57. Sampler

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This sampler, worked with silk thread on a fine linen ground, was finished in July 1813 by Martha Willson Magruder (1801-1860) at age 12. Martha was one of ten children born to Martha Willson and Dr. Zadok Magruder, Jr. She most likely grew up at The Ridge, a home in Derwood built by her grandfather, Revolutionary War patriot Colonel Zadok Magruder (1729-1811), for whom the nearby high school is named. It is the only Montgomery County sampler in the collection.

Needlework samplers were teaching tools for girls in the 18th and 19th centuries, serving as displays of proficiency in one’s letters and numbers, as well as in sewing and needlework techniques. These skills could be taught at home or at schools offered by the Quakers in Sandy Spring or ladies’ seminaries in Georgetown, Frederick, or Baltimore. No school attendance is recorded for Martha Magruder, but her sampler design, much like another documented county example, was probably provided by a teacher or tutor.

This sampler is framed by an undulating floral vine. Above a stylized floral midline appears two different alphabets (one lacking the letters W-Z), the numerals 1-14, and the maker’s personalization – “Martha W Magruder July 1813.” At the bottom, wreaths and floral urns frame a terraced peak lined with pine trees. Below the midline is a poem:

Friendship’s a pure a Heav’n descended flame

Worthy the happy region whence it came

The sacred tye that virtuous spirit binds

The golden chain that links immortal minds

The verse can be found, unattributed, in Miscellanies, Moral and Instructive, in Prose and Verse; Collected from Various Authors, for the Use of Schools, and Improvement of Young Persons of Both Sexes (Philadelphia, 1787).

In 1830, Martha Magruder married Rev. Basil Barry (1789-1877), a Methodist clergyman; both are buried in Rockville Cemetery. Their daughter, Martha Rebecca Barry, married Rockville physician Dr. Edward E. Stonestreet (Montgomery History maintains the Stonestreet Medical Museum). The elder Martha’s sampler, which won a prize for “best antique sampler” at the 1926 Rockville Fair, was passed down through the family until its donation in 1997.

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