Betsy Kilshall,
Burtonwood, Lancashire,
England, 1839
A dear little sampler, this was made by Betsy Kilshall in 1839; she stitched the name of her village, Kilshall, on the sampler as well. Burtonwood was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Warrington, in the West Derby Hundred of Lancashire. Betsy was born circa 1827. By 1841, she was living at Bradley Hall, Warrington, with her father, John, who was a farmer and mother, Mary.
Betsy stitched filled the top half of the sampler with alphabets and numbers, and centered her inscription between two baskets of fruit, realizing too late that the last letter of her town wouldn’t fit on the same line.
Interestingly, Burtonwood seems to have remained a sleepy village until a 1942 agreement reached between the RAF and the US Army Air Forces when Burtonwood became the center of supply and maintenance of all US aircraft in the 8th & 9th Air Forces. Burtonwood later became the greatest AAF depot overseas.
The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a 19th century veneer frame.