Paul Revere's Punchbowl, Various Parishes, Louisiana Newspaper article from the Shreveport Times, Shreveport, La., 26 June 1938 Prepared and submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by Claude B. Slaton, Baker, La. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Punchbowl Made by Paul Revere in 1768 Bears Name of Ancestor of North Louisiana Family John Marston's Loyalties Went With Building Nation in Revolution By Maude Timon Helm A handsome silver punch bowl, made by Paul Revere and now occupying a niche in the Metropolitan Museum's collection of Early American history, bears among the 15 names encircling its rim that of John Marston, Revolutionary patriot and direct ancestor of a prominent Shreveport and North Louisiana family. The bowl was made by the famous leader of the Sons of Liberty for the members whose names it immortalizes; and was designed to compliment the 92 members of the Massachusetts Bay House of Representatives who, June 30, 1768, voted not to rescind the circular letter prepared by Samuel Adams for the purpose of inciting the American colonies to protest against unjust "taxation without representation," notably the Stamp Act then newly legislated by the Crown. John Marston was an active and courageous member of the Sons of Liberty, an organization which had its inception in his native Boston a full decade before the Revolutionary War. Secret meetings of the group were frequently held in his tavern, "The Bunch of Grapes" when the famous "Liberty Tree," under which the first session was conducted, was too closely watched by suspicious adherents of George II. Beneath the names graven around the bowl's rim, are the words: "To the memory of the glorious ninety-two members of the Honorable House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay, who, undaunted by the insolent Menaces of Villains in Power, from a strict Regard to Conscience and the Liberties of their Constituents, on the 30th of June, 1768, voted not to rescind." The opposite side of the historic vessel inscribed with a liberty cup, and under it these words encircled by a wreath: "No. 45, Wilkes and Liberty." The number refers to that edition of the North Britain, a news sheet conducted by John Wilkes in which espoused the cause of the colonies. A torn letter with the obnoxious words, "General Warrants," is inscribed to commemorate the royal authority exercised under the warrants to search private homes, and under which Wilkes had suffered arrest. At the left of the wreath is a pennant with the words "Magna Charta". A similar flag opposite this flaunts the "Bill of Rights". Paul Revere's signature as the silversmith is inscribed under the bowl's base. The silver punch bowl is accorded a place among the relics of American history because it commemorates an historic incident bearing strongly on the Revolutionary War, and as such the history is of interest to all Americans. But to acquaintances of the Marston family it holds particular significance as indication of the strong patriotic strain of a family acutely loyal to its faiths. John Marston, the son of the Revolutionary incendiarist, revealed his own and his father's intense feelings in his letters written when an independent America was only a hope. These documents, with the story of the historic punch bowl, are treasured by present generations of the family; and in their contents unintentional glimpses of a genteel existence are found, indicating that early provincial Marstons lived in an atmosphere of refined elegance as wealthy subjects of the British monarchy. One of the letters referred to was written by the younger John Marston, who fought under General Washington, and concerns activities in Old Boston the night before the opening gun of the Revolutionary War was fired, at the Battle of Lexington. Dated April 18, 1775, it follows: "I attended a mantua-maker home, who had been employed by my mother. We met several parties of soldiers going very rapidly to the south part of town. After seeing the lady home, I met a young man who told me that about one thousand soldier had gone into the Common. I instantly told the black boy that attended me with a lantern to put out the light, when we proceeded to the Common, where about one hundred citizens were returning home after having seen the soldiers embark in boats to cross over to Cambridge. This was the night of Paul Revere's famous ride, when two lanterns winked from the tower of Old North Church to warn the colonists that the British had started for Cambridge by water. When I reached home and told my father what I had seen, he exclaimed, 'Tomorrow will be a glorious day. Lord North will be convinced that he cannot subjugate Americans.' I scarcely slept the entire night, and I heard my father walking his chamber with anxious mind. "I was then 19 years old, and a clerk to Samuel Elliott, Esq., who was half a Tory--not that he approved of British measures, but feared interrupting a profitable business. When I went to the store the morning of the 19th, his eyes were swollen with tears, but the citizens almost universally were in good spirits. "Never shall I forget the joy I experienced in the afternoon when the British defeat was known. We had been distracted with various reports in the course of the day. About 9 o'clock in the morning I saw Lord Percy's division marching through Tremont Street. The whole party seemed downhearted, and evidently dreaded the contest, knowing our people were expert marksmen." Carrying on the tradition of patriotic fervor is the story told of Henry Marston, a son of the author of Revolutionary memoirs. Henry Marston came to Louisiana from Boston, about 1830, and settled at Clinton [La.]. He was a successful planter with four stalwart sons in the Louisville (Ky.) Military Institute when the war between the states was declared. Even though all four sons immediately enlisted in the Confederate Army, and one received a bullet in his brain from which he died, Henry Marston's loyalty to the Union his grandfather and father helped create remained deep and strong. During the Civil War a troop of Confederate soldiers passed through Clinton, and seeing the Stars and Stripes waving over one of the housetops, they made their way to the handsome brick residence, marched briskly through its tall white columns, and summoned the master. Henry Marston answered the summons. He was ordered to "take down that infernal flag!" He refused, answering, "I am from Massachusetts, the cradle of American liberty and the birthplace of its flag." The irate soldiers exclaimed, "All right, Massachusetts, we'll just hang you on your own front lawn!" And they placed a rope around his neck. As they made ready to lead him away, his wife, a native of South Carolina, rushed to her husband's side. Placing her arms around him. she faced the soldiers. "Hang Massachusetts, and you hang South Carolina!" she told them. Taken aback, the men called off the hanging and departed. And Old Glory continued to wave over the Marston residence. Devotion to the cause is found in the next generation, during the state's era of Reconstruction following the Civil War. Captain Bulow W. Marston, a Confederate-veteran son of Henry Marston, attended a court session in Coushatta. A carpetbagger judge presided, and at one of his pronouncements, Capt. Marston branded the statement a lie. "Revoke that accusation, sir, or I shall send you to jail!" the judge retorted. "Send me to jail if you wish," came Marston's reply, "but the statement is a lie, and you the liar!" An entry in the diary which Henry Marston kept faithfully to his death, recorded: "Bulow is in jail in Coushatta. He called a carpetbagger judge a liar and refused to apologize for it." There was no comment of the aged father's reaction to this, but he probably was proud of his son's loyalty even to what he sometimes had referred to as the "suicidal secession." The World War found a young Shreveport family of Marstons quitting an Eastern finishing school to "enlist" as a driver of a Red Cross motor vehicle in New York City, her contribution to a cause in which she believed. John Marston, Revolutionary patriot and member of the Sons of Liberty, was the great-grandfather of the late Bulow and John Marston of Ninock and Shreveport, respectively; and the great- great-grandfather of James M. and Bulow W. Marston of Shreveport, and of Mrs. Abbie Marston McClelland of East Point. In a handsome silver punch bowl reposing in the Metropolitan Museum's collection of Early American history, John Marston's name is immortalized as an associate of Paul Revere, and for his patriotic activities which history recognized as an important prelude to American liberty.