Wedding dress, 1827, English worn in Cornwall by the donor's mother. White cotton with embroidery

White lawn cotton dress trimmed with insertions of whitework embroidery and cutwork, and trimmings of pillow lace. The sleeves are very full gigot style, narrowing to tight wrists. The bodice has a robust lining with buttons concealed by the soft draping of the outer shell of fine white lawn.

Given by the Executors of the late Mr George Rowe of Bridgwater

This dress is associated with the marriage of Mr George Rowe's mother in St Agnes, Cornwall, in 1827. The sleeves were probably replaced/remade in the early 1830s as their volume and size is more typical of that period than the early 1820s. As she was a draper's wife, she would have been able to match the plain white lawn fabric.

Research has uncovered that she was Elizabeth Stephens, who married William Rowe (a draper, b. 1798), on 20 March 1827 at St. Agnes, Cornwall. They had three children - George, the donor of the dress (1 March 1829-1915), Amelia (1833-1835) and Thomas Stephens Rowe (1835-1908). William remarried in 1841, so Elizabeth must have died between 1835 and 1841.

T.4-1916