In the upper field, the sampler has five rows of alphabets and numbers separated by simple crossbands. In the lower field is a large central flower arrangement flanked by single cartouches with vine-like adornments. There is a circumferential Greek key border surrounded by a second circumferential vine and flower border with an eight point star motif in each corner.

The sampler maker may have sewn the cartouche first, realized she did not allow enough space for her first name (“Nancy”), and instead, used her middle name, “Ann”, as seen in the right cartouche:
Ann Pilcher
Born 1803

Information within the left cartouche refers to Ann’s brother and reads :
Merit Pilcher
Born 1802

Nancy Ann Pilcher was born on December 26, 1803 in Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky to Moses Pilcher (1771-1806) and Elizabeth Collins Pilcher (1773-1838). Nancy Ann had one sibling, Captain Merit Scott Pilcher (1802-1865), who removed to Tennessee c. 1830. (He was a merchant and captain of the Red Rover Steamer [a steamboat]. In 1831, he married a wealthy young debutante named Nancy E. Barrow, and they had nine children. He is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee. Please see the ancillary images for his portrait and tombstone.)

Nancy Ann married James S. Hensley (1800-1842) on June 30, 1822 in Fayette County, Kentucky. They had one son, Henry Clay Hensley (1829-1910). Sometime after 1829 the family moved to Tennessee to live close to her brother. James S. Hensley died in 1842 in Nashville. Following his death, Nancy Ann married Nathaniel S. Anderson (1799-1849) on December 24, 1844 in Fayette County, Kentucky. There are no reported offspring of this union. After Nathaniel S. Anderson died in 1849, Nancy Ann went to live with her son Henry, who was a bookkeeper and a merchant.

Nancy Ann Pilcher Hensley Anderson died on January 25, 1874 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee and is buried in the Nashville City Cemetery (see ancillary images).

AKS is indebted to Janet Hasson and Jennifer Core of the Tennessee Sampler Survey for the bulk of the above research.