Signatures

Initials, which are followed by signatures, occur upon samplers of the earliest date. It is true that one or two of the undated samplers, which probably are earlier than any of the dated ones, carry neither, but as a rule initials, or names, are found upon all the early specimens. Thus the early one in [Plate II.] has the initials “M. C.,” and the two dated in 1648 are marked respectively “A. S.” and “Rebekah Fisher,” and that of 1649, “S. I. D.” In later times unsigned samplers are the exception.

Inscriptions

The earliest inscriptions are practically only signatures, thus: “Mary Hall is my name and when I was thirteen years of age I ended this in 1662”; or, somewhat amplified: “Ann Wattel is my name with my needle and thred I ded this sam and if it hath en beter I wold——” (Remainder illegible.)[4]

The earliest inscriptions, other than a signature such as the foregoing, that I have met with are Lora Standish’s ([Fig. 43]) and Miles Fletwood’s referred to under “American Samplers,” dated 1654 ([Fig. 44]), and which has the rhyme, “In prosperity friends will be plenty but in adversity not one in twenty.” The next, dated 1686, has a saw which is singularly appropriate to a piece of needlework: “Apparell thy self with ivstice and cloth thy self with chastitie so shall thov bee happi and thy works prosper. Ann Tvrner” ([Fig. 8]). It is dated 1686.

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Fig. 8.—Long Sampler, signed Ann Turner, 1686.
The late Mr A. Tuer.

In [Plate VI.], on a sampler of the same year, we have wording which is not infrequently met with in the cycles which follow, as, for instance, in Mrs Longman’s sampler, dated 1696, and in one of 1701. It runs thus:—