Angelina H. Gould

A charming sampler, this features alphabets and a simple pictorial register at the bottom, and was worked by 10-year-old Angelina H. Gould of Topsfield, Massachusetts. Born on March 18, 1818, Angelina was the 10th child of Joseph and Ruth (Porter) Gould, and the twin of Ariel H. Gould. The family, even at that time, had a long and illustrious history in this area, north of Boston. The Family of Zaccheus Gould of Topsfield by Benjamin A. Gould (Lynn, Mass., 1895) publishes much about this patriarch who settled in Topsfield by the mid-17th century, and, at the time of his death in 1668, owned approximately 3000 acres of land nearby. Three generations later Angelina’s grandfather, Major Joseph Gould (1726-1803), was the commander of a company of Minute Men who marched on the Lexington Alarm on April 19, 1775.

The maternal side of Angelina’s family is equally as interesting and historic; a publication of the Danvers Historical Society documents the Joseph Porter House, built in the 17th century by Ruth (Porter) Gould’s great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Porter (1638-1714). 

The sampler was likely one of Angelina’s first needlework projects, and it displays an endearing simplicity as such. She pieced together two pieces of linen to form the ground and the seam is nicely stitched over with one of the horizontal lines. The date, 1828, appears at the end of her alphabets. Angelina died of scarlet fever on February 11, 1832, just four years after she made this sampler. She is buried nearby her mother in the Pine Grove Cemetery of Topsfield. 

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

photo of reverse