places: "F.W." and a lion passant. Marked on inside lip of cup: crowned leopard's head, lion passant, date letter "4" (1752-1753) & maker's mark: "F.W.“
As was the given custom, the Mace preceded the Mayor in the public processions of Norfolk after its arrival, and by custom, an outgoing mayor would present the Mace to the incoming mayor to symbolize the transfer of authority.
During the Revolution most of Norfolk’s structures were burned by Patriots under orders of the Virginia Convention, and those “Royalists” who participated were reported to have evacuated the City before it was eventually occupied by North Carolinian rebels.
John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore and last royal Governor of Virginia, ordered his fleet to bombard Norfolk in the very early hours of January 1, 1776. Excepting Saint Paul's Episcopal (then Borough) Church, the structures of the City did not survive the fire from the inhabitants’ burning and Lord Dunmore’s vengeful bombardment. Combined with the preceding looting by rebel troops, once the violence had ended, Norfolk miraculously arose from the ashes reborn, like the mythical firebird, the phoenix.
The Mace, too, survived, having been removed by the loyal denizens to "Kempe’s Landing (modern day Kempsville and the site of another important battle of the Revolution), presumably because it was buried in a garden along with other important city documents.
The Royal Norfolk Mace was featured on a 1936 United States half dollar coin minted to commemorate the Borough of Norfolk land grant of 1636.
The first recorded appearance of the Mace after the great disruption in the government of the land was its presence in a parade held on July 4, 1788 in celebration of the ratification of Virginia's new Constitution. It was returned to Norfolk's Clerk of Court in 1790.
Though proposals were made in 1794 and 1836 to rid the Mace of its royal symbolism, it remained unaltered in form, which is fortunate, since the latter year marked the 150th anniversary of Norfolk’s Royal Charter, which was paraded together with the Royal Mace through the streets of the City on September 15, 1836. To mark the 250th anniversary of Virginia, it was recalled with the Mace’s presence at Jamestown's Commemoration on May 13, 1857.
In May 1862, as Confederate troops prepared to evacuate Norfolk, the mayor, Colonel William Wilson Lamb of the Confederate Army, concealed the argent Mace beneath the library fireplace in his house at 420 Bute Street. Although the house was occupied by Union troops, the mace was not discovered.
Following the Civil War, the Mace was passed between various mayors, falling on "evil days" and for decades becoming practically forgotten. From 1881 to 1885, it rested in the vault of the Exchange Bank of Norfolk and, when the bank eventually foreclosed, the Mace disappeared, only to reappear nine years later.
Norfolk's Chief of Police C. J. Iredell discovered it “in a state of disrepair in a heap of litter and old records in a room at the police station” located behind the Norfolk Court House (now MacArthur Museum). Norfolk City officials approached Norfolk National Bank, later a part of Virginia National Bank (now Bank of America), which agreed to serve as its custodian, displaying the Mace for many years in a specially built glass case in its downtown Norfolk main branch.
The Mace appeared again at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition in celebration of Virginia’s tercentenary. It led both a 1919 parade on the first anniversary of the Armistice and, in 1932, a procession commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Founding of Norfolk.
In 1952, two sterling silver replicas of the Mace were made by Sam Rubenstein of the Keystone Silver Company. One was given to the Norfolk City Council for everyday use, preventing additional wear to the
original; the second was donated to the Chrysler Museum of
Art on behalf of the Norfolk Bank of Commerce by its president, John S. Alfriend. Today the replica, which bears the inscription "Presented to the Norfolk Museum by the National Bank of Commerce March 12. 1954" is on display at Chrysler's Norfolk History Museum, on the first floor of the Willoughby-Baylor House.
On February 16, 1989, the original colonial Mace presented to the Borough of Norfolk in 1754, in its carefully restored state, was delivered by City Clerk Breck Daughtrey, escorted by armed police officers, to the Chrysler Museum of Art in order to be on permanent display. (It is currently in Gallery 207 on the second floor.)
Mace of Norfolk, Virginia.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Dinwiddie entered the colonial service at an early age and was collector of customs in Bermuda from 1727 to 1738. In the latter year he was promoted to surveyor general of the customs for the Southern ports of America, and as holder of the post he became a member of the Virginia Council in 1741.
As surveyor general of customs and council member, Dinwiddie became intimately acquainted with Norfolk's mercantile and civic affairs, and when the borough officials made him a burger, he reciprocated by presenting them with a seal, which was duly acknowledged at a meeting of the Norfolk Common Council on July 7th 1741. The miniature replica has been worn as a pin by Norfolk residents, City employees and historians for years. Originally reproduced by special authority of the Corporation Council of the City of Norfolk, it represents the tumultuous and often historically confusing Loyalist history of Norfolk as a major Virginia seaport, which is as strategically significant as a city today as it was as a seaport during the American Revolution.
