ring
was given by Washington to Lieut. Robert Somers. The latter lost his
life while fighting the Algerene pirates in Tripoli, but before his
departure he confided the ring to the care of his sister, Sarah Keen.
It is now owned by Vice-Chancellor E. B. Learning of Camden, New
Jersey, who inherited it from his paternal grandmother, an heir to
Somers' estate. Only two other rings containing Washington's hair are
known of, one in Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh on the Hudson,
the other in the Boston Museum.57
In
far-away Sweden there has been preserved, a historic Washington relic.
This is a ring given by the Revolutionary leader to Lafayette before
the latter's return to France after the victorious Yorktown campaign.
The ring passed from Lafayette to his intimate friend, Baron Erik
Magnus Staël von Holstein, Swedish ambassador to France. The latter,
on a visit to his native land gave it to his brother, Major Bogislaus
Staël von Holstein, in whose family it was transmitted as an heirloom
until it reached the hands of the maternal grandfather of the present
owner, Mr. GöstaFrölen of Falun, Sweden. The ring is of gold and is set
with a miniature portrait of Washington.
It
is said that two other rings were given by Washington about the same
time to two Swedish noblemen, who had served as adjutants to
Rochambeau. The presentation occurred at a banquet given in their
honor, just before their departure for their native land, at the City
Tavern in Philadelphia, November 11, 1782. In bestowing these gifts
Washington is said to have used the following words : " I am happy to
be here amongst men belonging to the race of my own early ancestors."
All trace of these rings has been lost.
57 George Frederick Kunz and Charles H. Stevenson, " The Book of the Pearl," New York, 1908, p. 438.
