Today I heard from the owner of one of the samplers that will be included in the exhibit, that of  Deborah Gordon. It's from the largest group I have linked, all likely done in the same Portland school. He told me that he knew little about Deborah except that she married Peter Thacher in 1810. I decided to try to find out a little more about her since each of the sampler makers will have a brief biography for the exhibit and publication. One of the first things I discovered was intriguing. Peter Thacher was the son of Joshiah Thacher and Apphia Mayo.

Mayo is NOT a common in name in Maine, but in the Maine sampler world it's well-recognized. One of the most important of the Portland female academies was the one operated by the Misses Mayo from the early 1820s until well into the 1840s. There were six Misses Mayo, the daughters of Martha Merchant and Simeon Mayo who was an important (presumably that means well-to-do) Portland sea captain and ship owner. He was from Portland, although his father was from Cape Cod. The daughters were Martha (1782-?), Apphia (1785-1839), Maria (1788-1840), Sarah (1793-1886), Eliza (1785-1847) and Mary (1798-1853). While all the family were living together on the 1800 census, in 1810 Martha and her daughters were living separately from Simeon, an unusual situation.

The Misses Mayos' school has been linked to a well known group of both samplers and silk embroideries that can easily be connected to each other by the inclusion of a little cherub drawn on nearly all of them. (There must be more without the cherub because the last known piece with it dates from 1826.) In 1827 daughter Martha married, the only one of the girls to do so, and after that there are no more cherub works, so perhaps she was the artist for this artful group of needlework. The school was last noted on the 1847-48 city directory so it most likely closed shortly after the death of Eliza when just two sisters were left.

After a little further research, I found out that the Apphia Mayo that married Josiah Thacher was the sister of Simeon Mayo and so the aunt of the Misses Mayo. Is that an important or significant connection? I don't think so. Apphia likely died before the Misses Mayo started the school. (I'm still working on that one!) and it also appears probable that Deborah Gordon, too, would have passed away. A record I found said that she died December 7, 1810, only about nine months after her marriage. Peter died the following spring, of consumption. The sampler descended in the Gordon family, through one of Deborah's siblings. The Misses Mayo almost certainly knew of her life and death, but it's hard to see that it would have influenced their instruction. So maybe all of this was just a long trip down a dead end street, but it's an interesting coincidence, and a nice look at the interconnections between southern Maine people of that era.