June 17, 2015

Hitty Visits the Quaker Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village!

To Be Most Content!
Hitty looks peaceful and content at the window in the Quaker Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village. Hitty likes to be called Hitty Content when she is wearing Quaker dress, as above.

Several of our ancestors were Quaker, including my 4th great grandmother who was named Content Hoag. Content was also (through a different family line of mine) my 4th great grandfather Abram Hoag's first cousin.

Hitty Content said "Thank thee, Tillie, for making me a Quaker outfit!"

Hitty's Quaker frock with pleats about the waist of the skirt and at the shoulders of the sleeves, her fichu, and cap were made by the talented little Tillie Tinkham, seamstress mouse for the dolls at Corgyncombe.  Tillie patterned the little ruffled cap after the "Cap for a Young Member of the Society of Friends" in "The Workwoman's Guide, By A Lady, A Guide to 19th Century Decorative Arts, Fashion and Practical Crafts, 1838".

In referencing bunnies and knitted rabbit wool items from Beatrix Potter's stories and a knitting pattern, Tasha Tudor mentioned "The Workwoman's Guide". Tasha Tudor wrote to us:



"You must have read Sarah 'The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.' Remember they gave Mrs. Tittlemouse enough rabbit wool to knit several pairs of muffatees?! 'The Workwoman's Guide' has directions. Maybe you also own this invaluable work?"

We at Corgyncombe find that "The Workwoman's Guide" is indeed a most valuable guide. It contains information, patterns, and instructions relating to bonnets and caps, collars, stitches, shawls, frocks, sleeves, knitting, household items, and many other things. The book has instructions for making little stitches and "neat" and "neatly" are predominant words.

Tillie Tinkham is in agreement with Tasha Tudor: "The Workwoman's Guide" is an "invaluable work"!

The year 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Tasha Tudor's birth in 1915!

Nanny Nettie-Kin reminds us of Tasha Tudor and we and the dolls and critters of Corgyncombe will be celebrating this, the 100th year since Tasha Tudor's birth!

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.


The Quaker Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village


Inside the Quaker Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village.
The women sat on one side in the Friends' Meetinghouse and the men sat on the other.



My Grandmum and Grandfather were both of early New England Quaker descent. Both of their families started out in Massachusetts, north of Boston in the Newbury area and south of Boston in the Dartmouth area. Their Quaker families, known as the Society of Friends, then settled in an area known as the Oblong.

The Oblong was a long, narrow strip of land whose ownership was disputed between Connecticut and New York. In this long, narrow strip, my Quaker families settled and lived.

"The History of Dutchess County, New York" edited by Frank Hasbrouck, published 1909, says the following: "The Oblong Patent, covering a narrow strip along the east borders of Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties, was ceded to the State of New York by Connecticut, May 14, 1731."


Inside the Friends' Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village.


May apple blossoms at sunrise down near Corgi Creek.

Tasha Tudor was inspired by the movie "Friendly Persuasion" to illustrate the endpapers of "Around the Year". The endpapers of "Around the Year" show a couple riding in a horse and buggy, crossing a creek, with lovely countryside round with sheep and cows to pasture.


The Quaker Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village.

The movie "Friendly Persuasion" was about a Quaker family amidst the Civil War. The movie's introduction song is so lovely accompanying this post.




Looking down from upstairs in the Friends' Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village.

In the book "Hitty, Her First Hundred Years" by Rachel Field, the original Hitty finds herself living with a Quaker family with a little girl named Clarissa Pryce.  After Clarissa found Hitty's name had been cross-stitched on her chemise she told her: "Thee must have been thought highly of, Hitty, to wear coral beads and thy name in cross-stitch, too." Clarissa sewed a Quaker frock, fichu and cap for Hitty and said "Now she looks like a true Friend". In the book, the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier visited the Pryce family and met Hitty. He was pleased Hitty was in Quaker dress and he wrote a poem about Hitty that appears in Rachel Field's book "Hitty, Her First Hundred Years":

"These verses are in praise of thee,
Thou finger's length of modesty,
Whose tranquil brow and dress of gray
Become thee more than bright array."

The time that Hitty spends with Clarissa Pryce is our favorite part of the book "Hitty, Her First Hundred Years".


The Quaker Meetinghouse at Old Sturbridge Village.

We have the featured antique caps and "The Workwoman's Guide" before at the Corgyncombe Courant.
Here is a link to:

Here is a link to another post featuring our Quaker ancestors at the Corgyncombe Courant:
A Carriage Ride Along Corgi Creek!
May Day Delights!


Here are links to our previous posts in the series of
"Hitty's Journey and Adventures
at Old Sturbridge Village"
at the
Corgyncombe Courant:


Hitty Visits Old Sturbridge Village, Freeman Farm!

At Old Sturbridge Village Hitty Finds George Washington!

Hitty, Tasha Tudor Birthday Celebration,



Here is a link to:
Old Sturbridge Village



Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com



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copyright © 2015 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
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