Purcell Nine Patch
with Thistle Border Quilt, c. 1830.
Photograph by John Herr. Private
Collection.
Over ten years ago I took a family quilt to be documented at the
Virginia Quilt Museum. After a lovely long conversation, I was
asked by the museum’s then-Director, Joan Knight, to Guest Curate an exhibit. Finding,
gathering, researching, labeling and returning quilts for the 2008 exhibit of “Quilts
and Quaker Heritage” was achieved with unwavering support and guidance from
Joan and many other quilt enthusiasts.
The earliest quilt we displayed was this splendid Nine Patch with
Thistle border quilt. Measuring 90 ½ x 86 inches, it is finely quilted in
diagonal rows and cross-hatches with natural-colored thread. Handed down
through five generations, family tradition attributes the quilt to Hannah
Taylor Purcell (1816-1882).
Detail of photograph by John Herr.
Quilted flowers and leafy vines
appear on the plain blocks that alternate with the blocks of nine-patch
construction. The 7 ½ inch wide, thistle-print fabric that borders the quilt is
rolled to the back to form a binding.
Detail of photograph by John Herr.
The quilt’s maker,
Hannah, was not a member of the Religious Society of Friends but she married into
a Quaker family. Hannah married Lott (or, “Lot”) Purcell (1808-1850) on
September 12, 1833 in Loudoun County, Virginia. According to Meeting Minutes,
the marriage was not sanctioned by Lott’s congregation. The Goose Creek Meeting
in Loudoun County, Virginia, disapproved because Hannah was not a member.
Shortly after their marriage Lott
appears in records of Hopewell Meeting in Frederick County, Virginia. Subsequently,
members of the Goose Creek Meeting asked members of Hopewell to meet with Lott
about his recent marriage. When Lott refused to acknowledge the marriage was an
error, he was disowned.
Although it could be painful, a Quaker disownment was not the equivalent of an Amish shunning (for example).
The practice was designed to bring an errant friend to consciousness and –
hopefully – get them to repent for their wrongdoing.
“As the Religious
Society of Friends turned inward in the 1700s, disownments over marrying out of
meeting were frequent. Couples who were disowned could continue to worship with
Friends and, with repentance, regain membership.” (Brady)
The list of reasons one could be
disowned was long. Marrying outside the faith (as did Lott), simply attending a
non-Quaker wedding, enlisting in the military, drunkenness, kicking a horse,
and dancing were just some reasons cited.
It would be interesting to know how many Friends continued to worship
with the people who disowned them. We do know from records that many of the
disowned simply left the faith, often joining other denominations such as the
Methodists.
One Quaker elder told me (with a
twinkle in his eye) a story about his great-grandfather. When asked if he was
sorry about marrying outside of the faith, he replied that he was: he was sorry
his new wife was not a Quaker! This somewhat-creative but truthful answer
allowed him to adhere to the religion’s tenet of honesty, keep his wife, and retain
his membership.
When Lott Purcell died in 1850,
Hannah was enumerated in the U.S. Federal Census of Frederick County, Virginia.
She is listed as living with their seven children the oldest of which was
sixteen: the youngest was just one month old. Hannah lived another thirty-two
years, always with or next to family members. Interestingly, despite Lott
Purcell’s disownment in 1834, both he and his wife, Hannah, were buried in a
Quaker cemetery. This graveyard adjoined the (no-longer standing) Upper Ridge Quaker
Meetinghouse on Apple Pie Ridge Road in Frederick County, Virginia.
Hannah Purcell's tombstone, Upper Ridge Cemetery.
The family who inherited Hannah’s quilt staunchly
claimed their Quaker heritage, even 185 years after Hannah and Lott were
married and Lott was disowned. We can never understand all of the ramifications of disownment for
historical Friends but through the lens of time, the inclusion of Hannah and Lott in a Quaker burying ground suggests a possibility that connections can transcend divisions.
Detail of photograph by John Herr.
Notes and Sources:
Ancestry.com, US Federal Census
Records, Retrieved 23 December 2018.
Marilyn Dell Brady, “Early Quaker
Families, 1650-1800,” in Friends Journal,
1 June 2009. See: https://www.friendsjournal.org/2009060/
Retrieved 23 December 2018.
William Wade Hinshaw, Encyclopedia
of American Quaker Genealogy. Vol. VI: (Virginia). To access Hinshaw’s
transcribed minutes of Quaker Meetings on Ancestry.com search “Card Catalog”
and enter the keywords, “Quaker Encyclopedia” to view a list from which you can
select a region. You can purchase bound, reprinted hard copies of Hinshaw’s
transcriptions from booksellers and find them at many libraries.
All text and photographs on this site are by Mary Holton Robare unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved. ©Mary Holton Robare 2018
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