Annes Perry

This is a particularly praiseworthy sampler because of its 18th century origin, extremely fine needlework, strong composition and interesting family history. It is signed, “Annes Perry / Her sampler mead in the fifteenth year of / her age 1790,” and a transcription of the verse can be found below.

An unusual and very appealing band of angular flowering plants is beautifully stitched across the top of the sampler, echoed by a similar, expanded version in the register at the bottom of the sampler. The quality of the needlework is outstanding throughout, worked onto a very fine and sheer linen ground.

Annes was born on May 6, 1775, to Col. James Perry (1749-1822) and Hannah (Irwin) Perry (1755-1810) who were married in 1774 Franklin County, Pennsylvania. She was named after her paternal grandmother, Annes (Watson) Perry (1712-1793). The various spellings for this given name appear in early records as Annes, Annis and Annice.

Many published histories provide detailed information about Annes’ grandfather, Capt. Samuel Perry, Sr. (1710-1756); he and his wife, Annes, came to America from Ireland in 1731 or 32, settling in Westmorland County, Pennsylvania. His initial military service was in 1746 and after that the family lived in Franklin County, Lancaster County, then back to Franklin County.

In early November of 1756, according to Pennsylvania archives and letters to Governor William Denny at Philadelphia, Capt. Samuel Perry died in an Indian attack, having left McDowell’s Fort. Some reports included the fact that his young son, Oliver, died in the attack as well, however that is likely not the case.

Annes’ father, Col. James Perry, owned and operated a mill and ferry on the Monongahela River. The 1790 census shows the family living in Elizabeth, Allegheny County.

In 1793 or 94, Annes married Robert Baldwin (1769-1838) in Allegheny County and they had 11 children. The family lived 5 miles west of Pittsburgh on the Wheeling Pike. Annes died at age 68, in 1844. She is buried, along with her parents, many siblings, her husband and several of their children in Mount Pisgah Cemetery, in Pittsburgh.

While we don’t know the school that Annes attended when she made this excellent sampler, we include the following excerpt which was published in the Pittsburgh Gazette on November 11, 1786. This appeared in an essay by Harley Trice written for Made in Pennsylvania: A Folk Art Tradition at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, (Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 2007), which accompanied the exhibition of the same name. It documents the first recorded school for girls in Pittsburgh. Annes may have been at this school when she made her sampler but either way, it is informative about this early girls’ school in Pittsburgh:

A Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies will be opened on Wednesday the fifteenth instant, by Mrs. Pride, in the house where John Gibson formerly lived, behind his stone house, where there will be taught the following branches of needle work, viz, plain work, coloured ditto, flowering, lace both by bobbin & needle, fringing, Dresden, tabouring and embroidering. Also, Reading, English, and knitting if required. Mrs. Pride from the long experience she has had as a teacher, and the liberal encouragement she has met with hitherto, both in Britain and in Philadelphia, flatters herself, that by the utmost attention in teaching the said branches, as also taking the strictest care to the morals and good breeding of the young ladies placed under her care, that upon trial she will also merit the approbation and encouragement of the inhabitants on this side of the Allegheny Mountain.

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted into a mahogany frame with line inlay.

Transcription:
Beset with snares on every hand / In lfes [lifes] uncertain path I stand
Savior divine diffuse thy light / To guide my doubtful footsteps right
When I am dead and laid in grave / this work in hand my friends may have