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MY ‘ALICE SARGANT 1802’ BEDSPREAD
The bedspread is a beautiful thing about 245cm long and 220 cm wide made up of pieces of fine *** linen cloth stitched together with fine *** thread. Simple stitches, in wool of subtle shades of gold, beige, ***, coral, pink and purple with navy blue highlights, are used to create a unique design of flowers and leaves. ‘Alice Sargant 1802’ is stitched in a very simple manner with fine black thread.
After a variety of searches on Google to find out who the embroiderer could be, I tried “Sargant Alice 1780”. As the hit was for an Alice Sargant, who was born about 1781 in Caverswall, Staffordshire, and who married there in 1803, it seemed entirely plausible that I had found the right person.
Alice Sergeant was baptised at Caverswall, St Peter, on 19th June 1781, daughter of John and Elisabeth. Her siblings were Elizabeth (1769), Anne (1770), Mary (1772 died 1773), Jane (1775) and John (1778).
Alice Sargant married John Sherwin of Burslem by licence on 31st May 1803 at Caverswall. Their children Isaac (1804), Eliza (1806) and John (24th June 1807) were baptised at Burslem, St John. Alice Sherwin died on 5 August 1810 (aged 29) and is buried at Caverswall.
John Sherwin married his second wife Elizabeth Green in Audlem, Cheshire, in 1813 and they had a son George (1815) baptised at Burslem, St John.
The Sherwin family migrated to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land in 1823. An Elizabeth Sherwin was a convict from Leicester Borough Session of Peace and transported on the Lord Sidmouth in 1822 to be a worker in the Hobart Town Female Factory. Was this Alice’s daughter and why would she have been living in Leicester? We learn from Isaac’s obituary that he was sent to Germany aged 12 so it was possible that Eliza had also been sent away from home.
I can only guess that Alice made the bedspread for her wedding. It did not go out to Australia with the family so perhaps it was passed back to one of her sisters or brother after her death when John Sherwin remarried.
Alice Sargant does not appear on our Brandon/Simpson family tree. There was a Thomas Brandon who was born in Kingsley in 1816 and married a Mary Sargant who was born in Cheddleton in 1835 but I can’t find a relationship between Mary Sargant and Alice Sargant or between Thomas Brandon and my ancestor John Brandon who was born in Dilhorne in 1808.
I still have to learn how the bedspread came to my parents – maybe they just bought it at an auction in Staffordshire.
MY ‘ALICE SARGANT 1802’ BEDSPREAD
The bedspread is a beautiful thing about 245cm long and 220 cm wide made up of pieces of fine *** linen cloth stitched together with fine *** thread. Simple stitches, in wool of subtle shades of gold, beige, ***, coral, pink and purple with navy blue highlights, are used to create a unique design of flowers and leaves. ‘Alice Sargant 1802’ is stitched in a very simple manner with fine black thread.
After a variety of searches on Google to find out who the embroiderer could be, I tried “Sargant Alice 1780”. As the hit was for an Alice Sargant, who was born about 1781 in Caverswall, Staffordshire, and who married there in 1803, it seemed entirely plausible that I had found the right person.
Alice Sergeant was baptised at Caverswall, St Peter, on 19th June 1781, daughter of John and Elisabeth. Her siblings were Elizabeth (1769), Anne (1770), Mary (1772 died 1773), Jane (1775) and John (1778).
Alice Sargant married John Sherwin of Burslem by licence on 31st May 1803 at Caverswall. Their children Isaac (1804), Eliza (1806) and John (24th June 1807) were baptised at Burslem, St John. Alice Sherwin died on 5 August 1810 (aged 29) and is buried at Caverswall.
John Sherwin married his second wife Elizabeth Green in Audlem, Cheshire, in 1813 and they had a son George (1815) baptised at Burslem, St John.
The Sherwin family migrated to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land in 1823. An Elizabeth Sherwin was a convict from Leicester Borough Session of Peace and transported on the Lord Sidmouth in 1822 to be a worker in the Hobart Town Female Factory. Was this Alice’s daughter and why would she have been living in Leicester? We learn from Isaac’s obituary that he was sent to Germany aged 12 so it was possible that Eliza had also been sent away from home.
I can only guess that Alice made the bedspread for her wedding. It did not go out to Australia with the family so perhaps it was passed back to one of her sisters or brother after her death when John Sherwin remarried.
Alice Sargant does not appear on our Brandon/Simpson family tree. There was a Thomas Brandon who was born in Kingsley in 1816 and married a Mary Sargant who was born in Cheddleton in 1835 but I can’t find a relationship between Mary Sargant and Alice Sargant or between Thomas Brandon and my ancestor John Brandon who was born in Dilhorne in 1808.
I still have to learn how the bedspread came to my parents – maybe they just bought it at an auction in Staffordshire.
Added: March 11, 2015
Name: Tessa Huising
From: Tiel, The Netherlands
E-mail: Contact
I want to visit The Caverswall next year.