A particularly appealing group of Family Record samplers comes out of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and nearby towns. They were made in the 1820s and 30s and share a distinctive characteristic - three hearts, one upside-down, that are cleverly linked and enclose the names and birthdates of the samplermakers’ parents and the date of their marriage. Other shared characteristics include the large blossom flowers and narrow border that frames the sampler on four sides. A sampler from this group, made by Eliza Ann Hunt in 1824, is in the Cooper-Hewitt / Smithsonian Museum. 

This sampler is signed, “Wrought by J. Knox Charlestown June 1 1837.” Her parents were Jonathan Knox (1800-1886) and Lydia Kenney (1802-1877) who were married on April 6, 1823. Julia Ann Knox was their first-born child; her siblings listed on the sampler were Benjamin Franklin Knox and Harriet Knox. Benjamin’s death in 1831 is memorialized on the sampler in the lower right corner. Jonathan Knox was a carpenter and joiner, listed in an 1838 Charlestown City Directory. The family lived, fittingly, at the corner of Joiner and Warren Streets. 

The Knox family has roots that extended back many generations in New England. Thomas (Nock) Knox of Dover, N.H. in 1652 and Some of His Descendants by W. B. Lapham (Augusta, 1890), documents the family well and the file that accompanies the sampler includes photocopies from this and many other sources. Notably, Julia’s grandfather, Jonathn Knox (1758-1840), served in the Revolutionary War in Col. Joseph Cilley’s New Hampshire Regiment.

In 1843, Julia married Ebenezer Averill III (1783-1869), as his second wife. He was a blacksmith, listed in an 1848 Charlestown Directory. They remained in Charlestown and had six children. Julia died in 1904. 

The provenance of this sampler is significant as well as it was in the highly regarded sampler collection of Joan Stephens. When this collection was sold at Sotheby’s in January, 1997, Joan’s dear friend and fellow collector, Betty Ring, wrote the foreword. And we should note that at that sale, this sampler sold for $13,800. 

Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a beveled mahogany frame.

A beautifully made sampler with a refined, Quaker nature, this features alphabets and family initials within a delicate vine enclosure that sprouts flowers, leaves and strawberries. A stately pair of birds adds nicely to the composition. Elizabeth George likely attended a Quaker school as the letter and motifs indicate the strong influence of that style of samplermaking. 

The sampler descended along with family information, including a letter dated 1946, that allowed for the identification of the maker, Elizabeth George (1785-1865). She married, as his second wife, Charles Anderson (1759-1836) who served in the Revolutionary War as a drummer and fifer in Captain Ramsay's 1st Company of the Chester County Militia of the 1st Battalion Colonel John Hannum. He later was the Customs Inspector for the Port of Philadelphia. They had two daughters and Elizabeth died at age 79, in 1865. She is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery. 

The sampler was worked in silk on fine linen gauze and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a walnut frame. 

This is a delightful little silk embroidery of a fine low, latticework, two-handled basket with an organic flower arrangement springing out of it – a wonderful folky portrait of this subject. The layered coloration of the basket is particularly appealing and grounds the composition very well. Overall, it presents as fresh as the day it was made. 

Worked in silk on silk, it is in excellent condition in a gold leaf frame. 

A very interesting sampler, this is signed, “Sophia Evans, Aged nine.” The highly unusual, solidly stitched scene of three Royal Navy warships in full sail dominates the sampler; the ships are the Hope, Nelson and Charlote [sic]. The Hope was sold in 1819; the Nelson was built in 1814 and the Charlotte was a schooner that was wrecked in 1801. This type of subject matter appears only rarely on samplers. The verse, transcribed below, is also in regard to ships at sea. It was based on a publication by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825), a prominent English poet, essayist and reformer, considered a woman of letters, when, of course, there were very few. 

Also portrayed on the sampler is a splendid large manor house with many chimneys and windows, on black and white brickwork. Along with alphabets, Sophia worked a long verse which we have transcribed below. Her needlework is excellent for any age samplermaker but most impressive for one who was only nine years old. 

The sampler was in the Micheal and Elizabeth Feller Collection and published as such.

Worked in silk on wool, it is in very good condition with some minor areas of loss to the wool. It has been conservation mounted and stabilized and is in a molded frame with a gold liner.

Transcription of verse:

Brave Henry Tempts the dangerous sea

And leaves his friends with pain

That he may great and valiant be

And glory may attain ~

To distant chimes he hastes to be

From Britains happy isle ~

And leaves his home where comforts flow

For hardships and for toil ~

Then you his sisters hasten now

Each duty to fulfill ~

And learn with meek content to bow

To Heavens almighty will ~

Then Henry you may hope to greet

Upon that happy shore ~

Where friends beloved together meet

To separate no more ~

This beautifully made and aesthetically appealing little needlework picture is a splendid example of early 18th century English needlework. All of the pictorial elements, the flowering tree, large, exotic bird, huge moth, small birds and insects, goat, peacock and rabbit are all worked in tiny tent stitches which serve as a wonderful contrast to the lustrous ivory-colored diaper pattern (diamond shaped stitch) that fills the entire background. The hilllocks are shaded in various greens with spiked elements that add interest to the composition. 

This was worked in silk on linen, with tiny black glass beads for the eyes of the birds and animals. It is in excellent condition and has been conservation mounted into a 19th century frame.

Beautifully worked in a palette of lovely deep blue on ivory, this sampler exhibits an unusual aesthetic appeal. The verse reads, “Tell me Ye knowing and Discerning few / Where I may find a Friend both firm and true / Who dare stand by me when in deep Distress / And then his Love and Friendship most express.” This wonderful verse was published in the period and can be found stitched on other samplers. 

