56. Serving Fork

This two-tined silver table fork is reported to have been part of the dowry of Mary Digges (1745-1805) on her marriage to Thomas Sim Lee (1745-1819) in 1771. Both were from prominent Prince George’s County families, and Lee would be twice elected governor of Maryland (1779-1782 and 1792-1794). Three pieces of flatware, two forks and a matching knife handle, were donated in 1962 by Caroline Loughborough, whose family lived at Milton, one of the two oldest homes in Montgomery County.

The donor, Caroline Loughborough, suggested that these pieces were made in England in the 1730s and descended through three generations of Mary Digges Lee’s daughters. Then the pieces passed to three owners who were probably chosen as history-minded caretakers: a D.C. regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association; a Howard County descendant of a Virginia governor; and Miss Loughborough, a member of a distinguished Georgetown and Montgomery County family, who continued to treat them as Maryland heirlooms worthy of donation to her county’s historical society.

Thomas Sim Lee was a member of the Association of the Freemen of Maryland, which met from 1774-1776, after the royal governor had dissolved the colonial assembly. Armed opposition to the British crown was approved by its declaration of July 26, 1775, signed by Lee and such notable Marylanders as future signers of the Declaration of Independence Samuel Chase, William Paca, and Charles Carroll of Carrolton, all of whom helped establish the first state constitution. During his first term as governor, Lee labored to support the Continental Army under the command of his friend General George Washington. Later, he was a member of the Maryland convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1788. After retiring from political life in 1794, Governor Lee focused on his Frederick County estate while maintaining a winter home in Georgetown (still extant at 3001 M Street and marked by a bronze plaque).

Mary Lee was also a patriot. In 1780 she led Maryland women in raising funds and supplies; George Washington thanked her for “the patriotic exertions of the ladies of Maryland in favor of the army.”

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