American Samplers
Tapestry pictures have such a Royalist air about them that it is hardly probable that they found favour with the Puritan damsels of the Stuart reigns, and, consequently, it may be doubted whether the fashion for making them crossed the Atlantic to the New World with the Pilgrim Fathers, or those who followed in their train. Samplers, on the other hand, with their moralities and their seriousness, would seem to be quite akin to the old-fashioned homes of the New Englanders, and doubtless there must be many specimens hanging in the houses of New England and elsewhere which were produced from designs brought from the Old Country, but over which a breath of native art has passed which imparts to them a distinctive interest and value. Three notable ones, we know, crossed the Atlantic with the early settlers. One, that of Anne Gower (spelled Gover on the sampler), first wife of Governor Endicott ([Fig. 42]), is now a cherished possession of the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. As Governor Endicott’s wife arrived at Salem in 1628, and died the following year, we have in her sampler the earliest authentic one on record. The inscription of very well-designed and elaborately-worked letters, difficult to distinguish in the photograph, is:—
ANNE ♢ GOVER
S T V W X Y Z
J K L M N O P Q R
A a B C d E F G H
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Fig. 42.—Drawn-Work Sampler by Anne Gover,
First Wife of Govr. J. Endicott.
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Fig. 43.—Sampler of Loara Standish,
Daughter of the Pilgrim Father, Miles Standish,
now in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, U.S.A.
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Fig. 44.—Sampler bearing Names of
Miles and Abigail Fleetwood. Dated 1654.
Property of Mrs Frank Boxer.
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Fig. 45.—Sampler by Abigail Ridgway. 1795.
Mr A. D. Drake’s Collection.
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Plate XIII.—American Sampler by Martha C. Barton. Dated 1825.
Mr Joseph Pennell.
Mr Joseph Pennell’s Sampler, which finds a place here as a specimen of American work, has little to distinguish it from its fellows that were produced in England in the reign of George IV. The border, it is true, only preserves its uniformity on two of the four sides, but where it does it is designed on an old English pattern, that of the wild strawberry. So, too, we find the ubiquitous stag and coach dogs, Noahs, ash trees, birds, and flower baskets.
The sampler itself is a beautiful specimen of drawn work, and the lettering is the same colour as the linen. If, as must probably be the case, it was worked by her as a child, it was made in England, and its date may be the end of the first decade of the seventeenth century. The second, by Lora Standish, is now in the Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth ([Fig. 43]). Lora was the daughter of Miles Standish, the Pilgrim Father, who went to Boston in February 1621, and it bears the inscription:—
“Loara Standish is My Name
Lord Guide My Heart that I may do Thy Will
And fill my hands with such convenient Skill
As will conduce to Virtue void of Shame
And I will give the Glory to Thy Name.”
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Fig. 46.—Sampler by Elizabeth Easton. 1795.
Mr A. W. Drake’s Collection.
The earliest dated sampler in America of which I have cognisance, and one which may have been worked in that country, is that bearing the names of Miles and Abigail Fletwood (Fleetwood?) ([Fig. 44]). It is dated 1654, and has been owned by the descendants of Mrs Henry Quincy since 1750, and is now in the possession of Mrs Frank Boxer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has kindly furnished me with particulars concerning it. It bears the following inscription:—
“In prosperity friends will be plenty,
But in adversity not one in twenty,”
which, it is thought, may possibly have reference to the reverses of Miles Fletwood and his relationship to Cromwell. It is somewhat remarkable for a sampler to bear the names of husband and wife for it necessarily presupposes its having been worked after marriage.
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Fig. 47.—Sampler by Maria E. Spalding. 1815.
Dr J. W. Walker’s Collection.
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Fig. 48.—Sampler by Martha C. Hooton. 1827.
Mr A. W. Drake’s Collection.
If one may judge from the photographs which collectors in America have sent me, and for which I have to thank Dr James W. Walker of Chicago and Mr A. W. Drake of New York, and those noted in an article on the subject in the Century Magazine,[8] specimens between the period just named, that is the middle of the seventeenth century and the end of the eighteenth century, are rare. We have but two such figured, each dated 1795, and, as will be seen by the illustrations ([Figs. 45] and [46]), they are entirely British in character. I am glad, however, to add several interesting specimens of later date from the collections of these gentlemen. Unfortunately, not having the originals, I can only give them in monochrome. [Plate XIII.], however, represents in colour an American sampler. It belongs to Mr Pennell, the well-known artist and author, and was worked by an ancestress, Martha C. Barton, in 1825. From Mrs Longman’s collection I also give ([Fig. 51]) one, worked in silk on a curious loose canvas, which was obtained by her in Massachusetts, and has the following inscription:—
“Persevere. Be not weary in well doing.
Youth in society are like flowers
Blown in their native bed, ’tis there alone
Their faculties expand in full bloom
Shine out, there only reach their proper use.
“Wrought by Lydia J. Cotton. Aged 9 years. August 27. 1819. Love learning and improve.”