Malvina Lawson (1800—1879) was the daughter of Peter Lawson and Winnie Davis. Her parents were from Virginia, but they were in Hawkins Co. by 1807 when Peter Lawson bought land close to his brother Jacob Lawson and other Lawson relatives. Malvina married one of her first cousins, Russell Carroll Lawson, and had 12 children. The family was living in Monroe Co. in 1830. By 1840 they had moved to Bradley Co., where she died in 1879.

Malvina’s sampler is long, narrow and horizontal, unlike most Tennessee samplers, which tend to be square or vertical. She was 17 or 18 when she made her sampler. She used a variety of stitches: cross, cross over one, eyelet, queen, and satin. Her lengthy verse is from a paraphrase of Psalm 145, published by Nathanial Evans in 1772.