Hannah Callender Samson: Her Diary & Her Friends

 

A colonial couple

We are revisiting the long-ago marriage of Samuel Sansom, Jr. and Hannah Callendar Sansom,

a well-to-do Quaker couple who wed in 1762.

We really cannot know much about the relationship except for Hannah's diary entries. See the last post for her pleasant-enough references to her husband over the years.

Hannah was not alone in her group of friends in keeping a diary. Close friend Betsy (Betsey) Sandwith also wrote a journal that survives as The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker, lengthy enough to require three volumes. Hannah's and Betsy's diaries tell us much about how well-to-do Quaker women, born in the 1730s, spent their time together in colonial Philadelphia.

Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker (1735-1807) & Henry Drinker (1733-1809)

Quakers, disdaining vanity, did not have their portraits painted in Hannah and 

Betsy's time but silhouettes were permitted. Hannah's son

 Joseph Sansom became a silhouette artist.

Hannah Callender Sansom (1737-1801)

Joseph's late-18th-century portrait of his mother

is in the collection of the American Philosophical Society.

We can read Betsy Sandwith Drinker's diary for references to Hannah and her husband throughout their lives but find nothing revealing---except that there is nothing revealing.

(Illustration depicting late-18th-century fictional characters.)

The young women spent their days doing fancy needlework, alone and together, calling on
neighborhood friends and accepting calls for tea and meals from men and women in their circle.

Independence Hall Collection

Detail of the whole-cloth silk quilt Hannah and her cousins stitched,

perhaps for her wedding.

One can identify members of their large social group. Mutual friends of Hannah's and Betsy's included Betsy Moode, the Rawle sisters and brother Francis Rawle, all often mentioned. The women walked about during the day and visited "sundry shops" such as the Smiths who sold "wosted" and "cruels" for their embroidery and they dropped off silk yardage at milliners to make them bonnets. 

In the evenings neighborhood men of the same age called--- as Betsy Sandwith liked to write---"chez nous"(French for our house.) Men often mentioned were Henry Drinker, Samuel Sampson, Jr. and Samuel Emlen. 

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Volume of Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker's dairy

Considering the age of the group and parallels through time it is not surprising to find that they used the day's "social media" to share intimate details of their lives, entertaining each other by reading (sometimes aloud to the group) their diaries, although Hannah's and Betsy Sandwith's seem to be the only diaries to survive. In May, 1760 Betsy S. spent the day with the Sansoms and the Callenders and "read part of Samy Sansom's journal, which he lent me."  A few days later she was reading Hannah's.

Several of the group witnessed the Drinker's 1861 wedding,

 including Hannah's father and husband.

Hannah's "blue Taffety" quilt (silk taffeta is a plain weave, crisp fabric)

Close filler quilting in diagonal parallel lines emphasizes

the florals.

In the manner of young adults various couples paired off over time and married, "passing" Quaker meeting as they announced their intentions: Betsy Sandwith and Henry Drinker, Hannah Callender and Samy Sansom and Betsy Moode and Samy Emlen.

Once married, the friends' social life changed dramatically although couples continued to visit occasionally before the Emlens moved to England. Diaries were now filled with worry about childhood diseases and consequences of the 1776 revolution in Betsy Drinker's case. (Hannah left no diary kept during the war.)

Children grew up; prosperous merchants moved to the country and occasionally a second generation visited their parents' old friends.

Reading Elizabeth Drinker's diary over the decades reveals very little about the Sansom marriage other than it was unremarkable and she always seemed glad enough to see the Sansoms. Of course, Betsey was not the type to gossip.

I may remind you these people were 18th-century Quakers and looking at the "transparent" suggestions of their inner feelings with our sensibility is an error.