The sampler retains traces of an old silk binding, machine sewn to a cloth backing. There are history labels attached to the front of sampler (see below). The poem, (presumably addressing "Young Ladies" in the community or a religious group), is surrounded by a vining strawberry border and the poem is entitled "True Comeliness". It was written in the eighteenth century by English poet John Gay (1685-1732), best known as the author of The Beggar's Opera (1728).

Young Ladies
What is the blooming texture of the skin
To peace of mind and harmony within
What the bright sparkling of the finest eye
To the soft soothing of a calm reply
Can comliness of form or shape or air
With comliness of words or deeds compare
No those at first the unwary heart may gain
But these these only can the heart retain

Signed:
Worked by Mary Chapeze
Lortto July 23 1835

Mary Rebecca Chapeze was born on November 3, 1824, in Kentucky to Elizabeth Drake Shepherd (1787-1839) and Benjamin Chapeze (1787-1839), both of whom were thirty-seven years old. Her siblings include Henry (1814-1864), Susan Shepherd (1815-1850), Sarah Elizabeth (1818-1848), Adam Shepard (1820-1881), Benjamin (1822-?), Eulalia Flaget Chapeze (Wathen) (1827-1909), Charlotte (1829-1855) and Francis Patrick Kendrick (1830-1889).
Mary, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Eulalia attended school in Loretto, studying French, music, painting and dancing. Tuition at the school was paid for in "cash-iron castings, stoves, horse, cow, salt, pork, Attorney fees, and once ‘account settled by Bishop Flaget’”.

The Chapeze family history is deeply engrained in Bullitt and Nelson County, Kentucky (see placard near the Chapeze House of Bardstown, Kentucky and the Courier-Journal Newspaper article of May 4, 2014 in the ancillary images).
Henri Chapier (anglicized to “Chapeze”)(1759-1810), a native of Nevers, France, was a surgeon who accompanied and served under, the Marquis de LaFayette in the Revolutionary War. After the War, Chapier, married to Sarah Kenny of Ireland, migrated with his family and medical practice from Trenton New Jersey to Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky.

Benjamin Chapeze, one of Henri’s sons, was a French Huguenot and close friend to the famous Bishop of Bardstown, Benedict J. Flaget, with Flaget having said many Masses at the Chapeze home (as well as being Godfather to Eulalia Flaget Chapeze). In time, the Bishop converted Benjamin to Catholicism. The relationship was so close that the “Flaget” name has remained in the Chapeze family through at least the great, great, great, great granddaughter of Benjamin Chapeze according to personal correspondence to Private Collector #21 in 2008 by Flaget Montgomery Nally, Benjamin’s great, great, great granddaughter.

Benjamin Chapeze began his early adulthood as a wagoner. After his marriage in 1812 to Elizabeth Shepherd, daughter of the founder of Shepherdsville, Kentucky, he was convinced to pursue a legal career with his mentor Judge John Rowan directing his early studies. He was admitted to the bar in 1815, followed the circuit, and practiced in Nelson, Meade, Hardin, Bullitt, Breckinridge, Spencer, Washington, and Marion Counties, and had a lucrative business in the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In the 1820 census he is seen in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky and subsequently was a representative of Nelson County in the Kentucky Legislature (1822-1824). About 1829 he became a board member of Nazareth College. He was also a member of the Pleiades Club (“a spirited group of circuit riding attorneys”). In his legal career he was said to demonstrate 'great originality' and 'strong natural ability' leading him to be considered one of the regions best and most successful lawyers. His personal appearance led to a nickname for him of 'the Black Prince', first coined by his fellow lawyer Benjamin Hardin, due to 'his dark complexion, long raven hair and lustrous black eyes, his fine physique and presence, his neatness of person and garb and his courteous manner making it an appropriate appellation' (see H. Levin's The Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, pp. 198-200) (see photographs of paintings of Benjamin Chapeze in the ancillary images). His peer lawyers included John J. Crittenden, Ben Hardin, John Rowan, and Charles A. Wickliffe. He suffered a seizure in an Elizabethtown courtroom, after which he was removed to a nearby hotel and was bled by the attending physician, dying nine days later on September 26, 1839. His former home in Bardstown, was until recently, called the Kentucky Bourbon House (see ancillary images) and was open for dinner and bourbon tastings (see The Lane Report, April 2007, pp. 40-41 and Whisky Magazine, April 2012, pp. 53-55).

Mary Rebecca married Richard M Wathen, MD, (8/20/1805-3/5/1870) in Bullitt County, Kentucky, on January 15, 1851, when she was twenty-six years old. Wathen had first married her sister Susan on June 17, 1840 in Breckinridge County. Susan died on April 21, 1850.
Mary Rebecca (Chapeze) Wathen was the aunt and step-mother of: Benedict Chapeze Wathen, 1843-1843; Benedict Chapeze Wathen, 1845-1890; Josephine Wathen, 1847-1848; Susan Eliza Chapeze (Wathen) Bowman, 1849-1870, and Mary C. Wathen, 1849-1856.

Dr. Richard M. and Mary Rebecca (Chapeze) Wathen were the parents of: Catherine E. Wathen, (1851-1856), Benjamin J. Wathen, (1853-1856), Mary Adelle (Wathen) Wilson, (1853-1917), Emma E. Wathen, (1854-1856), Ann Wathen, (1855-?), Richard M. Wathen, Jr., (1857-1927),Henry McNichols Wathen, (1859-1888), and Columba Wathen (male), (1861-1923).

Mary Rebecca Chapeze Wathen died on August 20, 1863, in Breckinridge, Kentucky, at the age of thirty-eight and was buried in Hardinsburg, Breckinridge County, Kentucky in St. Romuald Cemetery. (See ancillary images of Richard, Susan, and Mary's obelisk) After Mary's death, her children were living in the household of Richard's brother, Benedict, as per the 1870 census.

Two of Mary Chapeze’s brothers, Ben and Adam Chapeze, founded the Chapeze Distillery in 1874, producing Old Charter Bourbon, which is still on the market today. The original distillery, located in Nelson County near Clermont, was near the L & N Railroad branch, named Chapeze Station.

AKS is indebted to Private Collector #21 for supplying a significant portion of the above research. A large amount of additional Chapeze family history is stored in the AKS database.