Sampler, 'Jesus permits thy gracious name to stand....'
Agnes Grange
Category
Textiles
Date
1841
Materials
Wool work
Measurements
350 x 350 mm; 490 mm (Height); 490 mm (Width)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
East Riddlesden Hall, West Yorkshire
NT 201627
Caption
This sampler by Agnes Grange is one of countless examples produced during the 19th century by girls from a wide range of social backgrounds. They frequently followed standard patterns and were demonstrations of the sewing skills that most women would be expected to employ throughout their lives. Many feature the verse picked out here, which explicitly connects Christian piety with the act of embroidery: ‘And while my fingers o’er this canvas move/Engage my tender heart to seek Thy love.’ Such textiles often lose all connection with their creator, but here we know that Agnes was the youngest daughter of Areton and Anne Grange (née Slingsby), tenants at East Riddlesden Hall near Keighley in West Yorkshire. Agnes’s mother was from a family of cattle farmers who rented pasture on the East Riddlesden estate, while her father was a bookkeeper who may have worked for the estate’s absentee landlords. Agnes had been born in the hall in 1828. In 1840 Agnes’s world changed when her father rescued a man drowning in the local canal, only to die himself from an ‘inflammation of the lungs’ soon afterwards. The widowed Anne soon left East Riddlesden and moved in with her brothers around the time this sampler was being created by her teenage daughter. Perhaps in these stitches we see not only a formulaic act, but a rather more personal processing of grief and mourning. The following year Anne would also die, leaving Agnes an orphan. In 1849 Agnes married Thomas Webster, a butcher and hide merchant from Liverpool, going on to raise a large family of her own.
Summary
Wool work sampler by Agnes Grange who was born and lived at East Riddlesden Hall. Design of children, flowers, animals and birds within a floral patterned border; in heavy painted frame. Dated 1841.
Full description
Agnes Grange (1828-1895) was the youngest daughter of Areton and Anne Grange (nee Slingsby) who were tenants at East Riddlesden Hall from the 1810s until Areton's death in 1840. The Slingsbys were cattle breeders from Carlton-in-Craven who rented pasture land on the East Riddlesden estate. After Areton's death, Anne and her children went to live with her brothers back in Carlton-in-Craven. Agnes later married a Liverpool butcher and hide dealer called Thomas Webster.
Marks and inscriptions
Inscription in centre reads:- Jesus permit thy gracious Name to stand. As the first effort of an infants hand. And while my fingers o'er this canvas move. Engage my tender heart to seek thy love. By thy good precepts be my conduct taught. Correct my will and regulate my thaught. In death support me and in judgment save. Give peace on earth and bliss beyond the grave. 1841 Agnes Grange's Work XXX
Makers and roles
Agnes Grange, maker
References
Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 110-111