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18 Pamelia Jane Munroe, Family Record, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, 1830 Genealogical samplers experienced great popularity in the early 19th century; according to scholar and curator Gloria S. Allen (Family Record: Genealogical Watercolors and Needlework, DAR Museum, 1989), this form may be in fact an American invention. Mrs. Allen notes that the majority of these samplers were made in Massachusetts between 1810 and 1830. Family Record samplers that also feature fully developed house and lawn scenes are quite uncommon. On this outstanding sampler Pamelia Jane Munroe of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts included an excellent scene featuring an imposing three-story brick house on a lush lawn of trees, plants, birds and baskets. A sparkling pink inner sawtooth border and an extravagant outer border of pale blossoms, red buds and teal green leaves were worked in lustrous crinkled silk satin stitches. The important records of the family's births and deaths were worked in fine black cross stitch. Pamelia further acknowledged the loss of the family members with the aphorism, \have gone from us,\The Munroe family had its roots in Lexington, Massachusetts where William Munroe, the immigrant ancestor of this family settled by 1657, having been born in Scotland about 1625. By the middle of the 18th century, Nathaniel Munroe was living in Shrewsbury, a small town just southeast of Worcester. His ninth-born was Dana Munroe who married Pamelia Townsend, daughter of Timothy Townsend of the nearby town of Hopkinton. This fine sampler was made in 1830 by their daughter Pamelia Jane Munroe, who was born on April 15, 1817. Information regarding this family is included in the History of the Town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts from its Settlement in 1717 to 1829, published in Boston in 1847 and History and Genealogy of the Lexington, Massachusetts Munroes, by Richard S. Munroe, 1966. Pamelia married Archibald McAllister on Christmas Day in 1849. Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in excellent condition, and has been conservation mounted into a beveled cherry frame. Sampler size: 17\Price: $11,000. M. Finkel es Daughter. A I ERICA'S LEAD I G SA~ PLER AND NEEDLEWORK DEALER