Abby Treadway, Middletown, Connecticut, 1797
Price: $2700, Sampler size: 9½" x 10"

A precise and very well executed little sampler, this is signed, "Abby Treadway Mar'k This July 13th 1797." Most young girls began their needlework education by learning to stitch the alphabets and numbers, so that they could mark household linens and keep track of their rotation and use, even though we rarely see use of the actual word "mark'd" on a sampler. This samplermaker was nine-year-old Abby Treadway who lived in Middletown, a town located on the west bank of the Connecticut River, due south of Hartford.

Abby's ancestors migrated to the colonies by 1635, settling initially in Massachusetts. By the early 18th century this branch of the Treadway family removed to Colchester, Connecticut and then to Middletown. Abby was born there in 1788, one of the 8 daughters of Josiah and Urana (Cook) Treadway. Her father fought in the Connecticut line of the Continental Army at the Battle of Lexington during the Revolutionary War and died in Sharon, Connecticut in 1814. Records indicate that Abby married Henry Davis and they seem to have resided in Sharon as well, where a son was born in 1813. It is likely that further research will confirm this information.

We owned this sampler many years ago and included it in our printed catalogue Volume XI; it has since been in an important sampler collection in the Midwest and has just become available again.

The sampler is worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition; while the third alphabet is pale, it is complete and fully legible. It has been conservation mounted into a later frame.