embroidery – The Countryman's Daughter

Another quest I wonder?

77DFAEA6-1EC0-4F3F-AA1B-9E97ABBECB6D — The sampler made by Mary ‘Polly’ Atkinson, my mum’s mum’s mother.

8A52B561-93F3-40C0-9D09-A490CD1E99C9 — Polly and her daughter Mary, my mum’s mum. It was a great source of sorrow that Polly was buried without a headstone to mark her resting place.

I’ve been bowled over by the way my recent columns about the search for descendants of Hannah Raw have resulted in a mini-band of internet sleuths forming to help me in my quest. All I had at the beginning was a sampler on a wall with her name, age (nine) and the date she made it (1835).

It was found rolled up with another sampler belonging to my great great aunt on my mother’s side, Jane Lacy, who was aged 10 at the time she created her sampler in 1837. It now hangs on our kitchen wall alongside Jane’s and another by my mum’s grandmother, Mary ‘Polly’ Lacy (nee Atkinson). As far as we know, we are not related to the Raw family, so I wondered how it came to be in our possession.

As those of you who follow this column know, since then we have managed to flesh out much of Hannah’s story, thanks to you lovely lot getting in touch. We know that she married, had two daughters, and went on to become a grandmother to eight children. She died in 1880 at the age of 64, and is buried in Glaisdale with her husband John Hall, who died 23 years later aged 87.

Well, dear readers, the story doesn’t end there. Carol McLee has been in touch, and she is the Chairman of the Cleveland, North Yorkshire and South Durham Family History Society. She revealed that her team have transcribed the headstones of hundreds of graves, including those at the Church of St Thomas in Glaisdale where Hannah is buried. All these, along with historical parish records of births, deaths and marriages are available from the society’s website.

Carol added another layer to Hannah’s ever-expanding story. Hannah’s daughter Ellis, if you recall, married a joiner named William Hodgson in 1878. The couple’s first child was a daughter, named Hannah Margaret (after ‘our’ Hannah) but, as was not unusual at the time, she only lived a very short life, dying at the age of six in February 1885. As we know, though, the couple went on to have seven more children, and I am hopeful as a result, there are living descendants out there.

We also know that ‘our’ Hannah’s other daughter, Sarah Hall, never married, but lived with her parents in a three-bedroomed house at Lealholm Bridge. She was a dressmaker and took care of her father John until his death in 1903. Thanks to Carol, we now know that Sarah died in October 1926 at the age of 77. Unfortunately, Carol was unable to find a record for the burial of Hannah’s other daughter Ellis Hodgson (occasionally spelled Ellice). Did they move away I wonder?

She did, however, reveal that Hannah’s parents-in-law were Matthew and Sarah Hall, and that Matthew owned a joinery business that was passed on to Hannah’s husband John and his younger brother Thomas Hall after Matthew’s death in 1851. My cousin, who lives in Egton, knows a few Raw’s and Hall’s, so is going to have a chat with them to see if he can dig up anything of use. I feel it in my bones that we are not far away from tracking down the elusive living descendants of Hannah Raw!

I was discussing all this with my mum, and she revealed that her maternal grandparents are buried in separate plots in the graveyard of St James’ Church, Lealholm, but at the time of their deaths, the family did not have enough money to buy headstones. It was a source of great sorrow to my nana that her parents’ graves were unmarked, and my mum does not know where in the graveyard they are. Unfortunately, her two elder brothers may have known, but they are no longer with us and without a headstone, they may be difficult to pinpoint. As you may have already worked out, one of these is the grave of the above-mentioned Mary ‘Polly’ Atkinson, who embroidered one of the three samplers on our kitchen wall, next to Hannah Raw’s.

I wonder if you are thinking what I am thinking – that this might be start of another quest? I am going to find out where the resting places of my great grandparents are, and I will go lay some flowers there on behalf of my nana and my mum. And one day, perhaps, we can give them the headstones that they deserve.

