This silver tankard is engraved with initials “SRF” and the Rhodes family arms. The mark of Samuel Vernon, “SV+” enclosed in a heart, is stamped to the side of the handle. Samuel Vernon (1683–1737) was one of the earliest silversmiths active in Newport, RI. He descended from Anne Hutchinson, one of the original English settlers of Aquidneck Island and best known for her role in the Antinomian or Free Grace Controversy in neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony. Vernon’s sons, William and Samuel, became prominent Newport merchants who invested heavily in the transatlantic slave trade. While it is not known who the tankard was originally crafted for, it came to be owned by politican Christoper Grant Champlin (1768–1840), who also had financial interests in the transatlantic slave trade. Silver, in both its construction and its use, touched on all aspects of life in Newport. As early Newporters began to engage in international trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, craftsmen settled into the Point neighborhood and began producing goods both for trade and local consumption. By the mid-18th century, Newport was a prosperous port city, connecting Rhode Island to the wider world through its thriving trade networks, built largely on its heavy participation in the slave trade. The resulting expansion in Newporters’ material wealth kindled a consumer revolution and the creation of a new class of social elites.