Hannah Kirk

Hannah Kirk’s splendid sampler features strong Quaker characteristics and a very appealing hilly lawn with leaping rabbits. An outstanding bower of grapevine with blue bunches of grapes and leaves with tendrils begins in the lawn and encloses the composition beautifully. The excellent Extract verse was stitched in the block letter font favored by Quaker schoolteachers. Below Hannah’s name and date is a classic Quaker aphorism, “emblem of innocence” set between tiny birds on branches. In the overall, this sampler offers much to admire.

While we can’t be positive of Hannah’s identity, we feel that given the characteristics of the sampler, she was most likely the daughter of Quakers, John Kirk and Deborah (Brown) Kirk, Quakers who lived in Little Britain, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They were members of Little Britain Monthly Meeting and were married there in 1807. Hannah was born on January 4, 1813, the 3rd of their 8 children.

Historic-Genealogy of the Kirk Family: As Established by Roger Kirk, Who Settled in Nottingham, Chester County, Province of Pennsylvania, About the Year 1714 by Charles H. Stubbs (Wylie & Griest Printing House, Lancaster, PA, 1872), includes much about the family. “John commenced business in York County, Pa., …  carrying on the business of country merchants. From York county he removed to Penn Hill, Lancaster county, where he purchased a farm, mill and store. These he superintended. He was for a number of years a member and elder of Friends' Meeting. In his youth he made voyage to Ireland, visiting those parts of the island from whence his ancestors are supposed to have migrated. He revisited Europe in 1851, and attended the World's Fair in London. He also made a tour through Ireland, and brought a colony of emigrants to America. John Kirk was " well versed" in English history, and familiar with the old English poets. He was a great reader, being well informed, and possessed remarkable conversational powers.”

In 1831, Hannah married Ellis Passmore Irwin (1805-1874), of Chester County and they remained in Lancaster County for many years, removing to Philadelphia in 1854 and joining the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting at that time. They had at least two children. Hannah died in 1897 and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery East. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a fine period bird’s-eye maple frame.