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Reward of merit certificate incorporating a silver medal presented to Miss Lucy Spear
William Seaver
Quincy, Massachusetts, 1830
Watercolor, graphite and ink, engraved silver medal, 6 ½ x 8 ¼ inches, with original gilt frame
Inscribed in ink: “REWARD OF MERIT / Presented to / (on engraved inscription on oval silver medal) Miss Lucy Spear / By her instructor / William Seaver / Quincy School / March 28th 1830.”
This is the first reward of merit certificate that we have encountered in which a silver medal was originally affixed as part of a unit. Its is executed in a grisaille palette utilizing watercolor, graphite and ink: the border is done in black watercolor, the central drawing is in graphite, and the lettering is in ink. The large upright wreathe frames an applied silver reward medal with bright cut border and bearing the name “Miss Lucy Spear.”
A possible identification for the maker of this award is a William Whitney Seaver, the son of Joseph Seaver and Abigail Whitney, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts April 6, 1806. This William Seaver would have been twenty three years old when he made and presented this reward to the thirteen-year-old Lucy Spear. Lucy Spear (1817-1862), was the daughter of Elijah Spear (1775-1833) and Susannah Baxter (1780-1863). She was born in Quincy, Massachusetts on March 3, 1817. She married Charles M. Marsh (1818-1886) on June 8, 1848 in Quincy, and together they produced three children between 1848 and 1854. She is listed in the United States Federal Census records of 1850 and 1860. Lucy (Spear) Marsh died August 17, 1862 in Quincy, Massachusetts.
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