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Origins of the Mace

During the Middle Ages, a mace (Latin messa, “hump, mass”) was a much-feared weapon. A heavy club with a spiked or flanged head of iron or steel, a mace was strong enough to crush metal armor. Its use was widespread before firearms became common in modern warfare.

Its medieval origins, however, were not soon forgotten. Once a sign of brute force, the mace – and its close cousin the scepter – came to symbolize power and supreme authority in a more general sense: the power held by royalty, heads of state, magistrates, and legislative bodies. Sergeants-at-arms, or royal bodyguards, carried maces first to protect the person of the king, but as technology provided them with better weapons, maces became ceremonial. They were wrought in precious metals and decorated with gemstones, engravings, and heraldry. By the sixteenth century, the ceremonial use of civic maces was widespread. In England, small maces preceded a mayor’s entrance at formal occasions as a mark of dignity and the investiture of royal authority.

By the end of the 16th century, most cities possessed a civic mace. While the House of Commons spent the 1650s without a mace – in reaction to the beheading of Charles I in 1649 and the subsequent aversion to all royal symbolism – it revived the traditional accoutrement in 1660 and continues to use it today. The Norfolk Mace follows in the tradition of the latter example.

The Norfolk Mace: History

		Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie and his family arrived in Virginia in 1751 and remained until 1758, when he returned to England by his own request. Dinwiddie, the “Commander and Chief of the Dominion,” served as a representative of George II of England. The Norfolk Mace was commissioned in or before 1753 by Dinwiddie, as attests an inscription on the base of the bowl: The Gift of the Hon.ble Robert Dinwiddie Esq.r Lieu.t Governour of Virginia to the Corporation of Norfolk, 1753.
Detail of inscription and coat-of-arms, bowl.

The Common Council of the Borough of Norfolk formally accepted the Mace on April 1, 1754. The old minute book of the Council records:

At a Common Council held this 1st day of April, 1754, the Honourable Robert Dinwiddie, Esq., his Majesty’s Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of this Dominion, this day presented to the Borough of Norfolk a very handsome Silver Mace, which was thankfully received… as a Token of his great Regard and Affection for the said Borough.

In its early years, the Mace preceded the mayor of Norfolk in public processions. In another common practice, outgoing mayors presented incoming ones with the Mace. As the Revolutionary War drew closer, however, colonists held all signs of royal insignia in disregard. When Norfolk was burned on New Year’s Day 1776 by John Murray (1732-1809), 4th Earl Dunmore and titular royal governor of the Virginia colony, the Mace was taken to Kempe’s Landing for its protection until the mêlée subsided.

The first recorded appearance of the Mace after the Revolution was in a parade held in Norfolk on July 4, 1788 to celebrate Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution. During the 19th century, it was again carried in a parade that marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the granting of the Charter to the Borough of Norfolk on September 15, 1836, alongside the latter original document still bearing its royal signet. The Mace also was present at the 250th anniversary of Jamestown on May 13, 1857.

Fearing for the Mace’s safety, Mayor William Wilson Lamb purportedly hid it under one of the hearths in his home on West Bute Street when in May 1862 the Confederate Army evacuated Norfolk. Evidence as to its whereabouts in subsequent years is unclear, but it was probably held by individual mayors and then removed to the vault at the old Exchange Bank or the Exchange National Bank in Norfolk. A popular tale that the Mace was discovered “in a state of disrepair, lying in a heap of litter and old records in a room at the police station” in the mid-1890s by the Norfolk police chief, is probably exaggerated.1

During the 20th century, the Mace was used ceremonially to mark special occasions in Norfolk, Virginia, and US history. It was shown at the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, and it was carried in a parade in 1919 on the first anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. In 1921, Norfolk played host to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who bore the Mace in their inaugural procession. In 1932, the Mace led a parade that celebrated the 250th birthday of the founding of Norfolk.

In 1952, in order to prevent damage to the 200-year-old Mace, the National Bank of Commerce asked the City Council’s permission to commission two sterling silver replicas of the original. Produced by Sam Rubenstein of the Keystone Silver Company from photographs and plaster casts, one of these replicas was given to the Norfolk City Council for its own display; the other was given to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences – the present-day Chrysler Museum of Art. In 1989, the City of Norfolk placed the original Mace, on display here, in the long-term care of the Chrysler. The Norfolk Mace may be the only civic mace in the United States still retained by the city for which it was commissioned.

The Norfolk Mace: Description

An 1884 engraving after an earlier photograph presented to the Virginia Historical Society by John B. Whitehead, president of the Exchange National Bank of Norfolk, showing the lower section of the shaft inverted.

A photo-graph showing the crown rotated so that the straps “straddle” the coat-of-arms.

The Norfolk Mace in its present state.

Made by the London silversmith Fuller White – who is also represented in the Chrysler’s collection by a pair of silver sauceboats – the rococo-style Norfolk Mace is decorated with flowers, scrolls, and emblems of Great Britain. Constructed of eleven interlocking, sterling silver pieces around a central wooden rod, the Mace is 41.5 inches

(105.4 cm) long, and the silver weighs 104 ounces. The straps forming the crown have been damaged and repaired as have the fleurs-de-lis.2 For its age and history, however, the Mace is in remarkably good condition.

