This sampler, done when Mary Bartoll was 14, is the oldest in the Old Barracks collection. It combines many decorative elements such as alphabet, numbers, verse, flowers and figures. At the bottom of the piece are two gentlemen in 18th century clothing supporting a bunch of grapes on a decorated pole. To the side of the men are the initials “C” and “I” (Children of Israel) and above is “numbers ye 13c & ye 23v” referring to the Numbers 13:23:
And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.
Mary signed her work: Mary Bartolls sampler in Ye 14 of her ae 1759
Mary was born in Marblehead, Essex County, Massachusetts on May 25, 1746 to John and Mary Bartoll. On March 19, 1765 she married Richard Pedrick, and they had two children before Mary passed away in 1768.
“I am not concern’d to know what to-morrow fate will do. Tis enough that I can say I’ve posset myself today. Then if haply midnight death seize my flesh and stop my breath ye[t] to-morrow I shall be heir to the best part of me”
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