Sarah Wills

The Pine Grove School, a small Quaker school in operation from 1792 until about 1830, was under the auspices of the Upper Evesham Monthly Meeting of Burlington County, New Jersey. There are four samplers, dating between 1809 and 1813, known to have been made at this school; all feature the fine classic Quaker motifs and composition. Sarah Wills was nine years old in 1811 when she made this fine sampler with its lengthy, carefully worked verse surrounded by many documented Quaker sampler designs.

Sarah was the eighth child of nine born to Zebedee and Priscilla (Moore) Wills of Evesham. The initials of her parents and siblings appear at the top and along the sides of her sampler and other family initials appear throughout. In 1825 Sarah married a physician, George Haines, and they continued to reside in Burlington County where their children were born. Sarah remained a Quaker and The Friend: A Religious and Literary Journal published notice of her death in 1873.

The sampler is bordered on three sides with a queen’s-stitched strawberry vine that grows out of small baskets and joined by a queen’s-stitched heart at the top. Motifs that are distinctly Quaker include the large swan, sprays of flowers, bird on branch and half geometric medallion.

Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in excellent condition and has been conservation mounted into a fine mahogany frame with inlay.