Silk on linen with cross stitches; thread count is 40/inch horizontal, 42/inch vertical
Provenance
Frances (Fanny) Browning made the sampler in 1808. The sampler was acquired by Private Collector #49 in the summer of 2026 from eBay. No further provenance is known to AKS.
Description
In its upper two-thirds the sampler has ten rows of alphabets and numbers with intermittent simple crossbands. In the left lower one-third of the sampler is a simple tree with flowering blooms. The right lower one third of the sampler has a signature line which reads:
Fanny Brown
ings sampler
made in the
year 1808
Below this is a grouping of two designs, possibly representing segments of minimal decorative crossbands and there is a simple circumferential border. When compared to the verso and flipped verso images, (see ancillary images), the front of the sampler shows little fading. Also seen in the ancillary images is the not uncommon finding of a “ghost” image of the sampler, seen on a piece of backing cardboard, in place immediately behind the sampler for an unknown period of time.
Frances (Fanny) Browning was the daughter of Caleb Thomas Browning Sr (1769-1821) and Rebecca Ann Moore (1769-?) who were married in Culpepper County, Virginia in 1785. Her siblings included Violet Malinda (1784-1860), Perlina (1786-?), Susan (1787-?), James W. (1788-1831), Nancy (1792-1868), Sarah (1794-1857), William (1796-1870), Caleb Thomas II (1799-1847), Elizabeth Jane (1805-1881), Mary Polly (1809-?), Sallie (1810-?), and Pelina (1815-1850).
On March 7, 1825, she married the widower Thomas Veatch Foster (1788-1832) in Pendleton County, Kentucky, (see ancillary images), which also made her a mother of four boys, ages 15, 10, 4 and 3.
Fanny and Thomas remained in Kentucky for the next six years, where their children, Caleb Browning Foster (1826-?), James Samuel Foster (1827-1887), Mary Ann Foster (1829-1831), Iven Lafayette Jackson “Jack” Foster (1831-1887), and Evaline Frances Foster (1833-1847) were born. Shortly after Iven's birth in 1831, they removed to Sangamon County, Illinois. Six months later, after returning from St. Louis, Missouri to obtain various goods, Fanny’s husband Thomas died of cholera. Fanny was approximately five months pregnant with Evaline at the time.
On November 23, 1837, Frances married William Enix (1788-1843). They had a son, Thomas Franklin Enix (1840-1923). Fanny was again widowed on July 24, 1843.
Francis (Fanny) Browning died on March 11, 1847, in Sangamon, Illinois. (The 1850 US Census shows James and Iven living with their brother Caleb and his young family. Thomas appears in the 1850 US Census living with a “John and Elizabeth Smith”.)
Incidental note: Fanny Browning is this author’s 2nd cousin 7 times removed.
