The Extraordinary Life of Mary Abbott Bridge’s Quilt
Mary Abbott Bridges: 1701-1774 (Maternal First Cousin 9x
Removed)
Sometimes I run across a little story or piece of
information that just delights or enlightens me so much that I need to blog
about it, even though the ancestor in question is so distantly related to me
that the connection seems ridiculous. Frankly, I don’t care. To me, the
important thing about genealogy is learning about the past through my
ancestors. History is my motivation. So here I am blogging about a first cousin
NINE TIMES REMOVED. But this cousin was an artist with needle and thread, and
she deserves to be remembered.
Mary Abbott was born March 23, 1701, to parents Nehemiah
Abbott and Abigail Lovejoy. Abigail Lovejoy was the sister of Anne Lovejoy, my
eighth-great-grandmother. The Abbott and Lovejoy families all lived in Andover,
Massachusetts. Mary was one of Nehemiah and Abigail’s three children.
As the only daughter, Mary seems to have taken
responsibility for her parents. She didn’t marry while she was a young woman but
remained in the family home. On August 31, 1738, she married a widower with
five children, James Bridges. She was 37 years old. She and James had three
additional children.
During the 1700s, nearly all colonial women were
accomplished seamstresses. They needed to make and mend clothing, bedding and
any other fabric object needed in their homes. Some were even spinning their
own thread and weaving their own fabrics, although during the early 17th
century most fabric was still being imported from England. Mary Abbott was more
than just a good seamstress, however. She was a true artist. Around 1738, she
finished a large whole-cloth quilt, which has, shockingly, survived for nearly
three centuries. As a whole-cloth quilt, the quilt top is a single, solid-color
piece of fabric. The artistry comes from the elaborate pattern Mary
handstitched in a contrasting thread color to bind the quilt layers together.
The quilt was one of the historic quilts described and
recorded as part of the Massachusetts Quilt Project, and the quilt was also
included in Lynne Bassett’s book, Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth.
Bassett described Mary’s quilt as “the
earliest bed quilt believed to have been made in Massachusetts”.
The Quilt Index describes the quilt as being made of a
“plain-weave” worsted wool fabric with wool batting and backing. The edges were
turned in, so no separate binding fabric was used. The color is described variously
as brown, green or “greenish brown”, which doesn’t sound very attractive.
However, one source I read said that colonists in the early 1700s preferred
basic, dark colors such as browns, dark blues, and greys, so Mary’s fabric
choice was fairly standard for that era. Mary used a blue worsted thread to sew
the pattern.
The Quilt index calls the stitching pattern a “motif design”
with “feathering” and the design is described as a “framed center medallion.” The
Bassett book provides a richer description, noting that the “elegant
quilting pattern” was a “combination of English tradition and New England
design innovation…Typical of English framed center-medallion design, a central
quatrefoil motif—framed by feathered vines terminating in opposing curves at
the corners—is surrounded by closely worked vines blooming in an impossible
array of stylized flowers, leaves and fruit. A variety of feathered borders
provides structure to this wild arrangement.”
The quilt in its current state is 86.5 x 65 inches. According
to the Quilt Index, the quilt is structurally sound although worn. As you can
see from the image above, the quilt’s pattern does not seem to be complete. The
Quilt Index indicates the quilt was “cut down and patched.” I believe a quarter
to one-third of the quilt has been cut off, probably due to some sort of damage,
with parts of the lost section used to patch the remainder. You can see below
that the pattern of the patch doesn’t match that of the surrounding area The
original would have had a symmetrical pattern, with the center rosette complete
instead of being cut off. I would guess the original dimensions were likely
86.5 x 90 or possibly 100 inches.
So how did Mary manage to create this piece of fabric art?
One source I read suggested that most colonial women bought whole-cloth quilts
from England, as they didn’t have time to sew for pleasure or beauty during
days filled with cooking, childcare, laundry, gardening, etc. Any sewing would
have involved maintaining the family’s clothes. Quilting was a pastime for
wealthy women, the source said.
The Abbott family was not wealthy, but Mary would have been
richer in terms of time than her contemporaries. She was unmarried during her
twenties and early thirties, so had no children or husband to care for. Even
so, the quilt must have taken an enormous amount of time to complete. Preparing
the pattern would have been a huge task by itself. She may have drawn the
pattern directly onto the fabric using charcoal, or she may have used a paper
template and used a pin to poke the pattern into the fabric. Given the size of
the quilt and the elaborate pattern, coupled with her other household
responsibilities, I would estimate the project took her at least two years to
complete—two years of squinting in poor light in a room either too hot or too
cold.
The Quilt Index record estimates the completion date of the
quilt as 1738, which is the year she married James Bridges. Bassett believes
the quilt may have been a trousseau piece, “evidence of her desire to bring
elegance to her new home.” There is no way to know for certain when she made
the piece.
Bassett also notes that James Bridges was a man of “great
influence and considerable wealth” who owned several slaves. While her married
life may have been financially comfortable, it ended tragically. Her husband
James was a maltster, which involved soaking, germinating and then drying
grains to produce malt, which was most often used for brewing beer. The drying
process required the use of a large kiln. Apparently, James had some sort of
accident involving the kiln, as his headstone states said he was “Being melted
to death by extreem heat.” What a horrible fate! He was only fifty years old at
the time of his death. Mary was left a widow with three young children, ages 8,
6 and 4, and a teenage stepdaughter and 18-year-old stepson.
James Bridges' headstone with cause of death at bottom
I have been unable to find information about Mary’s life
after her husband’s death. Some records claim she remarried in 1750 to a man
named Fiske, and that she died in 1774, but I have not been able to confirm the
marriage or death.
The history of the quilt is easier to trace. According to
the Bassett book, Mary gave her daughter Chloe the quilt. Chloe married Timothy
Osgood in 1765. Bassett wrote:
“At that time, it was still the height of fashion to have
a whole-cloth quilt on the most important bed in the house, and certainly Chloe
welcomed the gift. The quilt passed next to Chloe and Timothy’s son John Osgood
(b. 1773), who married Betsy Fuller. John and Betsy’s daughter Harriot (b.
1812) brought the quilt with her to Canada when she married Ralph Rugg of
Quebec in 1836.”
Bassett reported that the quilt was donated to the McCord
Museum in Montreal, but the museum no longer lists the quilt as being in their
collection. The Quilt Index states that the quilt is now in private hands. It
is unclear if the quilt had merely been lent to the museum by Mary’s
descendants who then reclaimed it, or whether the museum sold it to a private
collector.
The location of Mary Abbott Bridges’ quilt is far less
important than the fact that it has survived an amazing 288 years. This was not
a piece of artwork carefully packed in an archival storage container. Instead,
it was a practical household item, used for decades to keep family members warm
on cold Massachusetts night. I hope Mary’s descendants appreciated both the
beauty of the quilt and the hard work and artistry that went into its creation.
Sources:
The Quilt Index. Record 11-37-6786. Mary Abbott Whole Cloth
Quilt. https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=11-37-6786
Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project (MassQuilts). https://www.massquilts.org/MassQuilts_Project.htm
Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth. Bassett,
Lynne Z. University Press of New England. 2009.
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