Jane Hoopes

Jane Hoopes (1754-1831), a Quaker girl living in Goshen, Chester County, Pennsylvania, attended Miss Hollis’ School where she made this excellent sampler in 1765. The inscription reads, “Jane Hoopes the Daughter of / John Hoopes and Christian his Wi / made her sampler in the 12th yea / r of her age 1765 Mrs. Hollis School in Goshen finished October 23 1765.”

Jane’s younger sister, Lydia (1755-1836), also made a sampler ( see image below) and these two are almost identical. Lydia’s sampler was published in Historical Needlework of Pennsylvania by Margaret B. Schiffer (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1968). At that time, it was stated that it was the earliest known Pennsylvania sampler. The very similar inscription on that one reads, “Lydia Hoopes the Daughter of John Hoopes and Christian his Wife Made her Sampler in the 10th Year of her age 1765,” and states that it was made at Mrs. Hollis School in Goshen.

Research conducted just recently provides much information about the family. Sources include History of Chester County, Pennsylvania with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches by J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope (Louis H. Everts, 1881), Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania: Comprising a Historical Sketch of the County by Winfield Scott Garner (Gresham Publishing, 1893) and Historical Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania by Gilbert Cope and Henry Ashmead (The Lewis Publishing company, 1904) as well as Quaker records.

The Hoopes family in America began with Joshua and Isabel Hoopes who came from Yorkshire, England in 1683 and settled in Bucks County. Their son Daniel removed to Westtown Township, Chester County in 1696. Jane and Lydia were granddaughters of Daniel and the family belonged to the Goshen Monthly Meeting. 

Jane was born on February 9, 1754, to John Hoopes (1713-1795) and his second wife, Christian (Reynolds) Hoopes (1718-1800). The initials of several of her siblings, John, Henry, Elizabeth, James, Francis, Jane and Christian, are included on the sampler. In 1776, Jane married Randal Malin (1750-1821), farmer from a Quaker family. They had one child, a son born in 1780. Jane died in 1831.

When the sampler made by Lydia was published in 1968, a wonderful excerpt regarding Mrs. Hollis’ school was included from The Ashbridge Book Relating to Past and Present Ashbridge Families in America by W. T. Ashbridge (The Copp, Clark Company, Toronto, 1912). “The girls were taught by Mistress Hollis, who conducted a small school in her own residence, about a mile from their home. She enforced habits of strict obedience and attention, regulated their manners, and required and erect posture in their exercises… Probably their literary advantages were few compared with those now enjoyed by young ladies, but the result was a facility for action in every department of woman’s life, and the art of producing an extraordinary amount of fine needlework.”

Regarding the identity of Mrs. Hollis, circumstantial evidence through research points to Mrs. Ellinor Hollis, a widow and mother of three children as of 1763, living in East Bradford Township. Teaching school from her home would have been the most likely source of income for this family. 

The sampler was worked in wool on linen and is in very good condition with a few lost stitches and one minor area of loss, now stabilized. It has been conservation mounted and is in black painted frame. 

Photo of Lydia Hoopes' sampler