Genealogy of the Olmsted family in America : embracing the ...

FAMILY HEIRLOOMS
THE OLMSTED CHRISTENING BLANKET
By Miss Fannie M. Olmsted of Hartford, Conn.
When James Olmsted in 1632, with a small company of kinsmen in a
larger body of compatriots, turned, disheartened, from the civil and religious
questions that vexed their country, to face at the age of fifty-two the unknown
problems of her colonies in New England, he left a desolated home at Fairsted.
In the God's Acre of that " fair place " slept his wife and four of their seven
children.
Mary, baptized AprU 18, 1621; the mother buried April 21st; the baby
buried April 24th. The parish register tells this sorrowful chapter of the story;
and if only for this one association it is easily understood why there was brought
among the family possessions to the New World the christening blanket, or
" bearing-cloth," such as was used at that time for infants upon ceremonial
occasions.
This interesting relic is still in existence, having been handed down from
parent to child in the following direct line: — James* (d. 1640), Nicholas^ (d.
1684), Joseph' (d. 1726), Joseph* (d. 1762), Joseph' (d. 1775), Simeon" (d,
1803), Joseph' (d. 1861), Joseph, Jr., M.D.' (d. 1864).
During later generations the merciless theology had softened, which
prompted the baptism of children in church the Sunday after birth, and the
last person for whom the " bearing-cloth " was used. Dr. Olmsted, was eight
months old when carried on it to the First Congregational Church at Enfield,
September 2, 1821, to be christened by the Rev. Francis Le Baron Robbins.
The blanket is now in the possession of Dr. Olmsted's children. It is
of yeUow satin damask, not unlike cloth-of-gold in effect, handsome in itself,
but extremely trying to the infant complexion, which caused, perhaps, a fas-
tidious parent to deny the present owners the honor of making their first
church visitation in it.
It measures 45 by 32 inches, there being two breadths of the narrowly
woven fabric. A quilted lining once formed part of the garment, it is said,
but long since some thrifty ancestress, more housewifely than antiquarian in
taste, removed this moth-alluring feature, disclosing a seam " backstitched "
with exquisite nicety along the red silk selvedge.
Whose deft fingers fashioned it and what loom wove the rich textile we
know not. Design and texture suggest the Orient, and it is most probable
that a ship of the East India or the Turkey Company brought it from far-away
Persia or Arabia or India or China, whence came so many luxuries to the
English homes of that period.
The parish registers of Lees Magna and Fairsted are rich in baptismal
records of the family; a Christian lineage, we see, but here again the history
of the bearing-cloth beyond the seas is conjectural. Fancy may have play in
these matters, each dreamer for himself, the known facts are that by nine
generations of the same name the relic has been treasured in a Connecticut
home.