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Region: East Tennessee
1819 Elizabeth Jones Emmerson
Knoxville, Knox Co.

1634"V x 1634"H © TSS 118
fibers: silk
ground: 24 ct. linen
Biography:
Elizabeth Jones Emmerson’s (1807-1847) parents, Thomas Emmerson and Mary Burwell, were descended from prominent Virginia families. The Emmersons moved to Tennessee before 1800 and settled in Jonesborough, Washington County. Thomas Emmerson was a lawyer, and when he was appointed to the TN Superior Court in 1807, the family moved to Knoxville, Knox County. In 1816 he became the first mayor of Knoxville. The Judge served on the Board of Trustees of the East Tennessee College and was one of the founders of the Knoxville Female Academy in 1811. Elizabeth married Onslow Glenmore Murrell in 1825. The couple lived in Athens, McMinn Co., where Onslow and his brother established a saw mill on what had been Cherokee land. The couple had 13 children, nine of whom sadly died in infancy.
Description:
Elizabeth was 11 when she stitched her simple marking sampler. Her text is from the poem “The Swallows” by Richard Jago (1715-1781).

Let no fond love for earth exact a sigh
No doubts divert my steady steps aside
Nor let me long to live no dread to die
Heaven is my hope and Providence my guide