The History of the Seal of the United States

The report of the Lovell committee met with the same fate as the report of the first committee. It was recommitted, and nothing further was done until May, 1782, when Arthur Middleton of South Carolina, Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina were appointed a committee to design a seal. The two South Carolinians were men of foreign education, and a cultivated gentleman in those days usually had some knowledge of heraldry. Boudinot had an interest in coins and medals, it is presumed, as he was appointed Director of the Mint at Philadelphia in 1795. This committee did no independent labor of a serious character, but called into consultation William Barton, A. M., a private citizen of Philadelphia. He was the son of Rev. Thomas Barton, rector of St. James Episcopal Church, his mother being a sister of the famous David Rittenhouse,^* and in 1813 he published a memoir of Rittenhouse. He was also the author of a monograph on the nature and use of Paper Credit, etc. ( Philadelphia, 1781). The reasons which prompted

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