Rare Needlework Sampler, Hannah White (b. 1786), Chester County, Pennsylvania, Dated 1800

Worked with silk threads on linen in satin, queen, long-armed cross-, and cross-stitches. Inscribed: Rebecca White/Daughter of/John White and/Elizabeth was/born January/The 30th day/1785/Hannah White/was born Decem/ber The 19th/1786/William White was born Decem/ber The 10th 1789/In thy fair Book of life Divine/My God Inscribe my Name/There let it fill some humble/Place Beneath thy Slaugh/terd LAMB Hannah White/1800 Schoolmistress: possibly Elizabeth White (Hannah White's mother). Scattered small losses, some minor discoloration. 15 1/2  by 11 inches. (38 threads to the inch).

The Blue Candlestick, Saratoga, California, October, 1989

Stain at center, wtih some fading and dicoloration. Hole at center.
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Exhibited and Literature: LACMA, pp. 94-95, fig. 40

The teaching traditions of Chester County, Pennsylvania, are reflected in the surviving needlework of the region. Young women of all faiths, including the predominant Quaker society, accomplished an astonishing array of exquisite sampler embroideries in this county. Formerly, this group of related samplers included work dating from 1804 to 1826; however, this recently discovered example, stitched by Hannah White in 1800, allows for an earlier attribution. 

 

HANNAH WHITE

 Hannah White, who probably worked in the vicinity of East Bradford, where many of the samplermakers lived, remains untraced, but her sampler (fig. 40) may represent a prototype of this related group of sampler embroideries. Three existing samplers, all dated 1804, worked by Sidney Jefferis (fig. 41); Lydia Jefferis,² probably a cousin; and Sarah Strode,³ have been inscribed with the initials "E. W.," in honor of their schoolmistress. Although there is no evidence to support the theory, Elizabeth White may have been the unidentified instructress. Elizabeth was Hannah White's mother. Most recognizable of the sampler patterns is the reversing tulip-band motif across the center. The same lovely color combination of rust, sea blue, green, and black prevails, with blocked units of lettering enclosing a verse and the names of family members. Only the oval cartouche suggests a regional Quaker influence. Neither John, Elizabeth White, nor their children have been found in Chester County Quaker records. By 1811, significant changes had occurred in this basic sampler design, but the symmetrical format with its characteristic baskets, urns, trees, paired birds, and cartouche remained intact. When Hannah Carter Carpenter and her cousin Lydia Carter worked their large samplers that year, a thin, geometric zigzag rather than the traditional reversing vine border surrounded the embroideries, and Lydia inscribed the initials "H. C." on hers.⁴ Mary Graves inscribed Hannah G. [sic] Carpenter's name on her 1824 sampler as instructress.⁵ As in other towns, students often eventually became teachers themselves. If Elizabeth White kept a school for girls near East Bradford, Chester County, it is possible that she was responsible for the engaging sampler design, teaching it to her fourteen-year-old daughter, Hannah White. Modification of the original concept may have come about around 1811, when Hannah C. Carpenter worked her sampler and instructed her cousin Lydia Carter, perpetuating the stylish format that began with the new century by a schoolmistress whose initials were E. W. 

 

SIDNEY JEFFERIS 

The sampler worked by Sidney Jefferis (fig. 41), 1804, is strikingly similar in design to the ones stitched by Sarah Strode of East Bradford⁶ and Lydia and Ann Jefferis in the the same year.⁷ Lydia and Ann may have been cousins to Sidney. Beautifully stitched, duplicate patterns have been pleasingly arranged on each sampler, with a minimum of variation. Identical verses have been inscribed on Sarah and Sidney's samplers, and the same schoolmistress's initials, E. W., are prominently displayed on all three. Until future research clarifies the relationship, Elizabeth White may indeed be considered the unidentified East Bradford schoolmistress, for among other distinguishing patterns, the engaging, blue-handled urns, with their bitter green, geometric embellishment, and the stylized tulip floral arrangement appearing on samplers worked by Sarah Strode and Sidney Jefferis conspicuously match those worked on Hannah White's embroidery. Evidence of this nature binds the embroiderers together, placing them under the same preceptress-whoever she may be. One of nine children, Sidney was born on April 6, 1790, to Emmor Jefferis and Rachel Grubb of East Bradford Township.⁸ The family was a member of the Society of Friends. Sidney married John R. Way (1776-1864), a farmer, in 1809 at Birmingham Meeting. The parents of three children, they lived in Avondale and London Grove, Chester County.⁹ Sidney Jefferis Way died in Oxford, Pennsylvania, in 1882.¹⁰ 

 

1. Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1431, 1432. 

2. Lydia Jefferis's sampler is in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA; see Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1426,1433, f. 30. 

3. The Strode sampler is in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA; see Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1431. 

4. Ibid., 1432. 

5. Schiffer, Historical Needlework of Pennsylvania, 62. See also Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1432. 

6. Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1431. 

7. Both Jefferis samplers are in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA; see Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1426, 1431, 1433, f. 30. 

8. Birth Records, Kennett Square /11 Monthly ,Weeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 55. See also Gilbert Cope,lefferis Family, vol. 1 (loose-leaf notebook; Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA), 39, no. 1412. I am indebted to Betty Ring for her research assistance. 

9. D. Herbert Way, comp., Descendants of Robert and Hannah Hickman Way of Chester County, Pennsylvania, vol. 1 (1975), 134, 135. See also Federal Census, London Grove Township, Pennsylvania, 1850. 

10. Ibid., 135.