The sampler has eight rows of alphabets and numbers separated by narrow crossbands. In its lower third there is a central basket of flowers or fruit with flowers/plants or otherwise unrecognizable motifs to both the basket's left and right. The signature below had had significant thread loss and is reads:
Jane Ann Short Nov th 1813

(The date in November is illegible.)

Jane Ann Short was born on August 18, 1803 in Woodford County, Kentucky. Her parents were Peyton Short (12/17/1761-09/01/1825) and his second wife, Jane Henry Churchill (03/18/1768-05/03/1808), m2(11-14-1802). (Jane Henry Churchill was the widow of Armstead Churchill from Winchester, Virginia. He travelled to the Washington DC area, died, and the Short and Churchill families in Kentucky learned of his death from newspapers.)
Jane Ann had two full siblings, Elizabeth S. (1804-1827), and Sarah C. (1806-1829) and five half siblings from Peyton’s first marriage to Maria Symmes (1763-1801, m8-10-1789). These half siblings included William (1790-1791), John Cleves (1792-1864), Charles Wilkins (1794-1863), Betsey Skipwith (1798-1800) and Anna Marie (1800-1827). Peyton and Jane Henry Churchill Short’s Woodford County home was called “Greenfields” and including slaves, there were at times sixty people on the property. It was severely damaged in the earthquake of 1812 and the family removed to Lexington, Kentucky.

Jane Ann Short was the second of three wives of James Weir (1777-1845) and married him on April 23, 1839. (see his framed portrait in the ancillary images) She was living in Louisville, Kentucky at the time according to the Lexington Observer & Reporter on April 20, 1839. There are no recorded offspring of their brief, two year marriage.
(The following quoted material is from an excellent Ancestry.com posting by Donna Basinger concerning James Weir and his importance to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. “James Weir was a son of William Weir, a Revolutionary soldier of Scotch-Irish descent. He was a surveyor by profession, and in 1798, at the age of twenty-one, came to Muhlenberg on horseback from his home at Fishing Creek, South Carolina. This trip was the first of his many long horseback journeys, and extended over a period of eight months. James Weir arrived in Muhlenberg County about the time the county was formed. He took an active part in the first county court meetings and also helped Alney McLean lay out the town of Greenville and did much toward the moral and commercial development of the community. He was instrumental in getting a number of people to settle in the county. He was the first merchant and banker in Greenville. His business increased very rapidly in the new town, and he soon established another store at Lewisburg or Kincheloe's Bluff. In the course of time he conducted mercantile houses in Henderson, Hopkinsville, Morganfield, Madisonville, and Russellville. He also had a store in Shawneetown, Illinois. But Greenville, from the time of its beginning, was his home and headquarters. He made many trips down the Mississippi to New Orleans, from which place he returned to Greenville either via land or via ocean boat to Philadelphia, where after making his purchases he continued his journey by land and river. He wrote an account of a trip taken in 1803, giving his experience while traveling down the Mississippi, then via ocean and up the Delaware to Philadelphia.”)

Jane Ann Short Weir died on April 9, 1841 and is buried in the Old Greenville Cemetery in Greenville, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. (see ancillary images)

Jane Ann Short’s family and its history are far beyond the scope of AKS. Manuscripts and in fact books have been written about the Shorts and their impact on Kentucky and the United States during the Federal Period. (see the three part genealogy chart in the ancillary images)
Below are highlights AKS has chosen to present including another related family sampler.

Few Surry County, Virginia families were as prominent as the Short family. William Short I came to Virginia in 1635. William Short II received 400 acres of land close to Cabin Point, part in Prince George County and his son, William Short III inherited this land which was first known as Spring Garden. William Short III’s son William Short IV married Lady Elizabeth Skipwith and they had seven children, William V (1759-1849), Peyton (1761-1825), Martha (1763-1787), Thomas (1764-1764), Elizabeth (1766-1822), Sarah (1768-1794) and Jane (1770-1821).

William Short V, Jane Ann’s uncle, was educated at the College of William and Mary and was a founding member of Phi Beta Kappa and its president from 1778 to 1781. When Thomas Jefferson was appointed Minister to France, his close friend William Short accompanied him as Secretary of the Legation. When Jefferson left France, Short was made Charge d' Affairs. On January 16, 1794 he became Minister to the Hague in the Netherlands. Later as a commissioner of the United States government he was responsible for a treaty of 'Friendship, Commerce and Boundaries' with Spain, which was signed in 1795. A financially successful private life followed his public service.

Peyton Short, Jane Ann’s father, was also a founding member of Phi Beta Kappa at the College of William and Mary as well as a founder of Transylvania University. (see the unframed portrait in the ancillary images) He was a land speculator, and politician and a member of the first Kentucky Senate. Kentucky Senate. He was a brother-in-law of future President William Henry Harrison.

Charles Wilkins Short, Jane Ann’s half-brother, was a respected botanist with six plant species named after him. His most significant writing related to the field of botany in Kentucky is "A Catalog of the Native Phaenogamous Plants and Ferns of Kentucky", written in 1833, with four additions written over the next few years and describing over 1300 plant species. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1815, helped establish the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1838 and was a professor there between 1838 and 1849. In 1849 he inherited a significant fortune from his brother, William Short V.

Elizabeth Short, Jane Ann’s aunt and sister to Peyton and William, married Frederick Ridgely, MD, (1757-1825) a Revolutionary War surgeon and among the first lecturers at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky. Elizabeth Short was also a sampler maker, her Virginia sampler is seen in the ancillary images as is its path of descent. Another relatively simple sampler, it documents the children of William Short IV and Elizabeth Skipwith and has brought immeasurable joy to AKS.