Cross Stitch Antiques | Jane Hornibrook 1806 - An Irish Sampler on the Christian Faith

Provenance: Jane Hornibrook completed her sampler in March of 1806. She painstakingly stitched in cross stitch the tenets of the Catholic Faith over one and two threads of finely woven 52 count linen. The lettering for the large letters leads one to determine this to be of Irish origin, based on the Benezet alphabet (see the lettering of the words The Christian Faith). The creative and beautiful border is taken from the Benezet letter “O”.

Clearly this is not a Quaker sampler, so it may be possible that Jane was a teacher in training, affliliated with the non-Quaker Kildare Place school that operated near Dublin at the time. The fineness and detail of the work lends itself to that of a teaching piece perhaps. Ancestry records indicate the existence of a Jane Hornibrook born about 1790 in Cork, Ireland, making her sixteen years of age at the time of stitching, who married John Clarke Swanton in 1809 at the age of nineteen. She lived to the age of 75 years of age, dying in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland. It is conjecture without having more facts to determine her identity, but one thing is for sure. Jane stitched a perfectly executed sampler proclaiming boldly and proudly her Catholic faith.

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