CIRCA 1785

The present tea caddy is from a tea service made for James Giles (1759-1825), circa 1785. Trained as a lawyer, Giles volunteered for the Continental Army, and began his military career as a Lieutenant in early 1777. He came to serve under General Lafayette, and in 1780 Giles was presented a sword by that esteemed leader for his gallantry in action. (This sword is now in the collection of the Morristown Historical Society in Morristown, New Jersey.) After resigning from the army in 1782, he served as a lawyer in New York City, marrying Hannah Bloomfield in 1784 before moving to New Jersey to start a family. He was a freemason and a member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati before joining the New Jersey branch on 4 July 1789. From 1793-1805, he was commissioned Brigadier General of the Cumberland Brigade of the New Jersey Militia. A contemporary account of Giles by Lucius Elmer recounts Giles as "a small man, precise in his dress, and remarkably erect and graceful, but very slow in his movement, and in all he did. At the circuits he was one of the most genial and delightful companions . . . he was kind and friendly.” When General Lafayette returned to New Jersey in 1824, General Giles was on hand to greet him and show Lafayette the sword he had gifted over 40 years earlier.

A proud patriot, Giles had a cannon and the American flag added to his coat of arms, along with the motto LIBERTAS ET PATRIA MEA (Liberty and my Country). A sugar-bowl from this the same tea service as the present caddy is in the Reeves Collection at Washington & Lee University (accession no. 2014.19.1).