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Carlow County - Ireland Genealogical Projects (IGP TM)

Dorothy Walpole
of 
Newgardens

Dorothy Walpole - 1774

An Irish Quaker sampler

Dorothy Walpole was born in New Garden in the Painestown Parish of Carlow, Ireland. On August 25th, 1794, she married Christopher Williams also of New Garden which was home to a large Quaker community. Where Dorothy worked her sampler is not known but it seems likely she attended a small private school in the locality. Certainly her family owned land in the area and enjoyed a reasonably comfortable lifestyle.

Her daughter, Mary Williams. 1804

 An Irish Quaker sampler

It's rare to find family groups of samplers particularly those which span more than one generation. This sampler is one of a rare group of Irish samplers providing a tangible record of the education received by Mary's mother, Dorothy Walpole, in 18th century Ireland and passed on to her daughters at a Quaker school in the next county over from where she lived with her husband, Christopher Williams.

Dorothy Walpole's two daughters worked their samplers at a school in Mountrath in the County Laois between 1804 and 1809. Mary's sampler shows evidence of the development of needle working skills at their Quaker school but it also enforces the belief that map samplers were often the final task worked by young women at such a school. This reproduction of one of Mary's first samplers clearly illustrates the Quaker influence. The verses she used derive from Isaac Watts, a perennial favorite, and an anonymous publication titled "Poetical Frenzy, or a Venture in Rhyme," a piece named ENTHUSIASM.

Source:s http://www.scarlet-letter.com/samplers/walpole.php 

The information contained in these pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing with others researching their ancestors in Ireland.
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