Here's a a handsome old double-weave Jacquard coverlet in all its flowery glory, right there on our very own bed. Extraordinarily decorative, is it not? Cotton and wool, and generous with the well-saturated indigo dye. State-of-the-art hand weaving.
I especially prize this particular coverlet because of its history. It was woven for Charity Maria Laws in 1835, as is plainly evident from the inscription on its "summer" side. I wish the weaver had identified himself as well as his client, but he hasn't.
Who is Charity Maria Laws? She was a native of a part of Long Island (New York) with which I'm very familiar and where I spent the best three summers of my childhood. She was born in 1822 in Ridge and died in Northport in 1894. Makamah Beach, home to as much fair seed-time for the soul as I experienced, is located within the Northport precincts. Charity Maria was presented with this coverlet when she was thirteen years old -- to keep her warm a'nights, no doubt, but also, as was the custom, to serve as the centerpiece of her trousseau. The coverlet worked its magic because in 1848 Charity Maria was wooed and won by John Gardiner Lewis of neighboring Crab Meadow and bore five children, all of them born in Northport or adjacent Huntington. I have no idea where the coverlet hid out between Maria's death until it made its re-appearance on ebay last year, but I'm happy to say that it was treated very well during that time -- it's in splendid shape for a textile that's pushing two hundred.
Imagine my surprise, when, a few days ago, a Jacquard coverlet in an identical style appeared on ebay. When I glanced at the pictures, I said, out loud but to no one in particular, I bet that one also hails from my part of Suffolk. It didn't take an S. Holmes to confirm my speculation.The evidence is as plain as the nose on your face: the exact same lettering, but this time, it's Harriet Sophia Overton.
This coverlet is not only inscribed -- It's dated, too. December 1, 1845. Harriet Sophia Overton herself is not easy to identify. There was a Harriet Sophia in the village or hamlet of Coram, in Suffolk, just a few miles from Northport, but she was born in 1815 and died in 1821 and therefore can't possibly be the recipient of a coverlet woven in 1845. There must be a second Harriet Sophia. And truly, so there is. The first Harriet Sophia had an older brother, Sheldon Roe Overton, who fathered a girl named after the departed six-year-old. Harriet Sophia Overton II was born in 1850 and died, unmarried, in 1868. Another dead end, alas, because HSO the second was born five years after the coverlet was woven.
I am forced to speculate that there was still a third Harriet Sophia Overton who was born on December 1, 1845 and didn't live long enough to get a mention in the story or even earn a gravestone. Harriet Sophia Overton was an unlucky name. Hardly compensated for by the long-lived coverlet.
Despite my love of Northport and environs -- of course I mean the Northport of my memory, the Northport of the 1840s -- I didn't bid on the Overton coverlet. But I would love to know its story, which I suspect is one of great sadness.
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