Henrietta Dawes

This sampler offers a highly developed composition and impressive needlework; the large eyelet stitched alphabet alone is quite an accomplishment. The inscription is just below that in very small but legible stitches: “Henrietta Dawes Aged 9 Years November 5 1823.” Above the alphabet are two quotations, one from Proverbs 31:29 and the other from Psalm 34:13, centered between Quaker motifs of flower branches.

A very fine, curvilinear band of flowers and buds forms the lowermost register, and the side borders are a wonderful composition of queen’s-stitched strawberries and stylized leaves on straight-lined vines. The outer border is a Greek key design which forms a handsome framework. 

Born on August 4, 1814, in Newark, New Jersey, Henrietta was one of the four children of a cabinetmaker, Samuel Dawes and his wife, Margaret (Burwell) Dawes. Interestingly, portraits of Samuel and Margaret were donated to the New Jersey Historical Society in 1946 by a family member. Henrietta married Joseph Stillwell Manning (1812-1879) and, after his death, Rev. Benjamin Williams Chidlaw, a notable gentleman.

In 1867, Henrietta applied for a passport and that application includes a physical description of her, so we know that at age 53 she was 5’5” tall, of fair complexion with dark hair, oval face with a Grecian nose. She died in 1895 and is buried with her second husband in Berea Pioneer Cemetery in Hamilton County, Ohio.
The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a figured maple frame.