Sampler by Margaret Jane B. Canon

Dateca. 1830

Maker Margaret Jane B. Canon (1819-1893)

OriginAmerica, Tennessee, Rutherford County (probably)

MediumSilk embroidery threads on a linen ground of 28 x 23 threads per inch (identification of fibers by eye)

DimensionsOW: 17 3/4" OH: 21 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2002-20

DescriptionThis is a large rectangular sampler worked in moss green/brown, pale green, pale pink, and ivory silk embroidery threads on a natural color linen ground. The sampler is hemmed on all four sides in a 1/4" hem and unframed. The top half of the sampler consists of:
"Amidst the follies of mankind/"
Band of double row of cross stitch
"A-I" "K-M" "Z" upper case script worked in cross stitch
Band of eyelet stitch
"N-Y" upper case script worked in cross stitch
Band of double cross
"A-M" upper case block worked in eyelet
Band of eyelet
"N-X" upper case block worked in double cross
Band of double cross
"A-U" upper case block worked in cross
Band of cross stitch
"V-Z" upper case block. "a-mmnn-s" lower case block in cross stitch
Band of cross stitch
"s-z" lower case block, "1-9" in cross stitch
Band of cross stitch
The bottom half of the sampler consists of a verse within a cartouche of vine and buds and an arbor. The verse reads: "O Happiness celestial fair/ Our earliest hopes our latest care/ O hear our fond request/ Vouchsafe reluctant Nymph to tell./ On what sweet spot thou dwelth/ And make us truly blest." Below this is a band of double row of cross stitch and the signature: "Margaret Jane B Canon Born May 4 1819." Beneath signature is a band of double row of cross stitch and the line to complete the verse that began the sampler: "Let plain embellishment be mine."

Stitches: cross (over two), double cross, and eyelet
Label TextThis sampler is one of approximately 130 identified as possibly being from Tennessee. A few can be attributed stylistically to one school or teacher's design influence. Several institutions, among them the Knoxville Female Academy and the Nashville Female Academy, were established in the state to educate young ladies during the first thirty years of the nineteenth century.

Margaret Jane B. Canon was the sixth of eleven children born between 1805 and 1827 to Joseph and Polly Canon of Mecklenburg, N. C. By 1825, the family was living in or near Smyrna in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Margaret became the second wife of Thomas Montgomery Coldwell on September 30, 1852.

Inscribed"Amidst the follies of mankind/ Let plain embellishment be mine"
"O Happiness celestial fair/ Our earliest hopes our latest care/ O hear our fond request/ Vouchsafe reluctant Nymph to tell./ On what sweet spot thou dwelth/ And make us truly blest"
"Margaret Jane B Canon Born May 4 1819"
ProvenanceNo provenance is known prior to purchase from vendor.

History of maker:
Margaret Jane Bone Canon was born on May 4, 1819, to Joseph Canon (b. Oct. 17, 1777 in Mecklenburg, NC; d. Oct. 14, 1857 in Rutherford Co,TN) and Mary (Polly) Canon (b. Dec. 8, 1783 in Mecklenburg, NC; d. Aug. 12, 1853 in Rutherford Co, TN). Her parents were married in Mecklenburg, NC, on August 17, 1803. Margaret was the sixth of their eleven children who were born between 1805 and 1827. By 1825, the family was living in or near Smyrna, Rutherford County, Tennessee, (in the center of the state) where several family members are buried (in 1825, 1829, 1833, etc. including Joseph Canon in 1857). Joseph's will of 1857 names his daughter Margaret Jane Coldwell and her husband Thomas M. Coldwell. In the 1849 tax record, Joseph owned 250 acres valued at $3,100 and seven slaves valued at $3,500. In the 1850 census, the family lived in Burnett, Rutherford County.

Records accessed online indicate that the samplermaker married Thomas Montgomery Coldwell (b. Dec. 18, 1808, to Abraham and Nancy Montgomery Coldwell) on Sept. 30, 1852 as his second wife. Thomas was a successful wholesale grocer in business with J. F. Cummings in Shelbyville. His first wife died of childbirth complications. Margaret became the step-mother of Thomas's five children. Margaret and Thomas had four children, all born in Tennessee: Joseph Canon Coldwell (b. 1852); Emma Coldwell (b. 1854); Nancy Adeline Coldwell (b. 1859); and Margaret Jane Coldwell (b. 1861). Thomas's business prospered during the Civil War; in the 1860 census, Coldwell had $2,000 in real estate and $1,000 in personal property. In the 1870 census, he had $17,000 in real estate and $20,000 in personal property. Unfortunately, he did not get to enjoy his prosperity for long, as he died in 1871.

Margaret Jane Bone Canon Caldwell died on May 26, 1893, and is buried with her husband in the Willow Mount Cemetery, Shelbyville, Bedford County, TN