Emily Austin Perry Mourning Necklace

Emily Austin Perry (1795–1851) was the daughter of Maria and Moses Austin, and sister to James E. and Stephen F. Austin. In addition to being a mother to eleven children, Emily gained notable economic and political standing at a time when women were often confined to responsibilities in the home.

Born in Virginia, Emily Austin Bryan Perry married twice. Over the two marriages, she had eleven children, six of whom lived to adulthood. Emily Perry and her family came to Texas in 1831 to join her brother Stephen F. Austin, to whom she was devoted. The Perrys established a home at Peach Point plantation in Brazoria where they lived in 1836 as the events of the Texas Revolution unfolded.

With the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, panic set in amongst the Texas settlers and more than 5,000 people began the retreat known as the Runaway Scrape. Emily Perry and five of her children fled their home. They endured difficult conditions on the road as they fled the Mexican Army's advance. One daughter, Cecilia, only three months old at the time, passed away shortly after they returned home from the Runaway Scrape. Emily lost four children before the age of two, including Cecilia, the last child born to the Perrys.

Emily owned several items of mourning jewelry. Among those items is an intricate mourning necklace and cross made from hair. Hair jewelry reflected a desire to remember loved ones in a tangible way. According to family lore, the necklace and cross were made from Emily’s hair. The hair would have been sent to a jeweler who specialized in this type of work. A central medallion features a young girl with a lamb sitting under a tree. In mourning symbolism, a young girl with a lamb often represents innocence, purity, and the brevity of life, particularly in the context of a child's death. Given the medallion’s symbolism, it is possible that the necklace was to commemorate the death of her daughter Cecilia in 1836.

Emily Austin Perry was the main heir of her brother Stephen F. Austin. When he died in 1836, he left her livestock, extensive land holdings, and an enslaved mulatto servant. After receiving this inheritance, Emily became one of Texas’s largest landholders and was considered the wealthiest women in Texas. She advocated for industrial growth, land planning, and railroad development. As one of the founders of the San Luis Company and an investor in the Brazos and Galveston Railroad Company, Emily played a key role in shaping Texas. She died at Peach Point in 1851. Her tombstone inscription reads, “A perfect woman nobly planned, to warn, to comfort and command.”