Amanda is offered to you in two different formats ~ as a printed booklet and as an instant PDF download. Details of the PDF download can be found HERE.
It was so nice to see the name of Amanda on a sampler from the first half of the 19th century, and what a pretty sampler this 10-year-old stitched. Amanda is a Latin name meaning “lovable” or “worthy of love.” Whilst it was a popular literary name in the 17th and 18th centuries, it is not often seen on samplers from the 1800s.
Amanda was born on April 25, 1834 in Austonley, a small hamlet on the outskirts of the town of Holmfirth, Yorkshire. This was a beautiful rural area of rolling hills, grassland, and woods, but in the 1770s the first spinning jenny was introduced to Holmfirth and by the 1850s textile mills had sprung up by the river valleys. Holmfirth rapidly expanded in the 1800s due to the growing cloth trade and the production of stone and slates from the surrounding quarries. The peaceful, rural area was gone forever as around 60 textile mills were built, employing hundreds of men, women, and children. Today, it is the renowned location of the British TV classic Last of the Summer Wine and as the home of another British tradition, Bamforth’s saucy seaside postcards!
Amanda was the fourth of ten children born to Benjamin Brown, a wool corder, and his wife Hannah. She was baptised on July 27 at the Anglican church of Holy Trinity. In the 1851 census return, Amanda was recorded as a dressmaker.
On July 26, 1857, at the age of 23, Amanda married William Whitehead, a fuller, at All Hallows Church in Kirkburton. She was not able to sign her name on the marriage record and instead made her mark with an “X”. Amanda and William had two sons before William’s early death in 1863. Their second son died in 1864 and the following year Amanda married Joshua Battye, a fuller. They lived in Holmbridge, a small village near Holmfirth. Together they had seven children. Joshua died in 1908.
The 1911 census finds Amanda a widow living alone at 58 Brook Lane, Golcar. The village is about 7.5 miles from Holmfirth. We suspect that she moved to Golcar to be close to one of her children who lived in the village
Amanda outlived two husbands and five of her children; she died in the October of 1911, aged 77 years.
The sampler is worked with cross stitched over two threads of linen and some Algerian eyelets. It has been rated suitable for all levels of abilities.
With grateful thanks to The Contented Stitcher who lovingly stitch the model. The two bees stitched on the sampler are the mark (signature) of the model stitcher and are not part of the reproduction. At the very core of Hands Across the Sea Samplers there is a team of needleworkers who are passionate about antique samplers and being able to share those samplers with you.
