The Royal School of Needlework has many beautiful samplers in its collection. One such sampler is a tiny piece, worked on linen with deep purple silk threads. It is small, the size of a modern-day letter envelope. On it is stitched, ‘ACKWORTH SCHOOL 1783 B. RICKMAN’. It is typical of late 18th-century Quaker samplers but tells a completely unique story.

This sampler, worked by Benjamina Rickman at Ackworth School in 1783, is the earliest known sampler of this style from the school. The sampler is embellished with medallions, the name given to the octagonally and half-octagonally framed geometric, floral, and faunal motifs that so frequently adorn Quaker samplers. Benjamina’s sampler includes five half octagons, as well as motifs like crowns, birds, and a variety of letters.

Benjamina Rickman was a Quaker girl from Westminster, London, who attended Ackworth School from 1780 to 1785. Her extract sampler, which is a very plain sampler featuring a moralising text, her name, and the year in which she stitched her sampler, is in the collection of Ackworth School. Ackworth School was founded in 1779 in Pontefract, West Yorkshire for the children of poorer Quakers. Girls at the school were taught to make marking, darning, extract, and medallion samplers.

This medallion sampler style is commonly thought to have originated at Ackworth School but was actually occasionally practiced by Quakers in Ireland, England, and colonial America throughout the 18th century before being adopted and popularised by Ackworth. It was taught at a variety of Quaker schools on both sides of the Atlantic from the late 18th century through the first decades of the 19th century.

Benjamina Rickman’s sampler is by far the earliest Ackworth medallion sampler, produced five years earlier than the next earliest example. As of 2006, the earliest known Ackworth medallion samplers were produced in 1790. A 1788 example made by Ann Coates was sold at auction several years ago. Benjamina’s very early example rewrites our previously held beliefs about the spread of this particularly Quaker sampler style and inspires questions about who brought the style to Ackworth and when. This treasure from the RSN collection is an incredibly important piece of sampler history.

To keep up to date with the RSN’s Digitisation Project, make sure to follow the journey via instagram