Masonic jewels were usually made by a local silversmith. The symbols remained the same throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but the style employed to create the sun’s face, compasses, and details on the quadrant varied from jewel to jewel and from silversmith to silversmith. 

This jewel was presented to Maurice Hoyt (1792–1877) by New York City’s Clinton Lodge No. 1843 in 1825. Like Abrams Lodge, Clinton Lodge dates back to the early 1800s, having received its charter in 1806. Hoyt was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and made a living as a farmer for at least part of his life. He lived in New York City with his family for several years and served his lodge as Master in the mid-1820s. In 1830 Hoyt moved his family to Warwick, New York, where he taught school and represented Orange County in the Assembly of New York in 1849.