Russel Osborn Hunt

Russel was born on St. Croix, West Indies, in 1799, the daughter of John Salmon Hunt and Russell (Osborn Lillie) Hunt. She made this finely stitched sampler in 1809 at Mrs. Cranch’s Academy in Jamaica Plain, a part of Boston, Massachusetts. The school was run by Elizabeth (Palmer) Cranch and we have learned much about her. Significantly, the Cranch family was closely connected to Abigail Adams, whose sister Mary Smith (1741-1811) married Richard Cranch (1726-1811), an uncle of Elizabeth (Palmer) Cranch.

Back for the moment to the samplermaker, Russel Osborn Hunt. Her road to Mrs. Cranch’s School was the result of a complex web of connections among a number of prominent families in Massachusetts and St. Croix. Her father, a merchant and ship owner, was the stepson of prominent merchant Cornelius Durant (1732-1812) (https://trinitychurchboston.org/from-the-historian-inheritance-and-the-history-behind-the-ascension-window/ and other online sources), an associate of Revolutionary War figures including future president John Adams. Letters between Abigail Adams and her sister Mary (Smith) Cranch shed light on the complex connections between the Durants, Hunts, Cranches, and Adamses. The Hunt family returned to Boston at some point.

While she was a student at Mrs. Cranch’s Academy, Russel worked this excellent sampler, a tribute to her mother. This poem, My Mother, was written by Ann Taylor (1783-1866), a noted English poet and critic; it was published in London in 1807. Ann often collaborated with her sister, Jane Taylor, who wrote Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Russel stitched the first five stanzas of My Mother.  

Russel later returned to St. Croix where she married Dr. James Carden (1790-1864) and they had three children, a daughter, Jane Rosalind Carden, and two sons, James Stevens Carden and John Brown Carden. According to St. Croix 500 Years Pre-Columbus to 1990 by Erik J. Lawaetz, Russel died there in 1863.

Turning back to the Cranch family history, Mary (Smith) Cranch (Abigail Adam’s sister), was also a teacher as she informally took children into her home to assist her and to provide them with some education (likely including Russel Hunt’s brother Cornelius). But the school that Russel attended, Mrs. Cranch’s Academy, was run by Elizabeth (Palmer) Cranch. Elizabeth, also known as Betsy, was the daughter of Revolutionary War general Joseph Palmer and his wife Mary Cranch, whose brother Richard married Mary Smith, Abigail Adams’s sister. Elizabeth’s father was a wealthy merchant and manufacturer, who lost his fortune after the Revolutionary War, throwing his family upon the mercy of friends and relatives. His wife and two daughters lived with Abigail Adams and her family for a time. In 1790, Mary (Smith) Cranch wrote to her sister Abigail that “Cousin Polly & Betsy behave with christian resignation but are greatly distress’d at the situation they find themselves in. Cousin Betsy can support herself in some way or other but her Sister cannot.” Shortly after this letter, on May 2, 1790, “Cousin Betsy” married Richard Cranch’s nephew Joseph, a lopsided match where, as Mary Smith Cranch wrote, “the superiority is in the wrong side,” and that, “Joseph was no match for the talented Betsy.”

Mrs. Cranch taught variously in the towns of Jamaica Plain, Milton, Salem, and Dedham, as indicated in several advertisements. The earliest located advertisement for Elizabeth’s school appears in April of 1802, where she proposes taking “12 or 14 Misses, from 6 to 14 years of age, to instruct in plain needle-work, embroidery, working muslin, &c” in addition to academic topics at her academy in Milton, Mass. Among those students was Susan, the daughter of Abigail and John Adams. In September of 1806, shortly before the death of her husband from consumption, Elizabeth took a house at Jamaica Plain for the purpose of opening a boarding school.

Late in the summer of 1809, she moved to Salem and opened an academy with Mrs. Peabody - her niece Eliza (Palmer) Peabody (mother of the famed Peabody sisters of Salem), a partnership that lasted until 1811. In 1812, Elizabeth advertised that she “proposes opening an Academy for Young Ladies in Uxbridge,” while operating her school in Dedham, Mass., assisted by Misses R. and L. Boardman.

On February 3, 1814, Elizabeth Cranch died in Dedham, aged 60 years. A notice in the Dedham Gazette described her as “for many years an eminent teacher of a young ladies’ academy.” 

The schools in Dedham and Uxbridge were continued after her death by Lydia Boardman, Cranch’s former preceptress.

Russel Osborn Hunt’s sampler is the only one known to have been made at the various schools run by Mrs. Cranch. The quality of the needlework is superlative as evidenced by the photo of the back of the sampler.

The file of research regarding this sampler includes much information about the Russel Hunt and Mrs. Cranch. Sources include The History of of the Island of Antigua (London, 1896), The Duyckinck and Allied Families (New York, 1908), The Durant Genealogy (Baltimore, MD, 1966), New England Across the United States (NEHGS database), Richard Cranch and his Family (NEHGS, 1873), Vital Records 1620-1850 Dedham Church Records, several period advertisements from Readex News Bank, and The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams Their Sisters and Daughters by Paul Nagel (1987). Many photocopies and printouts are in the file that accompanies this sampler.

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and it is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted into a molded and black painted frame.

photo of reverse