United States. A Colonial Daughters Of The Seventeenth Century Badge In Gold, To Founder Isabelle Talmage, By J.e Caldwell

In 14K Gold, decoration with a blue enamel center featuring a spinning wheel, surrounded by a white enamel ring inscribed COLONIAL DAUGHTERS OF THE 17TH CENTURY, in turn surrounded by short gold rays with delicate flowers superimposed, the badge is surmounted by a crown in a wreath of flowers, with an enamelled flag on each side, the reverse is engraved “Isabelle V.S. Talmage 3” and is marked CALDWELL, and presents a horizontal pin and J hook for ribbon attachment, worn on an original ribbon with Gold bar at the top engraved “Maj. William Phillips 1663”, measures 32.7mm (w) x 34.4mm (h), weighs 12.8 grams (including ribbon), enamels intact, minimal wear, in better than extremely fine condition.

Footnote: Isabelle Talmage was born in 1846. She was a founding member of the Colonial Daughters, and eight in decent from Major William Philips, Major Commandant military Force for the Province of Maine in 1665. She died in 1926 and was buried in the Bound Brook Mountain Avenue Cemetery in New Jersey.

The Society of The Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century was founded by Mrs. Harland Page Halsey of Brooklyn, New York. She recognized the value and advantage of patriotic societies, concluded that it would be an excellent idea to organize a society having in view the special commemoration of men and women and events covering the colonial period in our country’s history - a society where membership should include, exclusively, descendants of the very earliest settlers who had rendered distinguished services prior to 1700, hence the name: Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century. Mrs. Halsey gathered several ladies who could trace their colonial ancestry to those who met the above qualifications, and this group adopted a constitution and set of Bylaws. The Charter of the Society was signed by the Secretary of State in Albany, New York, and a Certificate of Incorporation, dated May 5, 1896, was forwarded to the Society making the Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century a legal organization. The first social gathering of the Society, a colonial tea and musical, was held at the home of the President on November 27, 1896. This event was extremely successful, and the purposes and prospects of the Society became more widely known. Many applications for membership were received. As chapters were added, the General Assembly became the Founders Chapter, and on December 14, 1948, in Brooklyn, New York, the General Society officially changed its name to the "National Society Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century, Inc." The fifteen founding members established a tradition of perpetuating the memory of those brave and hardy men and women who bore the burden of establishing the colonies of America and laid the foundations upon which the Republic of the United States of America now stands.