The head of the Mace, its single largest piece, is surmounted by an open-work crown, bearing the emblems of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland. The crowned center of the Mace supports a globe or orb, above which is a cross. The staff of the mace is ornamented with alternating leaves, scrolls, and spirals. Four engraved inscriptions appear: around the base of the cup, a dedication; marked on plain areas of the shaft in two places, the maker’s mark (“F.W.” and a lion passant, the English mark used to signify sterling content); and on the inside lip of the cup, a crowned leopard’s head, lion passant, date indicator “4” (1752-1753), and maker’s mark: “F.W.”

Detail, royal coat-of-arms, crown interior.

Owing to its numerous parts, the shaft and crown of the Mace have been assembled and graphically represented in various ways throughout its history. The baluster-form shaft bears notches that indicate how it should be assembled correctly, with the exception of the longer section of its lower part. Consequently, the lower shaft has been assembled both inverted and upright. A late 19th-century engraving from a photograph (at right) held by the Virginia Historical Society shows the lower shaft inverted. Little notice was taken of the anomaly before now since the difference in appearance is slight. Additionally, sometime in the 20th century the crown was rotated in a position such that the crown’s straps “straddled” the coat of arms below. After research into the correct position of the crown – both in historical records and by looking at the representation of St. Edward’s crown inside the Mace’s own crown – it has since been rotated so that the line separating the quadrants of the coat-of-arms on the bowl “meets” one of the four straps.

The Norfolk Mace: Symbolism and Heraldry

The crown atop the Mace represents St. Edward’s crown, the “official crown of England,” used most often in coronation ceremonies. Fuller White represented St. Edward’s crown five times on the Norfolk Mace: most ostentatiously atop the head of the Mace; once above the royal British coat-of-arms inside the crown; and once each above the fleur-de-lis, the harp of Ireland, and English rose/Scottish thistle on the bowl.

The term heraldry refers to the use, display, and meaning of signs and emblems relating to ceremony and matters of pedigree. In times past, families and associations chose colors, shields, flora and fauna, crests, crowns, and mottoes to symbolize their history and aspirations. The resulting coats-of-arms appeared on shields, banners, helmets, and other conspicuous places relating to that family or association.

The heraldry found on the Norfolk Mace refers to George II, who was King of Great Britain when the Mace was made. The royal coat-of-arms – as it appeared from 1714-1801, during the entire reigns of George I and II, and partially under George III – is illustrated twice on the Mace: once on the outside of the bowl and once again on the inside of it, below the apex of the crown.

The British royal coat-of-arms during this period was divided into quadrants representing the dominions over which the British king ruled: England and Scotland; France; Ireland; and Hanover. The first quadrant is itself divided into two sections representing England (red background, three gold lions passant guardant) and Scotland (gold background, red lion rampant, alternating flower border). Quadrant II represents France (blue background, three gold fleurs-de-lis), while Quadrant III represents Ireland (blue background, gold harp). Finally, Quadrant IV represents Hanover (added to England’s holdings with the accession of George I), which is itself a three-part coat-of-arms representing Brunswick (red background, two gold lions passant guardant), Lüneburg (gold background, sprinkled red hearts, blue lion rampant guardant), and Hanover (red background, silver horse passant), with an escutcheon (shield) bearing the crown of Charlemagne.

The most completely formed mark of royal British symbolism on the Mace appears underneath the crown. Here, the coat-of-arms is supported on the left by a crowned lion rampant gardant and on the right by a unicorn rampant. Above, St. Edward’s crown rests on a banner (with the Old French inscription Honi soit qui mal y pense – “Shame on him who thinks evil of it,” motto of the Order of the Garter), flanked by the initials “G. R.” (Georgius Rex, “King George”). The whole rests on a banner reading Dieu et mon droit (“God and my [birth]right,” adopted as the motto of the British monarch in the early 15th century).

The bowl of the Mace bears three other panels that reinforce the symbolism found in the royal coat-of-arms. In progressive order, beginning to the left of the coat-of-arms and continuing around the bowl, are the harp of Ireland; St. Edward’s crown (England) above a fleur-de-lis (France); and the rose of England and thistle of Scotland growing from the same stem.
		Detail of fleur-de-lis, bowl

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Written by
Kristi McMillan
Manager of Adult & Community Programs

With the kind assistance of
Gary E. Baker
Curator of Glass and
Acting Curator of Decorative Arts and Historic Houses

Activities by
Channon M. H. Dillard
Manager of School Programs

All images of the Norfolk Mace reprinted with permission
of the City of Norfolk

Department of Education & Public Programs, July 2004

Notes

1. Norfolk’s Historic Mace, p. 13.

2. The fleur-de-lis, or “lily flower,” was first used as a symbol of French royalty in the 12th century under Louis VI or Louis VII.

For Further Reading

Collections of the Virginia Historical Society, new series, vol. 3. The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, vol. 1. Richmond, VA: Virginia Historical Society, 1883.

Fahlman, Betsy L. et al. A Tricentennial Celebration: Norfolk 1682-1982. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum, 1982.

Fox-Davies, A. C. A Complete Guide to Heraldry. Bonanza Books and Crown Publishers Ltd., 1985.

Hatch, John Davis Jr. The Great Mace of Norfolk and Its Copies. Norfolk, VA: The Norfolk Museum, 1954.

Norfolk’s Historic Mace. Norfolk, VA: reprinted by order of the City Council, 1959.

Jackson, Charles James. An Illustrated History of English Plate, vol. 2. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969.