'There was no lack of colour, and no uniform style of dress among early Friends.' Photo: Bookcover of Samplers, Sewing & Simplicity in Quaker Ireland, by Clodagh Grubb
Samplers, Sewing & Simplicity in Quaker Ireland, by Clodagh Grubb
Author: Clodagh Grubb. Review by Julianna Minihan
This beautifully illustrated, A4-size book is packed with information. It relates to the story of Ireland, the development of education there, and Irish women’s history, together with expert and comprehensive chapters on clothing and costume, household linen and soft furnishing. But the main focus, and final chapter, is on samplers – pieces of embroidery or cross-stitching produced as a demonstration or a test of skill in needlework.
The book merits being read widely, and historians would be foolish to dismiss the title as relating only to women or a minority religious group. A historian, retired teacher and specialist in historical costumes, Clodagh Grubb has the experience and heritage to tackle such a book. She is closely related to Isabel Grubb, one of the very best Irish Quaker historians, and is also descended from Abraham Shackleton, schoolmaster of Ballitore, where Edmund Burke MP, the cardinal Paul Cullen, and the United Irishman leader Napper Tandy, all studied.
The first of the five chapters relates to Quakerism in Ireland, beginning with the founding of Quakerism in England around 1650. It quite straightforwardly summarises the ‘Irish situation’ from the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169 to the wars of the seventeenth century, and the savagery of events such as the massacre of protestants at the bridge in Portadown in 1641, the massacre of catholics in Cashel in 1647, followed by Oliver Cromwell’s killing of men, women and children in Drogheda and Wexford. With Cromwell’s Act of Settlement, soldiers and adventurers who financed the army were given forfeited lands. A number of them became Quaker pacifists. Grubb then expands on the development of an Irish Quaker identity, including the adoption of the Irish tradition of hospitality. She writes of the economic situation in Ireland, which was severely limited by the crippling tariffs imposed by the British parliament. Such manufacture as was feasible was mainly in the hands of dissenters: Presbyterians, Huguenots and Quakers. She refers to the book written in 1848 by Jonathan Pim (later an MP) responding to the famine. In this he proposed land reform, and criticised the British government’s restrictions on Irish trade, and this was sent to all MPs. The first chapter concludes with an outline of Quaker milling, cotton, linen and woollen production, the importation of textiles, and the development of department stores in Ireland.
The second chapter is a fine piece of detective work on Irish education generally, particularly on girls’ education and on Quaker education. Grubb documents women’s contribution to the household economy and points out that, for Quakers, schooling was essential for all boys and girls. In the case of the latter, sewing, with a view to future employment, was a fundamental element of the curriculum.
The Yorkshire Quaker, Abraham Shackleton, set up his school in Ballitore in 1726, and he and Samuel Neale were part of a group that established the first official Quaker school for girls in Edenderry in 1763. Neale, born in Dublin, had travelled to the US, and spent time with Anthony Benezet, an early anti-slavery activist who, in advance of the times, taught poor children, black children and girls. Benezet’s book was used in Irish Quaker schools to teach the alphabet, and examples even included lettering for sewing samplers.
Grubb documents many of the early Quaker schools established in Ireland, and also the interest in charity schools, free schools and Lancaster schools. Joseph Lancaster, a young Quaker teacher, devised a monitorial system whereby a number of older children were trained and paid to help the younger children in groups of ten, a system utilised by Elizabeth Fry in her prison work. Samuel Bewley brought Joseph Lancaster to Ireland, and the latter recommended one of his trainees, John Veevers, who set up the Kildare Place schools. In 1816, the Kildare Place Society published a needlework manual, based on Joseph Lancaster’s sister’s needlework manual. This was adopted and used by National schools in Ireland from the 1830s. Grubb concludes her chapter by highlighting Anne Jellicoe’s role in developing a pathway to higher education for women.
Chapter three deals with clothing and costume, and is well illustrated with drawings of men’s and women’s clothing from the seventeenth century. It also makes use of portraits showing fine collars and frills from the eighteenth century and fascinating photos of ancient dolls’ clothing, and photos of Quaker bonnets. Grubb suggests that, in the seventeenth century, ‘the dominant male, like the peacock, dressed as gorgeously and expensively as possible, in the latest fashions’, and the Quaker emphasis on simplicity was partly in reaction to this. While the notion of dull Quaker grey has widespread currency, documents make it clear that in reality ‘there was no lack of colour, and no uniform style of dress among early Friends’. The text has a great deal of detail on clothing, and there are photos of an eighteenth-century corset and two elaborate nineteenth-century silk wedding dresses.
Chapter four, on household linen and soft furnishing, begins with Burton’s advice from 1628 that the best cure for depression is occupation, and in the case of women the needlework engaged in for adorning their houses. Apparently, the curtains surrounding four poster beds were to keep out draughts and to give privacy. Grubb illustrates and gives the history of the motifs that were used on these and other soft furnishings. She also includes fine photos of Mountmellick whitework and needle paintings, and has a detailed examination of a magnificent seventeenth-century stumpwork picture from the collection at Friends Historical Library, Dublin.
One third of the book is devoted to the final chapter, on the sampler. It is richly illustrated with photos of amazing pieces of embroidery, particularly from the eighteenth century, but also from the nineteenth. There are photos of a wide range of samplers, with poems, alphabets and motifs.
Where possible, the history of individual samplers is also given. There are some lovely photos of map samplers of Ireland, Europe and the world, from the early 1800s. The book concludes with the message, ‘long live creativity and hope’, and this is illustrated with a photo of a cross-community peace quilt project from 2008, entitled ‘Shared Visions Quilt’, made and embroidered in Quaker House Belfast by thirty-two women from across the sectarian divide.
The book is delightful. I enjoyed its wide-ranging subject matter and its creative spirit. It is a fine contribution to history: to the history of education, to women’s history, to the history of art and crafts, and to Quaker history. It is laced with snippets of information, and curious details. I encourage people to read it and be inspired!
The book is available from Friends Historical Library, Dublin.
