Mary Ann Colburn

Mary Ann Colburn finally gets hung on the wall!

Now that my bedroom is decorated and the blinds are hung I have been able to give Mary Ann pride of place on the wall. I purchased her from a Sothebys online auction back in 2000 - part of the Finlay collection. The description is as follows:

worked with coloured silks in cross-stitch on a fine woollen ground with bands of letters of the alphabet, a verse between two bands of stylised meandering flowers above "Mary Ann Colburn Aged 12 the year of our Lord 1809", above a band of stylised flowers within trellis; all within a border of meandering flowers, in a late burr wood frame.

The verse reads: "Children to your Creator God/Your early Honours pay/while vanity and youtful bloom/would temp your thoughts astray//The memory of his mighty name/Demands your first regard/Nor dare indulge a meaner flame/'till you have loved the Lord"

There are few holes which is why I probably got her at a 'good' price but I love her anyway! Wish I was talented enough to chart her.

I have tried to do some family research but without a place name it is difficult to be precise but she may have come from Stafford in the North of England.