The Doggett family in America traces its roots back to Thomas Doggett (1607-1692) according to A History of the Doggett – Daggett Family by Samuel Bradlee Doggett (Boston, 1894). In 1637, he arrived in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. For at least two centuries, the family was a prominent one in Massachusetts and areas around New England. 

Worked in silk on linen the sampler is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded and black painted frame. 

photo of reverse

This praiseworthy and very refined sampler offers a highly appealing, balanced composition with a strong Quaker influence and almost impossibly fine stitching. That the maker, Phoebe Cooper, was only 8 years old, when she made it is remarkable. The various motifs - sprays of flowers, floral arrangements on two-handled urns, some with miniature birds, garlands, and grape leaves – serve as embellishments for the classic sampler verse, a moral entreaty. A delicately stitched borderer provides the perfect visual framework for the sampler. 

We don’t know what school Phoebe attended but the initials of her teacher were likely HEP, which appear inside a wreath. Her own initials are inside the centered medallion. 

The sampler was worked in silk on wool and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in its original rosewood veneer frame.

photo of reverse

In the late 1820s and 1830s there existed a school in Pennington, New Jersey, in which Eliza A. Rue designed particularly handsome and graphic samplers and instructed her students to work them according to the highest standards. These samplers, two of which are in the collection of the New Jersey State Museum, are easily recognizable for their baskets of lush flower and grape bunches, dramatic borders, extract verses and the very high quality of the needlework.

Betty Ring, in vol II of Girlhood Embroidery, illustrates a sampler worked at the Rue school, and we are pleased to be able to offer a new discovery to this appealing group, an outstanding sampler worked in 1836 by Hannah W. Blackwell. Mrs. Ring's writing tells us much about Eliza A. Rue, the descendant of French Huguenots and the daughter of Rev. Joseph Rue of Monmouth County, New Jersey. After the death of her father in 1826, Miss Rue began teaching and soon developed this distinctive sampler design. Two other samplers made at this school are published in Hail Specimen of Female Art! New Jersey Schoolgirl Needlework, 1726-1860 (Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton, NJ, 2014). 

Hannah W. Blackwell was born on June 15, 1824, the daughter of David and Jemima (Burroughs) Blackwell of Hopewell, 5 miles from Pennington. Her grandfather, Stephen Blackwell (1756-1831), served in Carle's Troop of Light Horse, Hunterdon Militia during the Revolutionary War; he later became a captain in the militia. He was a farmer, constable and overseer of roads. In 1846, Hannah married Alfred Hurd, an engineer, and by 1850 they were living in Newark with their children and one of Hannah’s sisters. Hannah died in 1863 at age 38 and is buried in Orchard Street Cemetery in Morris County. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a beveled maple and cherry frame. 

A beautifully worked sampler that also features an excellent composition, this was made by Abigail Moore Barnard of Troy, New Hampshire, a town just south of Keene. A fine sawtooth inner border encloses alphabets, a classic sampler verse, a fine pictorial scene centered on a basket of flowers and the inscription, “Abigail Moore Barnard’s Sampler Aged 12 Years A.D. 1825.” A praiseworthy outer border of large blossoms on a leafy vine frames the sampler well while also further indicating Abigail’s talents in the needle arts. 

Born on November 12, 1812, Abigail was the daughter of William and Bathsheba (Goodwin) Barnard who were married in Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1801. Her ancestors included Dr. Moses Barnard (1749-1807), a noted Revolutionary War surgeon on her paternal side and Dr. Francis Moore, (1710-1783) of Boston, on her maternal side. Dr. Moore’s published obituary called him, “long an eminent Physician in that town.”

Abigail married Sylvester Dana Kimball (1808-1856) and they lived in Barton, Vermont. History of the Kimball Family in America From 1634 to 1897 (Damrell & Upham, Boston, 1897) indicates that Mr. Kimball was prominent in local politics and served as pension and bounty agent, further that, “He was of a genial disposition and had many friends.” They had seven children and Abigail died in 1877. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a cherry and maple frame. 

An excellent Quaker sampler, this was in the personal collection of the late Susan B. Swan, the revered, long-time Curator of Textiles at Winterthur Museum. The sampler has remained in the collection of one of her sons and is now available for sale. It was most likely made at the Ackworth School, which was founded in 1779 in northern England, with the purpose of providing an education for Quaker children from less affluent families. It was expected that both male and female students would receive an academic education, as well as skills that would help them find work after they left the boarding school. The girls learned needlework, both plain sewing and finer skills, and many of the Ackworth school sampler patterns became hallmarks of excellent samplermaking throughout England and the United States. Carol Humphrey’s book, Quaker School Girl Samplers from Ackworth (Needleprint, 2006), is an important source of information about the school and the samplers made there.

This sampler is one of the particularly sophisticated types that was made by students at the Ackworth School. These samplers featured many interesting and complex full and half medallion motifs, some highly stylized and enclosing birds or flowers. Some Ackworth girls who made these samplers also filled the areas between these elements with classic Quaker motifs, such as sprigs of flowers, cornucopias, and birds on baskets. 

The stitching of this sampler is extremely fine and delicate. It is somewhat unfinished but initialed, RL and dated, both 1788 and 1789 (within half medallions along the top and bottom edges), reflecting no doubt that it was worked on during both of those years. 

Worked in silk on wool, the needlework is in excellent condition but there is scattered loss to the wool. It was conservation mounted by Sue Swan and the edges of the sampler are complete. It is in a molded and black painted frame that was most likely made by Sue’s husband.