As featured in the Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney, Buckinghamshire
This is a photo of the un-framed Coronation Lace edging. The framed lace is on display at the Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney, Buckinghamshire with a photo of the skilled Lacemaker who worked this beautiful, fine piece of Bucks Point.
How it Started!
Have you ever visited somewhere and found an item that just struck a chord with you, then becomes an obsession?
Well, this is exactly what happened to me when I visited the Cowper & Newton Museum with fellow lace friends in September 2021 to view the new Lace Room. Immediately a few pieces demanded my attention, but one in particular was a piece of very fine Bucks Point bobbin lace featuring a Crown which was framed with the lacemaker that worked the piece.
I immediately wanted to know more about the lace and lacemaker. I had so many questions and not enough answers. Hence my research commenced and the following is what I have discovered.
Please note, however that the information I have gathered has come from numerous sources and could be classed as ‘hearsay’ in some areas so cannot be taken as fact unless actual evidence is found and verified.
The Cowper & Newton Museum acquired the beautiful sample for their collection in 2021, being gifted by an ancestor of Mrs Jane Elizabeth Whitehead who resided at Shelton Hall, Shelton, Bedfordshire until 1940.
The museum was advised that 12 yards of the lace edging was made by Jane Morris and took approximately 3000 hours to work, but this is not confirmed anywhere. The photo of Jane Morris along with a sample of the edging sits proudly on the wall of the lace room at the museum to this day. This piece, together with a different photo of Jane Morris is also featured in Thomas Wrights book ‘The Romance of the Lace Pillow’ who also happened to reside in Olney for most of his life.
The Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney, Buckinghamshire.
The Lacemaker - Jane Morris
Jane was born in Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire in 1843, being the eldest daughter of George & Sarah Bettles. In the 1861 census, Sarah and her daughters were all listed as Lacemakers. Jane was one of 10 children born to George & Sarah and according to the census they were listed along with their mother, Sarah, as resident in a ‘poor house’ at Dean, Bedfordshire. Janes’ future husband, Isaac Morris, was also residing in a ‘poor house’ at that time. Whilst this is sad, it appears that unless you were a tradesman, farmer or gentry you were considered ‘poor’. It appears that Jane & Isaac were very close neighbours living just a few houses apart.
Jane & Isaac were married in March 1864 at Dean Church and had eight children. One of their daughters, Mary Ann, died young aged just 10 years in 1875. Isaac also died comparatively young, aged 50 in 1887. Jane died in the summer of 1915 aged 72 years and all three are buried together in the churchyard at Shelton.
Below is a photo of Jane Morris working the Crown Lace on her pillow.
The Crown Lace Commission
I decided to go down the family tree route to see if I could find a possible connection between Jane Morris and Shelton Hall, where the commission originated. I discovered Jane Morris’s cousin, Ada Elizabeh Bettles, worked at Shelton Hall as a house maid for Mrs Jane Elizabeth Whitehead, being the second wife to William Whitehead. His first wife died young and he was left as a widower. Ada’s brother Richard Bettles was the brother to Jane’s father George Bettles and therefore Jane’s uncle.
It is said that Mrs Whitehead on behalf of a group of ladies, commissioned this edging to be worked as a gift for the future Queen Mary upon her Coronation alongside her husband King George V.
According to a local newspaper, Northampton Herald 7th April 1911, Jane Morris was ‘entrusted’ with the honour of making the Coronation Lace for Queen Mary.
Please see transcript below of the article, which gives a wonderful description of the lace.
“The Queens Lacemaker”
Mrs Jane Morris, of Shelton, near Kimbolton, Hunts, has been entrusted with the honour of making the Coronation Lace for Queen Mary.
The lace, which is of extraordinary beauty, is being made on an exquisitely delicate parchment, and represents the crown and pendant worn by the Queen, and each diamond is represented in the lace by a dot, there being 10 in the flourish, 12 round the outside of the crown, 12 in the crown and 5 round the lower part. The parchment is remarkable for the reason that it is the identical one which was used for the making the lace for the Coronation of the late Queen Victoria and must therefore have been over 70 years of age. (1) There are 180 bobbins in use for this particular work and the thread is as fine as a spider’s web, the lay being about 4 inches wide.
The Lace, which is called Crown Lace, will be the only lace in the world of this pattern. No copy of the parchment is allowed to be made. (2)
Mrs Morris generally works for the Midland Lace Association, but she is doing this particular piece for the Bedfordshire Association. Mrs Morris holds prizes and certificates in lace making. The last one she received from the Home Arts & Industries Association for Bucks Lace last year.”
(1) Having contacted the Royal Collection, there is no evidence of the lace being present on either Queen Victoria or Queen Mary’s coronation robes. They have suggested that maybe it was a celebratory-inspired piece of work to commemorate the coronation(s). Or, maybe it was a gift to the future Queen on the occasion of her Coronation and not intended to feature on the Coronation Robes?
(2) There is a piece called Crown Derby held in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, US which is very similar. Plus, there is another piece featured in the book ‘American Lace and Lace-makers’. Could they somehow be connected?
If it was indeed initially designed around the time of Queen Victoria’s Coronation 1838 (which is not confirmed anywhere other than in a few press articles - see appendix), could it have been designed by John Millward of Olney? The design is so fine and has the look of a John Millward design. In fact, John Millward did design for Queen Victoria as per the extract below:
“The Bucks Point lace used by Queen Victoria at her accession was designed by Millward and made at Olney – the pattern being the rose, shamrock and the thistle; and a similar but narrower lace adorned the Christening Robe of the Princess Royal. The Queens interest in Bucks Lace was further stimulated in 1845 during a visit to Stowe House, when she inspected the specimens submitted to her by the Duchess of Buckingham.”
Could the Crown edging have originally been designed for Queen Victoria? The papers of the day suggested this but has never been proved.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my research, and this is just part of the work that I did. If you have any further information, I would love to hear from you, either with new information or maybe a correction to my research above. You can contact me via the ‘Contact’ form by clicking on this link.
Maybe in answer to the following unanswered questions:
What happened to the original pricking?
Was it originally designed for Queen Victoria?
Who was the designer?
Are you a descendant of either the Lacemaker, Jane Morris or of the Whitehead family from Shelton Hall?
I do have other examples of Crown Lace which I discovered over the time of my research, so if you even bump into me and are interested, then please just ask!
…and Finally
I would like to thank the following for background information and source material:
‘East Midlands Lace Makers in Old Photographs’ by Diana Smith, 2010
‘Romance of the Lace Pillow’ by Thomas Wright
Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney
The Lace Guild Archives
Ancestry & Find My Past (including Newspaper Archives)
The Royal Collection
