Witney Antiques: samplers of the seventeenth century, eighteenth century and nineteenth century.

Clara Barber. Finished March 1833

This delicately embroidered sampler was worked by fifteen year old Clara Barber of Middleton- with-Fordley, a small village in the county of Suffolk. As with many samplers their threads weave a story. At the age of twenty two, Clara married Thomas Greater a farmer and miller of near by Middleton Moor. Of the six children born to the couple three died in early infancy and records show that Clara herself died at the relatively young age of fifty two, her gravestone in the church yard bears the touching verse:

Here lies one freed from an afflicting life
A tender mother and a virtuous wife
To take her rest reward of all her pain
In heaven hope there shall meet again

A book giving details of the Barber family ‘Seven Centuries on Middleton Moor’ by Janet Barnes accompanies this sampler.

Framed size: 23 x 21 ins 58 x 53 cm.