Ann Garrett

Darning samplers are considered by many to be a highly desirable type of needlework as they can present a stunning graphic while demonstrating very difficult and refined techniques. Students were taught to recreate specific weave structures; their darning samplers were proof of their accomplishments and served as a practical reference throughout their lifetime. 

Since medieval times, cloth has been produced in Bocking, which was in Essex, about 40 miles from London. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Huguenot artisans were weaving fine silk fabrics there. Ann Garrett’s sampler is a fine darning sampler, one of three very similar ones known to have been made in Bocking. One of the others is published as figure 124 in Averil Colby’s Samplers (B T Batsford Ltd, 1985) as the only darning sampler. These three attest to the fact that a teacher of considerable skill was working at that school, and we feel there was likely a connection to the fine silk fabrics that had an important part of Bocking's culture for a great many years. 

Ann was born on July 6, 1788, the daughter of Samuel and Sara Garrett. In 1831, she married Thomas Pasfield at St. Mary's Church in Bocking. She gave birth to a daughter in 1834 and the family was living in Hackney then. The 1851 census find Ann as head of a household in Islington. She died later that year and is buried in Bocking. 

Worked in silk on linen, it is in excellent condition and conservation mounted into a molded and painted frame.