Families recorded in lace bobbins

 These inscribed lace bobbins celebrate various family relationships. The first three celebrate parents: My dear father; Sarah Ions my dear mother; and A present from my father 1836. I think these three were made by the Compton family, with James making the two on the left and his father Jesse making the one with the spiral inscription. Jesse was born in 1793 and James died in 1889 so between them they covered a large part of the 19th century and made hundreds of bobbins for their local community in Buckinghamshire.

The next two bobbins recall a sister and a son: Eliza Hall my dear sister died Feb 5 1866; and My dear son David Hall 1866. These two people have the same surname but I don’t know if they were related. I have a feeling they probably were though because the date 1866 has been added as an afterthought to the second bobbin. I don’t know if David Hall also died in 1866 or that date just became important to the lacemaker, possibly because it was the year her sister died. There is no space on the bobbin to add the word ‘died’ but bobbin makers often used the shorthand D to signify death and there is room to squeeze that in, so the fact that it doesn’t appear suggests that it is not a memorial bobbin for her son.

The final two lace bobbins record Aunt Betsy and Aunt Sarah. There are quite a few of these bobbins with aunts names on them and I think they must have been given as gifts to the aunts. Families were larger then so most people would have had several aunts, and also family friends called aunts, who would all have been lacemakers and would have appreciated the gift of another lace bobbin for their work. These bobbins are a lovely reminder of the social and personal history recorded on lace pillows that reminded lacemakers of their loved ones as they worked.