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The sampler eventually ended up with another branch of the Taylor family, and until it was offered to our local auctioneers Dreweatt Neat early in 1996, was most recently owned by Mrs Kate Trimmer, daughter of Esther Erby Taylor and Tom Pond, of the local building firm Hoskins and Pond.
Dreweatts were anxious that its availability was made known to the parishioners of Chieveley and so it was featured on the front cover of the parish magazine, with a brief report of some tentative theories on its origins. Limited research in the Records Office at Shire Hall in Reading had indicated that there was a shoemaker named John Gibbons living at Down End, Chieveley, about this time. He and his wife Fanny had six sons between 1825 and 1835, all of whom are recorded in the Baptismal Register - but no daughter! However: the researcher felt that because there is a gap of nearly three and a half years between the births of the first and second sons, and the intervals between the later boys' births are between 18 and 27 months, there was maybe an unbaptized daughter born during this long interval!! But we know know that John Gibbons was not Eliza's father but her uncle.
Interestingly, this theory metamorphosed in the Auction Catalogue to be:
According to Baptismal records they had six sons between 1825 and 1835, but for
some reason their daughter was not christened, and therefore not registered.
Dreweatts describe the sampler as "an early Victorian sampler worked in tiny cross stitch by Eliza Gibbons in 1839, depicting a view of Chievely (sic) Church, with gravestones in the foreground, surrounded by biblical quotations, angels, baskets of fruit, trees and birds." Size 12 1/2 inches by 17 inches. Their estimated price (due I believe to anticipated local interest as the sampler is not in perfect condition) was between£400 and £600. There were no indications of the original colours of this piece, as they had faded over the years to the dark blue-greens and beigey browns that are seen in many old samplers.
Because of my interest in samplers, I was thrilled to hear about Eliza's sampler, and was determined that it must come back home. Discussion with my stitching friends determine that no-one was interested in a joint purchase (for obvious reasons!!), a purchase for the church would apparently involve lengthy discussions with appropriate church officials regarding permission to display it within the church, and for the village hall it would be a no-go proposition due to periodic vandalism. So it would appear that I would have to do this on my own.
I had worked out beforehand that I could afford a maximum price of £500, and this would have to be my limit. Come May 15th 1966, the day of the sale I set out in great trepidation to attempt this special purchase. In the event I ended up bidding £100 over my limit, but still lost to a higher bidder, and the piece was sold to Mr Pocock for £650. Upon enquiry, I discovered that this gentleman is another local resident who had been prepared to bid up to £1000 for Eliza's sampler, and had in addition sold another sampler in this same sale to help fund his efforts. Unfortunately neither of us had any idea that we were bidding against another like minded soul; but happily Mr Pocock had also set out with the same aim as me,to bring our Chieveley sampler safely home, and this he has done to his great joy and satisfaction.
Mr Pocock is also a keen researcher into family history, and has now unravelled for us this story of Eliza and her silken sampler
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