Just a quick update on Miss Hannah. As you can see I am working on the cornucopia motif and I have stitched "Jane" above it - I wondered why the N is worked back-to-front? And, who indeed, was Jane? There is some history of this sampler quoted on the pattern which reads:
"Hannah Beeby attended Wigton Friend's School between 2.1816 and 2.1817 and her sister Mary attended between 2.1816 and 2.1818. The family lived at Allonby; a small village on the Solway coast about 12 miles from Wigton, Cumbria in England.
At the time the Beeby sisters were at the school it had only been open for one year. The school was housed in a building at Highmoor, in the south end of Wigton with an enrolment of 15 boys and 15 girls. A new purpose built school was erected west of Wigton at Brookefield in 1826 and continued to have students till 1982 when it closed due to insufficient enrolment.
The original sampler is in the possession of a direct descendent of Hannah's sister Sarah. In 1831, Sarah, her Irish husband and three children immigrated to Canada and settled in the East End of Toronto - now known as Scarborough. The sampler given as a gift to her sister, travelled with the family and had never been framed until 2002 and is in excellent condition.
It was originally stitched on 25ct linen and using three colours of thread, the design is easily recognised as "Quaker". Although no textbook with charted designs has been found it is thought that school teachers and their students had a written source that would be used for their needlework designs. The words "4 mos" may refer to April, because the Quakers never used the names of the months or the days, only describing them by number."
And here ends today's history lesson!
Thanks for visiting
Take care
Labels: Hannah Beeby
looks beautiful!!