rum, Medford , was made in the town of Medford, Massachusetts, starting in the early eighteenth century. The town’s rum had a reputation for quality and was among the first American spirits “branded” by a connection to a location.
Rum distilling arose in coastal Massachusetts fairly early in the colonial era; molasses was an inexpensive product that served as ballast on return trips during trade missions to the sugar colonies of the West Indies. John Hall opened the first distillery in Medford, about five miles north of Boston, sometime around 1720; others soon followed.
Medford rum’s quality remains a matter of speculation, but its producers had a reputation for making better rum than most producers in New England. (It is possible that its marketing may have outstripped the actual quality of the product.) It was also associated with Paul Revere’s famous ride: the noted messenger may or may not have sipped a dram with distiller Isaac Hall, John’s grandson, during his ride. Later claims were also made that Medford rum was always shipped across the ocean and back again for aging prior to being sold. (The claim is spurious.)
Although Medford was a known distilling center, it was not until the 1830s, when Daniel Lawrence (1797–1879) began widely advertising his “Medford N[ew] E[ngland] Rum,” and later just “Medford Rum,” that the town’s name was associated with its product. Indeed, so successful was Lawrence that the title became associated with all New England rum. The Lawrence company eventually trademarked the phrase in 1871, but by then it was in common usage. Lawrence and Sons produced their rum, which enjoyed a much higher reputation for quality than the category in general, until 1905, when Daniel’s sons finally implemented the clause in their father’s will that specified that the distillery be closed and its stocks of rum sold within three years of his death. It was the last one in town, and those extra twenty-three years of operation had seen its product—distilled to a high purity in a three-chamber still and generally aged until it was “high flavored, ripe and mellow,” as an 1881 citation described it—become a benchmark American spirits brand.
Bar-Tender’s Guide and George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks (1895). See Johnson, Harry; and Thomas, Jeremiah P. “Jerry”.It is one of history’s ironies that New England rum’s mixed reputation for quality is most likely due to the fact that it was distilled from molasses alone, rather than molasses and skimmings or cane juice as in the Caribbean, which made for a fruitier, more complex spirit. Today the vast majority of rums are made from molasses alone, and skimmings are almost unknown.
See rum.
Brooks, Charles. History of the Town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Boston: James M. Usher, 1855.
“End of a Medford Distillery.” Carlisle (PA) Sentinel, May 29, 1882, 1.
Fourteenth Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Assoc. Boston: Mudge & Son, 1881.
“Knell of Medford Rum.” Boston Journal, June 16, 1905, 3–4.
By: Wayne Curtis