Claire Bellerjeau was this year's opening speaker at the annual 20/20 Lecture series sponsored by the Friends of Raynham Hall Museum, The Oyster Bay Historical Society and Planting Fields. Her topic was her research on a jug in the Raynham Hall Museum collection dated 1795. As Ms. Bellerjeau shared her expertise on the porcelain pitcher, she made the members of the Townsend family come alive with her enthusiasm for her subject, the depth of her research and her professional Power Point presentation.

Ms. Bellerjeau's lecture was entitled "The Townsend Jug: Pattern, Portrait and Politics." Her slides made her topic easy to follow and kept interest high throughout the program. The time sped by as she talked about Solomon Townsend, a ship's captain and a captain of industry. The jug contains a ceramic portrait of Solomon that she was able to authenticate by finding a copy of a portrait done of him at age 26.

At age 14, Solomon was sent to sea as a cabin boy. His father owned the Prosperity, the Solomon, the Sally and the Audrey, named for his children. Solomon was given the command of his father's ship the Sally at age 20. He traveled on the brig from Canada to England, to Ireland and the West Indies. In 1775 he was hired aboard a 300 ton ship, the Glascow. It was 1778 and the colonies were at war with Britain. Ms. Bellerjeau, said he took the boat to London, gave up his command and left it there. He went on to Paris and was sworn in as an American citizen by Benjamin Franklin. When he returned to the United States he couldn't return to Raynham Hall since the house was occupied by the Queens Rangers under Lt. Col. Simcoe. Instead he went to Orange County, where his relative Peter Townsend lived. His firm built the massive chain that was put across the Hudson River at West Point to keep the British from coming down to New York.

In 1783 he married Ann Townsend, his cousin, a practice in those days of keeping the family land and money intact.

Ms. Bellerjeau told the story of the jug that has a portrait of Solomon Townsend on its lip. She noted the arch of his nose, his eyes that appear not quite symmetrical, his hair line and his mouth. She said, "I spent a lot of time reading in Dr. Peter Townsend's notebook and found a mention of a portrait done of Solomon Townsend at age 26 when he was in Lisbon." Raynham Hall Museum had a numeric entry of a 1773 photo of a portrait of Solomon Townsend and using that, she compared it on the screen to the jug's sculpture and the resemblance was remarkable.

Ms. Bellerjeau is still doing research to explain the inscription on the jug, and hopes to come back in a year to announce more of her findings. Based on what she presented, the next lecture should be very exciting.

The second free lecture in the series will take place again in the Community Room of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library on Tuesday, April 13 when Chris Ricciardi will present "Life on the Farm in the Big City: The Lott Farmstead in Brooklyn."

The 14th annual 20/20 lecture series will conclude on Tuesday, May 11, with Monica Randall's presentation entitled "Winfield: Living in the Shadow of the Woolworths." Each lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will run approximately one hour. No reservations required for this free series and light refreshments will be served. For information, please call Raynham Hall Museum at 922-6808.