It is rare to find political events commemorated on Colonial American silver, particularly on domestic drinking forms such as this tankard. The scrolled handle terminates in a round plaque that is engraved with a bird's-eye view of the Fortress of Louisburg, along with the inscription "Taken by the English, June 17, 1745." The image and inscription refer to a moment during King George’s War (or the War of Austrian Succession) when soldiers from New England laid siege to and captured Louisburg, the capital of the French province Île-Royale (in present-day Canada). The coat of arms on the front of the tankard and a set of initials on the top of the handle are for Hannah and Jeremiah Moulton. Colonel Moulton commanded the Third Maine Regiment during the Siege of Louisburg. His commanding officer was Sir William Pepperell, and family tradition maintained that Pepperell commissioned this tankard as a gift for Moulton. Moulton later served as a sheriff, a judge of common pleas, and a probate judge in Kittery, Maine.