Ruth Bacon

This carefully made sampler is a wonderful document of a family, and more significantly, that of the history of Templeton, a town northwest of Worcester. In History of Worcester County, Massachusetts by D. Hamilton Hurd, 1889, (J. W. Lewis, Philadelphia), the section regarding Templeton’s “Educational Affairs” informs us that the first schools in that town were established in 1763. Prior to that, “the first settlers of a town whose farms are not fully cleared and dwellings not completed are not in a condition to give much thought to schools.” Providing schools and education for the children of Templeton continued, and in 1805, the town voted to use the word “district” to designate the school divisions. Ruth Bacon’s specific noting “Templeton District No. Six” on her sampler may indicate the town’s pride in this recent progress. 

Also noteworthy is the credit she gave her teacher, “Miss Betsy Sawyer School Maam.” Betsy Sawyer may be Elizabeth Sawyer who was born in Templeton in 1780. In 1806, she married Asaph Knowlton and at some point, they removed to Quebec, Canada. 

Along the bottom of the sampler, Ruth stitched the excellent aphorism, “May virtue be to each a guide / While thro this vicious world they glide.” 

Ruth was a daughter of a shoemaker, Samuel, and his wife Ruth (Plummer) Bacon who lived in Rowley, Massachusetts, then Weare, New Hampshire and finally Templeton. She stitched specifics about the births of her five sisters, and where the family lived when they were each born. Michael Bacon of Dedham, 1640 and His Descendants by Thomas W. Baldwin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1915), provides a complete history of this family, beginning with Michael Bacon who was born in 1579 in Suffolk, England and was a signer of the historic Dedham Covenant. Ruth’s father, Samuel, was born five generations later and served in the Revolutionary War. Ruth died at age 28 in 1821. 

The sampler retains its original colors as indicated by the photo taken of the back of the sampler prior to mounting. It has been conservation mounted and is in a mid 19th century mahogany frame. 

photo of reverse