History of the Mace

 

South Carolina’s first State House was constructed in 1753 and was located in Charleston at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets.  The Assembly chose a committee on March 8, 1756, to provide furniture for its rooms. They also asked the committee to send for a mace, robes for the Speaker and a gown for the Clerk.

 

Magdalen Feline made the South Carolina mace in 1756.  She was a member of the London guild of goldsmiths.  She specialized in making large pieces such as candlesticks and bowls, etc.  On May 15, 1753, at Goldsmith Hall, she registered her maker’s mark. Her hallmark was her initials “MF” inside a lozenge  <>.  This was a traditional mark of a woman in her profession. Ms. Feline’s hallmark also appears on many eighteenth century pieces. Her establishment was located in Covent Garden.  Magdalen Feline was thought to be the widow of the well-known Huguenot goldsmith, Edward Feline.  The ordinary length of an apprenticeship was over seven years.  When a woman was married to a goldsmith for more than seven years, she could take over the family business when her husband died or became disabled.  This woman was considered to have served a kind of apprenticeship.  Since she was the owner of the business, all of the pieces produced in her shop had her hallmark.  It is believed that Magdalen Feline died in 1796.  Before her death, she gave the business to her son, Edward Feline II.

 

For centuries, maces have been used in England to lead in processions. It is then placed in the placed in front of the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord of Chancellor.  Many of the British colonies legislative assemblies in the eighteenth century were modeling this symbol of authority.

 

Since the mid-eighteenth century, the South Carolina mace has been kept in a place of honor during the House of Representative legislative assemblies.  The mace is the traditional symbol of authority for the House of Representatives.  The South Carolina mace is the oldest legislative mace in use in the United States.

 

The history of the South Carolina mace is very interesting. It is recorded in the diary of Joseph Quincey, Jr. of Massachusetts that he visited the House in Charleston and saw the mace on March 19,1773.  He reported that “a very superb and elegant one” was placed on the table before the Speaker.  The British loyalists offered to sell it to the House of Assembly of the Bahamas during the American Revolution.  However, there is no evidence of such a sale.

 

The mace disappeared from its resting-place in the old State House in Charles Town, now Charleston, during the last part of the American Revolution.  The Honorable Langdon Cheves of South Carolina found the mace in 1819 when he went to Philadelphia as the President of the Bank of the United States.  The mace was found in a vault at the bank and then returned to South Carolina.  The mace was taken a second time from a locked glass case during the night of February 3, 1971.  Chief J.P. Strom of SLED recovered it in Gainesville, Florida.  It was returned to the House of Representative and is now placed in a secure vault.

 

When the House is invited by the Senate to officially approve a legislative act, the Sergeant of Arms carefully carries the mace in front of the Speaker and the Clerk of the House.  The mace is carried across the State House rotunda to the Senate chamber.  This is where the Speaker, the President of the Senate, and the Clerks of the two houses sign the legislation.  During this time, the mace is placed in a holder on the Senate rostrum below the Sword of State.  The Sword of State is the symbol of the Senates authority.  South Carolina shares this tradition of using the mace in this ceremonial act with many countries.  This tradition goes back to the European Middle Ages and beyond.