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Sampler By Martha Tabb Tompkins

DateOctober 30, 1818

Maker Martha Tabb Tompkins (1807 - 1842)

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Warrenton; owned in Virginia, Mathews County

MediumSilk embroidery threads on a linen ground of 38 x 38 threads per inch

DimensionsOW: 13 1/2" OH: 13 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2007-48,1

DescriptionThis is an almost square sampler worked in faded shades of gold, green, blue, and brown silk embroidery threads on a natural color linen ground. The center field of the sampler consists of an undulating square cartouche with floral sprigs enclosing an uppercase block alphabet, lowercase block alphabet, verse, signature line and date divided by decorative bands. The verse reads: "In other men, we faults can spy./ And blame the mate that dims their eye./ Each Little speck and blemish find,/ To our own stronger errors blind." The signature line reads: "Martha Tabb Tompkins/ Warrenton October the 30th/ 1818."
The sampler is enclosed in a stitched border and is finished with a green silk picot ribbon on all four sides.

Stitches: cross, couching, double cross, and four-sided stitches

Label TextMartha Tabb Tompkins’s sampler is one of just a few that survives from the Warrenton Female Academy in North Carolina. The rare sampler with its original silk ribbon border descended through the maker's family with a gold medal of reward presented by the academy to Martha in 1821. The square format and silk ribbon finishing the edges of the sampler are typical of others worked at the Warrenton Female Academy. The verse, which begins "In other men we faults may spy," is also found on samplers produced at the school.

Established in 1809 by Jacob Mordecai, the Warrenton Female Academy was a liberal arts boarding school that revolutionized female education in the South by offering a vigorous curriculum that made it respectable for southern girls to study the same subjects as males. Jacob Mordecai sold his highly successful school to Joseph Andres and Thomas Jones in 1819. In 1822, Caroline Mordecai Plunkett, a married daughter of Jacob, reorganized the school and operated the academy until 1834.

Born at Poplar Grove in Mathews County, Virginia, Martha Tabb Tompkins was the oldest child of Christopher and Elizabeth Cary Smith Tompkins. Martha married her cousin, Henry Wythe Tabb, on July 22, 1828. Between 1829 and 1838, they had five children, one whom was named for Henry's first wife. Martha died on September 17, 1842. Henry remarried, naming a daughter after Martha in 1854.
InscribedThe verse reads: "In other men, we faults can spy./ And blame the mate that dims their eye./ Each Little speck and blemish find,/ To our own stronger errors blind." The signature line reads: "Martha Tabb Tompkins/ Warrenton October the 30th/ 1818."
ProvenanceThe sampler by Martha T. Tompkins survived with an attached gold medal of reward in the collection of Judge John DeHardit who was a "pioneer collector who literally filled his family home "Wareloch" in Gloucester, Virginia from top to bottom." His collection, including labeled pastel portraits and drawings by Felix Thomas Sharples of Tompkins family members, sold at Motley's Auction & Realty in Richmond, VA in April of 2007.

History of sampler maker:
Born at Poplar Grove in Mathews County, Virginia, Martha Tabb Tompkins was the oldest child of Christopher and Elizabeth Cary Smith Tompkins. Martha married her cousin, Henry Wythe Tabb, on July 22, 1828. Between 1829 and 1838, they had five children, one whom was named for Henry's first wife. Martha died on September 17, 1842. Henry remarried, naming a daughter after Martha in 1854.