SAMPLERS


18th CENTURY MOTHER-DAUGHTER SAMPLERS COME HOME TO UNION

A wonderful pair of 18th and early 19th century embroidered samplers made by a Union mother and daughter now hang on the wall of the Union Historical Society's home, the Robbins House on the Common in Union. Sally Luce Butler, born September 10, 1786, completed her sampler soon after her 11th birthday, on September 28, 1797. Twenty-four years later her daughter Almira, born October 23, 1809, also completed a sampler at the age of 11, in 1821. Both pieces of needlework, on linen with colored threads, are in very good condition with little fading or staining.

Sally Luce was born on Martha's Vineyard, whence her family and the Butler family migrated to Union in the late 1700s. She married Gorham Butler, son of Christopher Butler and Lydia Luce, in Union on September 25, 1808, and Almira was the first of their three children. Almira continued the tradition of intermarriage between these families when she wed Prince Luce, who died in 1846. She then married William Bishop in 1849. Sally lived to the age of 79, dying in 1865, and Almira died in 1879 at the age of 69. Butler and Luce are still family names in Union today.

Such early samplers are rare and samplers made by a mother and daughter are even more rare. Union Historical Society is delighted to have been able to bring home these beautiful pieces of handwork by two of our earliest settlers.

Click on the image for a larger picture.

Description:

 This is just such a wonderful pair of samplers, not only a rare enough 18th century American example by Sally Luce but also an early 19th century example completed by her daughter, Almira Butler, 24 years later in 1821 - plus wonderful provenance tracing back to the earliest permanent settlers of Union, Knox County, Maine.

Sally Luce completed her small (~6” x 13.5”) verse & marking sampler “September 26th AD 1797” and was kind enough to give us her date of birth “Born September 10th 1786 AD” and home town “Sally Luce of Union”. In addition to alphabets & numbers, Sally gave us the verse: “Beauty soon grows Familiar to the eye/Virtue alone hath charmes that never die” and outlined her work with a simple double border mainly in black threads, with a short section completed in brown. Her sampler is worked on a light colored linen with black, blue, brown & cream colored threads - with the light colored threads almost matching the background color of the linen (rendering some areas of the sampler more difficult to read - such as her name!). The sampler is in very good condition with little or no fading, no losses to the linen and some minor stitch loss to a portion of the verse. A comparison with the reverse of the sampler shows how little fading has occurred.

Click on the image for a larger picture.

Sally (or Sarah) Luce was born on September 10th, 1786, on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, married Gorham Butler in Union, Knox County, Maine, on September 25th, 1808, and bore him three children: Almira (or Elmira) Butler (b. 23 Oct 1809), John Butler (b. 1813) and Wesley Butler (b. 1817). Her daughter Almira completed her marking sampler in 1821.

Almira Butler's sampler is also worked in a horizontal format and is slightly larger than her mother's sampler, measuring ~8" x 16". The ground linen is a darker color and Almira used a variety of thread colors in her needlework. There is a very narrow open work border on 4 sides worked in black and a small 3 sided pink & blue undulating border within. Almira's sampler also contains horizontal borders worked in different colored threads between each line. She signed her sampler on the last line "Almira Butler Aged 11 years 1821". It looks like she tried to fit another line in (starting with a "U", possibly for Union) but thought better of it. Her sampler is in very good condition with strong colors, scattered losses (one small hole to the ground at the center bottom & scattered thread loss in the letters worked in black on the alphabets); there appears to be little or no fading when compared with the reverse side. Both samplers exhibit very minor & unobtrusive age toning or staining and are remarkably well preserved, possibly never framed at all until recently.

Click on the image for a larger picture.

They are housed together in a contemporary faux birds eye maple frame that measures in total ~23.5” wide by ~22’ high - very impressive as displayed together. The samplers are backed with acid-free board.

An extraordinary find and a charming pair of early Maine samplers with lots of history!

GENEALOGY NOTES:

I will of course include a complete file of genealogical information for Sally Luce and her daughter, Almira Butler. It appears that both Luce and Butler families migrated from Martha's Vineyard to the town of Union in Knox County, Maine in the late 1700, at a time when Union was first permanently settled. Union is located on the St. George River in mid-coast Maine (see map pictured) and the present day Union Historical Society has a wealth of information about these early days on their website (see http://www.midcoast.com/comespring/).

Sally Luce's parents were Samuel & Sarah Luce of Tisbury, Dukes Co., Massachusetts (Martha's Vineyard) and her ancestors were among the earliest (1600's) European families of that area - including the Luce, Merry, Cottle, Norton & Litchfield families.

Gorham Butler (Sally's husband & Almira's father) was born in 1785 to parents Christopher Butler and Lydia Luce (yes, these families were quite intermarried!). The Butlers also originated from Martha's Vineyard and include the family names of Daggett, Claghorn, Beetle, Norton, Merry & Hawes. Gorham died in 1836; Sally lived to 1865.

Almira Butler first married Prince Luce, who died in 1846, then was married to William Bishop in 1849. She died January 3rd, 1879.