Since the Chapter's formation in 1906, first recorded as “the Norfolk Chapter,” then as “Tidewater Chapter (No. 1),” Norfolk has served as its historic home. The association of its purposes, the significance of the events in Norfolk on that fateful New Year's Day in 1776 resulting in the removal of the Mace to another local battle town and the question whether or not Norfolk, in England’s oldest colony in the Americas, was predominantly Royalist, cannot be overstated. History invoked the Mace with relevance as the truest symbolic object of the Chapter’s namesake.A few additional historical facts are shared by the Chapter and Norfolk’s Royal Mace: both have been referred to by more than one name; both have disappeared from written record, causing some to believe absolutely in their demise; both rose like a phoenix as evidence to the contrary; and both shine today as a reminder, not only that historic interpretation is often a reflection of the sentiment of the time, but that it can, quite simply, be wrong.
On New Year's Day 2012, the 236th anniversary of the commencement of the Burning of Norfolk, as the only "Presidential Initiative" during my first term, I officially announced my 2011 initiative to the membership on our Chapter’s website, citing the Norfolk Mace as the official cypher of the Norfolk Chapter, and its gift in perpetuity to its presidents - past, present and future.
Just as the State Regent of the Virginia Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution designs and sells her own DAR-branded jewelry during her three-year term; just as the Richmond Chapter, whose current president, it is believed, wears the sash and medal of its first chapter president; and just as the Virginia Society installs the officers of the Richmond Chapter at its Annual Awards Ceremony, the Norfolk Chapter will have made its own mark by establishing a tradition in Virginia Revolutionary War lineage societies most worthy of those who serve as its presidents.
Initiating a tradition unique to the Norfolk Chapter, the 2” Norfolk Mace (lapel or pocket) may be worn when attending SAR functions only by a Norfolk Chapter president. Any of its other sizes (1”/3”) may be awarded by (and at the expense and sole discretion of) the Chapter's current president. All award recipients may wear their cypher(s) at any time, including at SAR events. Other styles (e.g. tie bars, earrings, crown lapel pins, &c.) may be sold by the Chapter to anyone, also at any time.
The first such awarding of the President's Mace Pin, cast in yellow gold, was presented to Jean Rourke Hillegass at Great Bridge Battlefield Park on December 3, 2011, on the occasion of the unveiling of the cast bronze Marshall Memorial Monument dedicated in part by the Norfolk Chapter and in honor of her husband, Reon Glessner Hillegass, Jr., a long-time member of the Norfolk Chapter, Charter member of the Great Bridge Battlefield & Waterways History Foundation Board of Directors and former President General of the National Society SAR.
It is my hope this initiative will become a Chapter tradition which endures, like the Mace itself; the cypher serving as the symbol of the Chapter's union with its historic home, representing its own claim to the region as the first SAR chapter in Virginia, and its fraternity of men who, I pray, will continue to rise “like a phoenix" in striving to maintain the status quo, recognizing and honoring its forthright (and fought for) position in the Virginia and National Societies of the Sons of the American Revolution.
J. Matthew Hogendobler, D.M.D.
President, Norfolk Chapter SAR
New Year's Day 2012
Norfolk Mace Merchandise
Norfolk Chapter's Mace Club
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"I am the Brock Curator of American Art at the Chrysler Museum, and I recently read your website on the history of the Norfolk Mace. Congratulations on a beautiful and informative page! The Mace is truly a magnificent work of art and a valuable piece of history. The Museum is honored to be able to present this in our galleries (now completely free of charge to all visitors).
I saw no questions or problems with your account of the Mace and its history. You’ve related its anecdotes with wonderful wit and brevity, and the parallels between its history and that of the city and your Chapter are memorable.
The Chrysler Museum is hoping over the next few years to renovate and expand its permanent collection galleries, and one of my personal objectives within this project is to design an even more glorious and dynamic presentation of the Mace. I have no firm idea yet what form this will take, but the Mace deserves a splendid home, and I hope you and the members of your Chapter will come view it in person often both before and after these renovations."
Crawford Alexander Mann III
Brock Curator of American Art
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[Excerpts of the history of the Royal Mace/Norfolk Mace/Royal Mace of Authority were extracted from Chapter 10 of the Norfolk Historical Society's "Norfolk Highlights 1584-1881" by George Holbert Tucker, "Maces of America: Part II - the City of Norfolk in Virginia" by Andrew Cusack, the Chrysler Museum Online Collection database for "The Norfolk Mace" and the "Replica of Norfolk Mace," the Library of Virginia "Questions about Virginia" FAQs page, "The Old Dominion in the 17th Century: A Documentary History...," by Warren M. Billings, along with the City of Norfolk Mace facts page. For a brief, but interesting online presentation about the history of The Norfolk Mace, please visit http://www.norfolk.gov/mace/presentation/Norfolk_Mace.swf.]