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Sophia Billings, 1827, Acton, Massachusetts Highly desirable genealogical samplers in the form of fruit laden apple trees rising from a pair of linked hearts were worked in the Middlesex County, Massachusetts area from the 1790's through the early 1830's. Our handsome example was worked by Sophia Billings of Acton, Massachusetts in 1827 when she was 14 years of age, and is the only one that we have ever known to include the pair of miniature willow trees flanking the interlaced hearts. These types of samplers are discussed in Volume I of Ring's Girlhood Embroidery, page 78, and in Edmonds' Samplers and Samplermakers, page 64. This sampler records the marriage of Rebeckah Hapgood to Jonathan Billings (a clockmaker) and the births of their nine children, Sophia being the eldest. Two of their sons died in infancy as noted on the top two \Sophia's maternal family: her ancestor, Shadrach Hapgood, arrived in Boston in July of 1656 on the Speedwell at age 14 years. The ensuing generations of Hapgoods prospered in various local towns, moving to Acton in 1753. Sophia's father, Jonathan Billings was a clockmaker and has been identified as an apprentice to Aaron Willard, well-known clockmaker from Grafton, Massachusetts. In September of 1840, Sophia married Charles Robinson of Bedford, Massachusetts; she died in 1882. The sampler is in excellent condition, worked in lovely shades of teal blue, beige and gold silk on linen, and is conservation mounted into a beveled curly maple frame. Sampler size: 17W' X 163/4\Price: $9,500. M. Finkel e:J Daughter. DDDDDDDD 9 (Detail)