Nashville and Franklin, Davidson Co. and Williamson Co.

Elizabeth Briscoe Compton (1802-1837) was the eldest of seven children born to William Compton and Susanna Mullen. The family lived on 1,000 acres on Hillsboro Pike just south of present day Harding Road. Elizabeth traveled south on Hillsboro Pike to an unknown school in Franklin, Williamson County. She married Hays Blackman in 1826 and moved to the Antioch, Davidson County. The couple had six children. Her last child, a boy, was stillborn on Sep. 21, 1837. Elizabeth died 12 days later of complications from the birth. She is buried in the Blackman Cemetery in Antioch, Davidson County.

Elizabeth’s stitched aphorisms come from three different sources.

Be Christ my pattern and my guide
His image may I bear
Oh may I tread his sacred steps
And his bright glories share
-- Enfield, William (1741-1797). Verse 3, lines 21-22 from “Behold, Where, in a Mortal Form. ”

May I govern my passions with absolute swa
And grow wiser and better as life wears away
-- Pope, Walter (c. 1627-1714). “The Old Man’s Wish. ” 1693.

Tis education forms the common mind
Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclin’d.
-- Pope, Alexander (1688-1744). Moral Essays, 1720-1735, Epistle I, To Lord Cobham, lines 149-150. 1734.