Museums Victoria holds five samplers made in a home in Latrobe Street by sisters Alice and Eliza Winter. They were two of nine children born to Richard and Eliza Winter. Richard William Winter married Eliza Cock in the Parish of St Luke, Middlesex, England, on 30 June 1833. A notice in the Sydney Monitor confirms a Mr and Mrs Winter arrived on the Industry on 18 May 1834; no children are mentioned. The passenger list for the vessel confirms that they were unassisted and travelled in steerage. Their first child Richard was born in Sydney the year after their arrival, in 1835. Eliza Jane Winter was christened on 12 June 1842 and died in 1853. Alice Winter was christened in 1857 and probably died in 1927.

The family moved to Melbourne at some stage. Richard is listed as a cabinet maker at 172 La Trobe Street, Melbourne in the 1856 electoral roll. The family is listed in Melbourne Directories as residing at 172 Latrobe Street well into the 1860s.

Richard died in 1885 aged 77. His death notice was posted in The Herald on 5 November and The Australasian on 14 November 1885, indicating that he died on 4 November 'at his residence, 172 Latrobe-street, Melbourne...in his 78th year. A colonist of 51 years, and one of the pioneers of the Manchester United Order of Oddfellows.'

Eliza's three samplers consist of one that is dated "47" when she would have been 5 1/2, which tallies with the date sewn on the work. A second work is undated and a third work is unfinished, which may be related to her death at a young age. The three works would have been worked between the years 1846 and 1852. Alice's two works are both named and also give her age, with one also giving her address as 172 Latrobe Street, E Melbourne. The ages sewn on the works determine that they were done circa 1867.

References

1885 'Family Notices', The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), 5 November, p. 2. , viewed 05 May 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241206167.

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