Martha H. Leonard

This praiseworthy sampler offers excellent coloration and a particularly delightful pictorial scene along the bottom. The house is a beautiful salmon-pink color and a bright, light blue was used with excellent effect for the fine sawtooth border, the large flower vase and, along with pink, the woven basket at the lower right. Interestingly, the young lady next to the house is positioned next to a trade sign. On the other side of the house there are three spindly trees, a large owl, a small child and a checkerboard basket. 

Inside a lovely surround of flowers on an undulating, leafy vine, the sampler is signed, “Martha H. Leonard born Warwick Jan 21st Aged Eleven years.” The verse below that reads, “For kindness in teaching me while here below / May the Lord who rewards the just when they rise / Support us while here with all needful supplies.” 

Warwick is a small town in central Massachusetts at the New Hampshire border. Martha Holbrook Leonard was born there, as she stitched on her sampler, on January 21, 1800. She was the daughter of Nathan and Martha (Stearns) Leonard, who were married there in 1797. The Leonard ancestry traces back to the family’s arrival in Massachusetts in the mid-17th century. Photocopies from several published sources accompany the sampler. 

In 1822, Martha married Joshua Townsend Sanger (1798-1871) and they had three children. She died in 1847 and is buried at Warwick Cemetery along with many family members. 

The sampler is worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a figured maple frame with a mahogany bead.