Read more at countrymansdaughter.com. Follow me on Twitter @countrymansdaug

This column appeared in the Darlington and Stockton Times on 17th and Ryedale Gazette and Herald on 15th March 2023

Hannah’s story goes on

Hannah Raw’s sampler that hangs on my mum’s wall

The letters MR and ER on the bottom right are her parent’s initials. The letters ‘ER’ are in dark thread showing that her mother, Ellis, was dead before Hannah made this sampler.

Following my pieces about North York Moors orphan Hannah Raw, I have been contacted by Gillian Hunt from Newcastle, who loves to study samplers and also enjoys tracing family histories. Great news for me, and for any of you who are also intrigued by this expanding tale.

If you recall, nine-year-old Hannah’s 19^th century sampler is on the wall of my mum’s kitchen alongside two done by my ancestors Mary Atkinson and Jane Lacy. We didn’t know anything about Hannah or how we came to have her sampler, but for many years it was kept rolled up with Jane Lacy’s at my Nana’s home. We had some clues (featured in my last piece) from my distant relative Marion Atkinson, who believed that Hannah’s parents died when she was quite young.

Gillian suggests that there may be a Scottish influence in the sampler design because the peacock with the fanned tail at the lower left corner and the band of capital letters across the top are very characteristic of that region. Scottish samplers also contain a lot of red and green threads, which Hannah used, although it may be that these were all she had available. She adds that Scottish samplers often featured the initials of other family members which, if sewn in black or dark thread, meant they pre-deceased the sampler’s creator. Hannah’s sampler has two sets of initials after the date; MR, which is in pale blue, and ER, which is in dark grey.

Gillan says: “I picked up Hannah on the 1841 census, but it is of limited use to genealogists as it does not give places of birth, relationships between the members of a household, and the ages may be slightly inaccurate. On the Library edition of Ancestry.com, often more information is pulled through at the right hand side of the page if you click their name on the census list. For Hannah, it pulled up only a record of baptism: ‘Hannah Roe, baptised 23 September 1825 at Glaisdale, daughter of Matthew Roe, a labourer, and his wife, Ellis of Hartoff (Hartoft)’.”

Gillian goes on: “Hannah’s parents’ names fit the initials MR and ER on the sampler. If Hannah worked the sampler early in 1835, she would still be nine years old at the time. The fact that the name has been recorded as Roe rather than Raw is not particularly concerning – names were often misheard and misspelled, even by curates. Ellis as a female name is very unusual. It is common for a mother’s maiden name to be given to a son as a first name but I have never come across it as a daughter’s name. Is it a corruption of Alice or Elise/Elisa?”

Gillian discovered that there was a marriage recorded at Danby on 29 August 1820 of Matthew Raw to Ellis Winspear, which must be Hannah’s parents due to the unusual name of the bride. Both signed the register with their mark, which meant they could not write. She also found a record of Ellis Raw being buried at Danby on 15 February 1835. There will not be a death certificate for her as civil registration did not begin until 1837 and given that her children were born at approximately two-yearly intervals, Gillian thinks it is possible that Ellis died as a result of pregnancy or child birth. As the initials ER are in dark thread, it means Hannah completed the sampler after her mother died and sometime before 23 September 1835, as she would have turned 10 years old by that date.

“There is a burial for Matthew Raw in the Pickering registration district (which covered Hartoft) registered between April and June 1838. This fits with your information that Hannah’s parents died when she was young. I can’t find any other information about him, except for the baptisms of his children,” says Gillian.

In conclusion, Gillian writes: “Hannah was born in 1825, the third of seven children of Matthew, a farmer, and Ellis Raw of Hartoft. Her sampler was completed in 1835, prior to 23 September 1835. Both parents had died by the time Hannah was 13. This probably meant that Hannah had little choice but to go into service, living with the Adamson family in 1841. There is no trace of Hannah after 1841 although it is possible she died unmarried in the Whitby registration district between April and June 1891 aged 76.”

