Silver Oar and Other Maces of the Admiralty: Admiralty Jurisdiction in America and the British Empire, The

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce, Apr 2007 by Sweeney, Joseph C

I

INTRODUCTION

On May 23, 1701 the Admiralty Marshal, bearing the Silver Oar, led a procession from London's Newgate Prison to the Admiralty's gallows on the Thames River at Wapping Old Stairs where Captain William Kidd and six associates were hanged as pirates. The bodies were later cut down, immersed in tar, loaded with chains and displayed at Tilbury Fort until they disintegrated.1 These lamentable entertainments were great crowd-pleasers until the abolition of public hangings in 1868 and were the most public of the displays of the Silver Oar of the High Court of Admiralty. The Silver Oar was present during hearings of the Court and the execution of its processes such as the arrest of a vessel or cargo. It was the unique mace of the British court. Similar courts in Europe did not use such a symbol.

Originally "mace" meant an actual weapon. In medieval times it was a spiked club designed to break through chain mail or damage armor plate.

Later the word "mace" came to mean a weapon merely used as a symbol of authority. The Romans had used weapons as symbols of authority long before medieval times such as the FASCES, in which an axe for beheadings was surrounded by a bundle of rods or sticks used for whipping people. A number of magistrates of the Roman Republic were entitled to be preceded on the streets by attendants carrying the fasces, just as the Admiralty Marshal with the Silver Oar precedes the Judge on entering the Court.

Oddly, the Silver Oar, as mace of the Admiralty Courts is unusual in that it was not a weapon, yet it did signify power-the power of the Crown exercised through one or more fighting barons named "Lord High Admiral," to whose office was attached the right to hold a court for the trial of criminal offenses and civil disputes. This right was usually exercised by a deputy for the Lord High Admiral.

II

THE SILVER OAR IN ENGLAND AND THE ADMIRALTY COURT

The London Silver Oar2 can be dated 1798 in part because there is an assay mark-the identifying mark of the silversmith, from the reign of George III (1760-1820), just below the blade-that particular assay mark was first used in 1784, but the engraving on the oar blade, above the fouled anchors, reveal at the top the royal arms of Henry VII (the English arms being still quartered with the arms of France because of his possessions in Normandy) and underneath the royal arms are the arms of two Dukes, later Kings, who held the office of Lord High Admiral during the reigns of their fraternal predecessors: James Stuart, Duke of York, later James II (16851688) and William, Duke of Clarence, Lord High Admiral under George IV. Clarence became King William IV (1830-1837), predecessor and uncle of Queen Victoria. Thereafter the office of Lord High Admiral would remain "in commission" until the reorganization of the Department of Defense in 1964 when Queen Elizabeth II assumed the title.3

But the other parts of the London Oar are even more interesting because they help to reveal the ancient history of the Admiralty Court in greater detail. Passing on to the lowest section of the stock there are three more assay marks. One can be clearly identified as the mark of the Goldsmith's Company; two further marks can no longer be positively identified. At the butt end is engraved "JASPER SWIFT MARSHAL OF THE ADMIRALTY." The Records of the Admiralty Court reveal a Jasper Swift acting for his patron, Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral in 1586.

The existence of the Admiralty Court in 1586, as shown by the date of the oar stock, is further confirmed by sculpture on the tomb of David Lewis in the Church of Abergavenny in North Wales. An Admiralty Judge for a 25-year period in the reign of Elizabeth I, David Lewis died in 1584. On his tomb is the figure of a robed man carrying an oar on his shoulder.

Thus, the existence of the Admiralty Court and its Silver Oar in the time of the first Elizabeth is proved with certainty. Others interpret the unknown assay marks to go back to the reign of Edward III, but this is in the realm of speculation. These were, however, the speculations of very learned authorities-Sir Travers Twiss4-mid-19th century editor of the Black Book of the Admiralty, and William Holdsworth,5 historian of English Law.

The origins of the Admiralty Court are still controversial. The documentary evidence, although fragmentary, begins in the reign of Edward III, a strong king.6 A document of 1339 (possibly fraudulent) is said to assert the King's jurisdiction in the English seas under the laws of Oléron; and in a criminal prosecution of 1361, a common law prosecution is cancelled because it must be determined before our Admirals according to maritime law.7 Arguably, the Admiral's court had a very wide jurisdiction over all things done upon the seas.

In the next reign, Richard II,8 one of Britain's weakest kings, there were two statutes that appear to limit powers of one of the King's Courts (the Admiralty Court) to the benefit of other courts of the same King.9 These new limits extended land law into coastal waters.