THE COWGILL MEMORIAL SAMPLER

Sacred to the Memory

Of Elizabeth Cowgill who

Departed this life Oct^r 22^nd 1825

Aged 35 years

Also of Jonas Cowgill who

Departed this life Mar^ch 29^th 1853

Aged 70 years

My father he is dead and gone

And will no more my father be

O I would sit and weep and mourn

If he would come again to me

Elizabeth Binns 1868

This memorial ‘sampler’ was embroidered by Elizabeth Cowgill in 1868. It measures 65cm x 61.5cm and is mounted in a frame 40mm wide.

Her father Jonas was born around 1783 and married Elizabeth Hutchinson in 1808.

Elizabeth, the couple’s fourth daughter, was baptized on 17 October 1819.

She was only 6 when her mother died in 1825 aged 35.

Jonas may have remarried in 1832 but his new wife only lived for a further 14 months.

By 1841 Jonas was recorded in Ickornshaw as a farmer occupying Farthing Hall, later known as Shay Bank or Intake Farm.

Elizabeth was still a spinster when her father died in 1853 at the age of 70.

She married John Binns the following year and had two children – John and William Henry.

The Binns family carried on living at Shay Bank Farm.

In 1868 she completed the memorial sampler pictured above.

Elizabeth Binns died in January 1887 and was buried on 20 January at Cowling Holy Trinity Church.

Her descendants continued to occupy Shay Bank until at least 1913 and were still living in Ickornshaw village in the 1940s – Elizabeth’s grandson, John William, died there in 1942.

The family is presumed to have been the keeper of the memorial sampler at least until this time.

The tapestry was offered for sale in Skipton in late 2013.

It is thought to have been the property of Maureen Cowgill, who died in Cowling on 23 February 2012.

Maureen was born in 1929 to Arthur Cowgill, whose great-grandfather was the Jonas Cowgill mentioned on the tapestry.

Elizabeth Binns nėe Cowgill

from 1:2500 OS Plan dated 1909