An American Silver Tankard, William Cowell, Sr., Boston, circa 1735

The coat of arms shows Durant quartering Gilbert, Musgrave and another possibly for Durant of Boston and Newton, possibly for Edward Durant, b. Boston about 1695 d. in 1740. Patricia E Kane notes in Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, p.780, that in 1724/5 Edward Durant mortgaged two brick tenements in the southerly part of Boston…northerly by the land of William Cowell (maker of this tankard), one of which was occupied by John Potwine, goldsmith. The initials on the handle do not correspond but may be somewhat later.

In 1734/5, Edward Durant purchased 91 acres in Newtown and built a house. In 1790 the property was purchased by John Kenrick, 1755-1833, who established a plant nursery. John was an early abolitionist, publishing Horrors of Slavery in 1817. The house, now known as the Durant-Kenrick house, was purchased in 2011 by Historic Newton and opened as a museum in 2014.

William Cowell also made a tankard for William Ireland, whose first wife was Mary Durant, married in 1719. This tankard was left by his third wife to the Old South Church in 1762. (E. Alfred Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches, 1913 ,p. 54).