I have a sampler from 1796 to decipher. Old Trot calling the history buffs! Pic attached

[OldTrot]

I need your eyes again! This time it's a 230 year old sampler. These were very very commonplace back then -young girls generally did them

This one is partially completed and tricky to decipher. Any help? Does anyone know if it's a saying / poem/ verse from back then? From the limited words you can see

It was done by a ?Bent and it's called 'On Ambition'

What lovely nails you've got, Trottie.

@Cottagecheeseisnotcheese that makes sense, definitely spot on there

Yes, a warning - you can aim for the glittering clouds but they may not offer quite the same contentment as the solid ground of what you have already.

Found this under Thomas Rowlandson - the incurable

It’s sounds quite Buddhist really.
It’s amazingly beautiful. No lights, glasses or indoor heating. I’d get nothing of worth done let alone amazing work like this.

Sorry last pic was too blurry

Why thank you @MarshaMelrose

I'd like to say they're all my own.

They're absolutely not!

Oh, why can't history be like this in schools?? This is so much more interesting than the sodding South Sea Bubble.

@Times10 ha that's so good! So we know it was a well known ditty back in 1796!

@Arrrrrrragghhh I know right?

Although do we think these young girls enjoyed doing it?

Her needlework is excellent. I wonder how old she was when she made this?

From what I've found out, these were young girls. I'd say she was probably about 9 if I was guessing

I'd like more info to try and find out who she was but impossible really with no location

Elizabeth Bent
1796

That's all we have.

But how extraordinary that we are talking about this little girl now in 2023

I think her name is Euphemia.

A very quick google is chucking up names from the States... do you know where the sampler came from @OldTrot?

@allabitmadtbf I think I can see a Z although I'm not sure

@reddingweddy hmm no! I don't know where it came from.

I'm a collector of things that pique my interest and it does bug me sometimes if I can't get further info on them

It’s from this book!

Ahh that must be frustrating!

I'm intrigued that her first name starts with a lower case e, when her surname is capitalised. Is there a possibility a letter has disappeared, as some of the rest has?

Wow, you got it! Well done!

@GetOffYourPhone wow! That's amazing you've found that. Thanks. I wonder just how old that book is

First published in 1621!

A cursory Ancestry search shows surprisingly few Elizabeth Bents of around that age, at that date in England. The most likely one seems to be an 11yr old girl but with so little other information, it's impossible to say.

What a lovely thing. I adore this sort of thing, particularly teasing out the information. Let us know if you find out more.

Not quite on topic but I have a book with traditional samplers and the charts to reproduce them. They suggest if you do then to add something on the back so if it found in the future and you have artificial fibres but a date of 1600 you should put that it is a reproduction.

Upper class girls got to use colour and make flowers, lower class girls only used black and their sampler would be taken to job interviews as servants had to be able to label the linen of the family they served.

In WWI not all women had birth certificates, when they volunteered for war work they took their samplers to prove their age.

Thread for antique letter decipherers! Pics included www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club/4741913-thread-for-antique-letter-decipherers-pics-included

New thread if anyone fancies dropping by with help or their own bits and pieces for us to look at!