Southern needlework sampler circa 1820 executed in green, rose, brown, ocher, blue, and white thread in a variety of stitches, including the marking stitch, on linen with seven lines of the alphabet, divided by geometric bands, outlined with strawberry border on edges, inscribed, "Ann Hampton Williams was Born October 20th on Monday ten Oclock P.M. 1806." (Inscription separated from work, border reattached and tacked to tray bottom) without inscription: H12 1/4" W19 3/4" piece with inscription alone: H8 1/2" W16 1/2" *Provenance: Descended through the family of Ann Hampton Williams, supposedly a cousin of Wade Hampton of South Carolina, a relationship of which she was extremely proud. *Note: Samplers have become another way of identifying family members similar to other surviving records such as family Bibles, court house documents, and cemeteries. Early samplers were meant to demonstrate examples of a variety of stitches and designs used in needlework by amateurs and professionals alike. The first mention of samplers was in sixteenth-century Europe, and they became common in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, samplers became instructional tools and were used to give moral guidance. They served as a rite of passage in the education of young girls and have been called "girlhood embroidery," as they were typically made by girls between the ages of eight and thirteen. Southern American examples differ from their Northern counterparts in a variety of ways, and there are many connections between eighteenth-century Southern samplers and seventeenth-century English examples. In the South, like in England, samplers rarely mention any other information about the maker except their name and date. The name of their city often is left out, and there are not common themes among the works of a certain time and place as seen in Northeastern examples. This sampler follows the norm for Southern samplers as it does not indicate the city nor any other personal information other than Ann Hampton Williams' name and birthdate. It includes horizontal bands of pattern, contains the strawberry border, and uses the marking stitch, all characteristics typical of Southern, Charleston and seventeenth-century English samplers. The marking stitch creates a cross on the front and back of the fabric. This was no longer used in samplers after the mid-1700s, except in the Southern United States and particularly in Charleston and the Carolinas, where it was incorporated into the 1800s.