Sampler
Maker's Name
Blincoe, Mary A. E.
Location
Marion County, Kentucky
Date Made
1834
Maker's Age
24 years old, born on March 3, 1810
Dimensions
16 ¾ x 16 ⅜ inches
Medium
Silk on linen with cross, Irish, and rice stitches; thread count 28/inch horizontal x 32/inch vertical
Provenance
Made by Mary A. E. Blincoe in 1834. The sampler passed down to her third child Susan Ellen Worland (1839-1921). Thence to Susan’s eventual daughter, Alice Delores Buckley (1879-1965), who decided also to become one of the Sisters of Loretto, taking on the religious name, Sister Mary Justine. Alice donated the 1834 sampler of her grandmother, Mary Ann Blincoe back to the Sisters of Loretto collection in 1936. The sampler remained there until the Sisters sold it at public auction in 2007, (Ex Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse, Nerinx, Kentucky) as lot #316 at Cowans Auctions, Spring Americana: Fine & Decorative Arts, June 23, 2007. Subsequently it was sold to Neverbird Antiques, Surry, VA by M. Finkel & Daughter, Philadelphia, PA. and subsequently sold to Colonial Williamsburg.
Description
This sampler has seven alphabet and numeral rows separated by rows of decorative bands with scattered motifs across the sampler. In the upper left field, the letters HS may reflect the instructress's initials. Mary included an inscription:
Awake my soul and rouse thy spirits
'fo think of thy Redeemers merits
Thro which thou shalt repose
How many hours have past away
In which thy time was spent in play
But O new thoughts arose
O now the welcome time is near
In which God's wonders shall appear
My helpless soul to save
Let's view them with attentive eyes
That we may from these follies rise
To which we were a slave
O ye high mountains and low wales
O ye large fountains cool'd by gales
And shaded by the grove
I'll walk beneath your bowers to find
A healing balm to soothe my mind
Or to increase my love
On the bottom is also the signature:
A Sampler worked by
Mary A E Blincoe in the
School of Loreto
A.D 1834
The sampler is conservation mounted in mid-19th century gold leaf frame.
This sampler was created by twenty-four year old Mary Ann E. Blincoe (3/26/1810 –XX/26/1883), a Roman Catholic nun and teacher at the School of the Sisters of Loretto, located near Nerinx in Marion County, Kentucky. The sampler maker’s mother, Sarah Carroll Blincoe (1780-1814), died when the Mary Ann was less than four years old. Within a few years, her father, James Blincoe (1765-1824) enrolled her in the Sisters of Loretto school in Marion County. Mary Ann became an orphan when her father died when she was fourteen years old. She stayed at the school, eventually joining the sisterhood becoming one of the teaching nuns at the school. However, the year following her creation of her sampler, Mary Ann met, fell in love and married Thomas Livers Worland (1805-1894), with whom she would eventually have eight children.
Further extensive genealogy has been graciously supplied by Neverbird Antiques and is available upon request.
The Sisterhood of Loretto was established in order to promote female piety and education. The Reverend Charles Nerinckx, an early pioneer and missionary, founded the Sisterhood of Loretto in April, 1812. The purpose of this establishment was to enable young Catholic girls who wished to retire from the world and to devote themselves to prayer and charity to be useful to themselves and others by educating poor children.
The Sisters of Loretto was officially organized when Father Nerinckx conferred the religious veil on three young women at the foot of the cross in St. Charles Church, a log cabin located at Hardin’s Creek, Kentucky. They were the first members of the “Little Society of the Friends of Mary under the Cross of Jesus.” The name was later changed to “Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross,” though in popular usage they are normally called the "Sister of Loretto." Initially a Roman Catholic teaching organization in Kentucky, today the Sisters operate in sixteen states and six foreign countries.
The Loretto Motherhouse property has been a working farm from the time Reverend Stephen Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, purchased the land in 1796 and named it St. Stephen’s Farm. It became home to the Sisters of Loretto in 1824, when Bishop Joseph Flaget moved the convent there after the death of Father Nerinckx.
Awake my soul and rouse thy spirits
'fo think of thy Redeemers merits
Thro which thou shalt repose
How many hours have past away
In which thy time was spent in play
But O new thoughts arose
O now the welcome time is near
In which God's wonders shall appear
My helpless soul to save
Let's view them with attentive eyes
That we may from these follies rise
To which we were a slave
O ye high mountains and low wales
O ye large fountains cool'd by gales
And shaded by the grove
I'll walk beneath your bowers to find
A healing balm to soothe my mind
Or to increase my love
On the bottom is also the signature:
A Sampler worked by
Mary A E Blincoe in the
School of Loreto
A.D 1834
The sampler is conservation mounted in mid-19th century gold leaf frame.
This sampler was created by twenty-four year old Mary Ann E. Blincoe (3/26/1810 –XX/26/1883), a Roman Catholic nun and teacher at the School of the Sisters of Loretto, located near Nerinx in Marion County, Kentucky. The sampler maker’s mother, Sarah Carroll Blincoe (1780-1814), died when the Mary Ann was less than four years old. Within a few years, her father, James Blincoe (1765-1824) enrolled her in the Sisters of Loretto school in Marion County. Mary Ann became an orphan when her father died when she was fourteen years old. She stayed at the school, eventually joining the sisterhood becoming one of the teaching nuns at the school. However, the year following her creation of her sampler, Mary Ann met, fell in love and married Thomas Livers Worland (1805-1894), with whom she would eventually have eight children.
Further extensive genealogy has been graciously supplied by Neverbird Antiques and is available upon request.
The Sisterhood of Loretto was established in order to promote female piety and education. The Reverend Charles Nerinckx, an early pioneer and missionary, founded the Sisterhood of Loretto in April, 1812. The purpose of this establishment was to enable young Catholic girls who wished to retire from the world and to devote themselves to prayer and charity to be useful to themselves and others by educating poor children.
The Sisters of Loretto was officially organized when Father Nerinckx conferred the religious veil on three young women at the foot of the cross in St. Charles Church, a log cabin located at Hardin’s Creek, Kentucky. They were the first members of the “Little Society of the Friends of Mary under the Cross of Jesus.” The name was later changed to “Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross,” though in popular usage they are normally called the "Sister of Loretto." Initially a Roman Catholic teaching organization in Kentucky, today the Sisters operate in sixteen states and six foreign countries.
The Loretto Motherhouse property has been a working farm from the time Reverend Stephen Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, purchased the land in 1796 and named it St. Stephen’s Farm. It became home to the Sisters of Loretto in 1824, when Bishop Joseph Flaget moved the convent there after the death of Father Nerinckx.
Owner/History of Owner/Credit Line
Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase, Acc. No. 2019-xxx
AKS Catalog Number
2019-042
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