Deacon Shem Drowne (4 December 1683 - 13 January 1774) was a colonial silversmith in Boston, Massachusetts and was America's first documented weathervane maker. He is most famous for the grasshopper atop of Faneuil Hall.
Contents |
Background
He was born near Sturgeon Creek in York County, Maine. He was the third son of Leonard Drowne, a ship-builder who came to what is now Kittery, Maine in what was then Massachusetts Bay Colony from Penryn, Cornwall. Leonard helped organize and build the first Baptist Church in Maine in 1682. During King William's War many Maine towns were raided and English settlements were massacred by the Wabanaki Indians in conjunction with the French. In 1696 28 members of the Baptist Church moved to Charleston, South Carolina and established the first baptist church there. The Drownes moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1699 due to the ongoing war and violence. Shem married Katherine Clark on 18 September, 1712 in Boston, Massachusetts. Shem's older brother Solomon was the grandfather of Revolutionary War Surgeon Solomon Drowne.
Life
Shem [1] was a coppersmith with a shop on Ann Street (now North Street) in North End, Boston. He was elected a Deacon of the First Baptist Church of Boston in 1721. In 1716 he created America's first authenticated weathervane, a gilded indian archer, for the cupala Providence House in Boston, which in 1716 became the official residence of the Royal Governor. In 1721 he created a rooster weathervane which is now on First Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1740 he made the banner weathervane that is now atop Old North Church in Boston. On 12 June, 1746 he bought Monhegan Island and its surrounding islands for 10 pounds, 13 shillings. His son later sold the island for 160 pounds.
The Grasshopper Weathervane
His most famous work is the weathervane on top of Faneuil Hall. Commissioned by Peter Faneuil in 1742 it was designed to compliment the grasshopper weathervane atop the Royal Exchange in London and help symbolize the new building as the capital of finance in the New World. The grasshopper is copper gilded with gold leafs with glass eyes. The vane fell off the building during the earthquake of 1755 which shook Boston. He and his son Thomas repaired it and remounted it. In 1768 Thomas placed a note labeled "food for the grasshopper" in the belly of the grasshopper. It read:
| “ | Shem Drowne made it, May 25, 1742. To my brethren and fellow grasshoppers, Fell in ye year 1753 (1755) Nov. 13, early in ye morning by a great earthquake by my old Master above. Again, like to have met with Utter Ruin by Fire, by hopping Timely from my Public Station, came of the broken bones and much Bruised. Cured and Fixed. Old Master's son Thomas Drowne June 28, 1768, and Though I will promise to Discharge my office, yet I shall vary as ye wind. | ” |
This weathervane is the only part of Faneuil Hall which remains totally unmodified from the original 1742 structure. In 1805 Charles Bulfinch expanded the building and moved the cupola from the middle of the building to the front. In 1974 the vane was stolen but recovered in less than a week.