Read more at countrymansdaughter.com. Follow me on Twitter @countrymansdaug

This column appeared in the Darlington and Stockton Times on 20th and Ryedale Gazette and Herald on 18th January 2023

A sample of history

34210979-F4A1-49CD-9FCB-D152E4A00FB6 — The set of 19th century samplers including two created by my mum’s ancestors when they were children

477F76BE-D9AD-4B86-9607-B0AA1DA2279B — The 19th century sampler by Hannah Raw found rolled up with one done by my great great great aunt. So who was Hannah, and how did her sampler end up with my mum’s family?

40C18E08-CA43-4E5D-A4E0-00E3817FA745 — A section from the most famous piece of embroidery, the Bayeux Tapestry, showing life in 11th century England (picture courtesy of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum)

For years now, we have had a set of three 19^th century samplers adorning the walls of my mum’s kitchen. Like many things in a family home, you get so used to them being there that you rarely pay them any attention.

But since I’ve been spending more time there, and because we have almost every meal at a table in front of them, I have begun to wonder more about them. Two were done by ancestors on my mum’s side of the family. Mary Atkinson, who was 12 when she created hers in 1876, was my mum’s maternal grandmother, while Jane Lacy, who was 10 in 1837 when she created her sampler, was Mum’s great great aunt on her mother’s side. The third sampler is by a little girl called Hannah Raw, who was only nine when she created it in 1835, but about whom we know nothing. How we came to have her sampler is a mystery, but it was kept rolled up with Jane Lacy’s at my Nana’s home, and my mum kept them once her parents had passed away.

Judging by Hannah’s age, it is likely that she was a contemporary of Jane Lacy’s, but were they friends? Why did Hannah not take her sampler to her own home? By the time Hannah and Jane were embroidering these two little pieces of family history, the sampler had become an established part of their education, and would have been a common feature in school rooms across the country. They were used to help youngsters learn their letters and numbers alongside the necessary skill of sewing.

But before that, the sampler played a much broader role in people’s lives. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a huge collection of them from all over the world that date as far back as the 14^th century when competence with a needle and thread was absolutely essential. Samplers were a way of recording topical and family events, often through the use of pictures and imagery, and in the days when few people could read or write, and even fewer had access to things like paper and ink, they were also used like pictorial reference books and instruction manuals, to store information and instructions on how to do certain things from which others could learn.

The most famous piece of embroidery in the western world has to be the Bayeux Tapestry. Despite its name, it is not a true tapestry (that is when strings of thread are woven together to create a final image. Embroidery is when patterns or letters are sewn on to a backing cloth, which is what the Bayeux Tapestry is). In a series of 58 panels, it depicts the shenanigans from 1064 that led up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold II. The tapestry, which is a whopping 230 feet long and 20 inches tall, was believed to have been created in 1070s England, having been commissioned by William’s half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, to decorate the walls of his brand new cathedral in the Normandy town.

Despite it being it well-known for illustrating the Norman Conquest, it is also an excellent catalogue of military and civil life from the 11^th century. Thanks to this work, we can see what type of armour was worn (chainmail and helmets with nose plates) and what kinds of weapons were used (swords, spears, axes, fire, bows and arrows), how castles were constructed (motte and bailey), how battles were fought (with boats, horses and infantry) and how ships were designed (Viking longboats) alongside snippets from civil life too, such as the kinds of foods eaten (a lot of game) and the vessels used at mealtimes (bowls and drinking horns). It’s an incredible and virtually contemporaneous record of 11^th century life.

It is now housed at a dedicated museum in the town of Bayeux, but you don’t have to go that far to see it. The museum has a website where you can see the whole tapestry in all its glory.

Lastly, if there is anyone who is descended from the Raw family from the Lealholm and Glaisdale area of the North York Moors, I’d love to find out if you know what happened to young Hannah and see if we can work out why we came to have her sampler.

Read more at countrymansdaughter.com. Follow me on Twitter @countrymansdaug

This column appeared in the Darlington and Stockton Times on 25th and Ryedale Gazette and Herald on 23rd November 2022