Phebe B. Neeld

A subtle Quaker sampler, this is signed, “Phebe B. Neeld’s work dated 2 mo 25th 1833.” This translates to February 25 and is the way Quakers indicated dates. The lower register of the sampler presents several classic motifs favored by schools and teachers steeped in the Friends samplermaking tradition of Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the early 19th century. The striped vase with a star-shaped flower and two pendulous acorns is the most representative. 

Phebe was born circa 1825 to Jesse and Rachel (Hosier) Neeld, members of the Middletown Meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. She was likely attending a local Quaker school when she made her sampler in 1833. 

She married Watson Lewis circa 1846 and the 1850 census found the family in Ewing Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. Watson was a wheelwright and their children were Jane. By 1870, the family had another child, Rosella. When Phebe’s father, Jesse, died in 1873, he left a third of his estate to her.

A photo of the sampler taken prior to conservation mounted indicates that it retains its original palette. It was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition, conservation mounted and in a molded and black painted frame. 

photo of reverse