Australian Dress Register

Children from Matthew and Jean Armour: Alexander married Eliza in Gundaroo in 1856. Marion married Thomas Drummond in 1846 and lived in Wombat. John never married and lived in Bookham. Youngest son, Matthew married Elisabeth Sarah Masters in 1859 and lived around Yass. Youngest daughter Jean, died 1865 aged 22yrs. Allison married Andrew Pirie in 1855, lived in Bogolong and later Temora. Allison and Andrew, had 9 children, the shawl going to Jean, the eldest child. Jean, born at Talmo 1856, married Alexander Drummond (son of Allison's Sister Marion) in 1880. They had 5 children, 2 boys and three girls and only the girls survived infancy. Alison Adelyne, born 1884, and Marion Lydia born 1887, both never married and the youngest daughter, Jean Christina born 1893, married Albert Edward Meacham on 1st March 1916. Jean and Albert were the grandparents of the author of this statement. Jean and Albert had 3 children, born after Albert's return from Western France and the Somme. Christina Jean, born 1920, married Clifford Manning Lemon on 15th June 1940. They had six daughters, the eldest being Barbara Jean, born 1941, died 4th March 2010, Sandra Marion, born 1943, married Grahame Still. Kay Marie born 1946, married John Durant, Cheryl Diane born 1947, married Wayne Meaker, Robin Allison born 1950, married Anthony Brown (died 2010) Alexis Esther born 1952, married Richard Rolfe.

The shawl was given as a wedding gift to Jean Nisbet, from her fiance, Matthew Armour, in Fenwick, Ayreshire, Scotland. Jean wore the shawl on her wedding day on 9th July 1824. Matthew and Jean had 5 children in Scotland and it is understood that they came out to Australia after meeting with Robert Campbells' Factor, who was looking for workers for the Campbell property "Duntroon" in New South Wales. When the family migrated to Australia, the children were, Alexander 16yrs, Marion 14yrs, Allison 11yrs, John 8yrs and Matthew 5yrs. They travelled out to Australia on the "Percy", arriving in Sydney Cove on August 28th, 1841. This ship, on its return journey to Scotland, was lost with all hands. On 7th September, 10 days after arriving, Matthew, Jean and family, moved to "Duntroon", Canberra (then called Limestone Plains, New South Wales) where Matthew worked as a dairyman. Jean, their sixth child, was born at Limestone Plains, near Queanbeyan, in 1843. After a few years, the family moved to the Bookham area where Matthew and selected family were granted large tracts of land making up Talmo Station and Wattle Vale. Wattle Vale is still held by the Armour family. In 1992, descendants of Matthew and Jean erected a memorial stone and plaque for the Armour Family on Talmo. Both Matthew and Jean are buried on Talmo.

This story of the shawl, was handed down through the female line on Allison's family tree. The shawl was given to Allison to wear on her wedding day in 1855 and it remained in her family, being passed onto her eldest daughter Jean. During Jean's ownership and with the advent of the bustle, it was possibly put on display, draped over a lounge or piano, as it was no longer fashionable to wear shawls. The garment has some fading on the front and this would indicate that it had been draped at some time. Jean's daughter, Jean Christina, was the only one of her three girls to marry and so it came to Jeans' eldest daughter, Christina Jean. The story of the shawl was something that was explained and passed on to the eldest daughter until today, as Barbara Jean, Chris's eldest daughter passed away, without marrying or children, and so the shawl is now in possesion of Kay Marie Durant, Chris's third daughter (there are six girls all together).

A recent exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, called "altered States", from 23rd October to 27th February 2011, had the garment on display. It was an exhibition about change in culturally significant places in Canberra. The Canberra and District Historical Society, recognised that Canberra's rural heritage was more than the grand houses of Duntroon and Yarralumla; that it was also evident in the workers cottages and the dairies and barns where they laboured. In the section of the exhibit, designated for Duntroon, the shawl was displayed fully and was the main item on show. This also tied in with photos of the Duntroon Dairy, which has recently been restored.

The fibre is silk.

Colour comes from a madder dye and is a soft pink colour.

The back of the shawl displays the patterns of the cones to be rough and matted.

The edging has been stiched by hand and is fraying in places. The stiching appears to be an over stich and is cream in colour.

The cone like motifs are made up of blue, green and cream.

It is believed that the shawl was woven on a hand loom, by the groom-to-be, Matthew Armour, as he was a weaver by trade, as was his brothers and Father.

The technique used was described as a kind of extra-weft patterning or as discontinuous weft patterning. This technique allowed weft yarns to float outside the weaving. These floats where later cut off, leaving only the woven portions. In the finished shawl, the pattern wefts were no longer continous yarns from selvedge to selvedge but where short snatches of yarn, each woven securely where the colour was required by the pattern. The fabric is held together by other wefts.

The shawl was found to have several weak areas where the base fabric was very thin and risked tearing. There were three main tears, one being over 20cm long in the centre fold. There were several tears to stitching attaching the the woven edge. There is fibre loss along the edge where fraying is prevalent and small loss associated with tears and holes. All holes and weakened areas have been repaired by Victoria Gill from Endangered Textiles, using silk patching fabric and monofilament thread. The thread had been dyed to match the base cloth colour.

After the death of Christina Jean, the shawl was found folded and stored in a leather suitcase and had been in this suitcase for a period of approximately 70 years. It was contained in a pillow case. The younger daughters of Chris, did not know or comprehend the full story behind this garment and it was only through the dedication to all things historical from Barbara Jean, that it was restored and known to all.

In the initial report from the Textile Restorer, it was noted that there where many stains, some dark brown, some navy blue. Dye testing indicated that the dyes where mostly stable but some areas showed a weakening of the dye bond to the fabric and there is subsequent dye loss in these areas. The garment was dry cleaned of spot areas and then dry cleaned in 30cm square sections at a time, so the threads remained aligned. With cleaning the garment, the cloth changed from red/orange to a pretty coral pink, which was its obvious original colour.

See notes on Manufacture for repair detail.

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