Notes
Family tradition asserts Patrick Henry gave this coin silver ladle as a wedding gift to his third daughter, Elizabeth "Betsey" Henry (1769–1842), upon her marriage to Philip Aylett (1767–1831) on October 12, 1786, at St. John's Church in King William County, Virginia.
Henry also gave Betsey a pearl belt buckle (2021.5) as a wedding gift, which is now in the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation collection.
The ladle was crafted by brothers William (1755–1809) and George Richardson (1761–1805) of Richmond, Virginia, who operated their silversmith shop together 1782 from 1784 to 1798. William Richardson also created four saltcellars in 1777 that belonged to Henry and are in the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation collection (76.19).
Betsey and Philip Aylett's daughter, Sarah Shelton Aylett (1811–1876) married William Spotswood Fontaine (1810–1882), a great-grandson of Henry, and the ladle passed through their descendants: their son, Rev. Patrick Henry Fontaine (1841–1915), to his son, James Spotswood Fontaine (1888–1943), to his daughter Catherine Spotswood Fontaine Lawrence (1938–2015).
Monique and Philip Heller inherited this object and the others in this accession from Catherine Lawrence, Monique's stepmother, and donated them to the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation on May 3, 2023.