by Ellen C. Weig, Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Hillsborough, NC, 2012
1901 bill of sale to Rebecca Hill (and St. Matthew’s Ladies Sewing Society) for project supplies
Miss Rebecca Hill was the Treasurer of the Ladies Sewing Society (LSS) of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough in 1866 and for many years. The daughter of Thomas Blount Hill and Maria T. Simpson she had been confirmed at St Mary’s School in Raleigh on November, 1855. Rebecca’s needlework talents for the Society included ornamental tatting which she added to the fine cravats she made and as complicated yokes for nightgowns. She also made dress bodies, beautiful embroidered sleeves, and handkerchiefs. Her contributions to the Society’s 1867 Christmas Tree sales were cravats of fine black silk and fashionable pincushions. The Society made investments and did their banking through Rebecca’s father, Thomas B. Hill, so it may well have been that Rebecca’s skills as Treasurer were influenced by her father’s professional endeavors. She never married and is buried at St. Matthew’s in the churchyard.
Rebecca’s younger sister, Alice (1853-1931), was also a member of the Ladies Sewing Society. She married Joseph Cheshire Webb, and lived at in the beautiful home, Bellevue, across from St. Matthew’s. For the Society she made stitched bands with tatted insertions but primarily made lace tatting. For the Christmas Tree Alice contributed a tobacco bag and penwipes.
The ladies of Rebecca’s family provided a model, inspiration, and companionship for her role in the Society. Miss Rebecca was named for her grandmother, Rebecca Norfleet (Mrs. Thomas Blount) Hill of the Hermitage in Scotland Neck, and the primary force behind the organization of the new parish of Trinity Church in 1831-32 (Smith and Smith, The History of Trinity Church, p. 35). Miss Rebecca’s aunt, Winifred Blount Hill married the Rev. William Norwood of Hillsborough, first rector of Calvary Church, Tarboro, which had an early Ladies’ Working Society in 1834-1840. Winifred’s daughters, Rebecca H Norwood, Helen Alves Norwood, and Mary L Norwood appear in the records of the St. Matthew’s LSS. Miss Rebecca’s cousin, Rebecca Norfleet Hill Smith, daughter of Whitmel John and Lavinia Hill, was the organist at Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, was the first president of the Ladies’ Sewing Circle in 1878, and was a primary force in building the Rectory at Trinity Church (Smith and Smith, p. 41-42). Miss Rebecca’s mother, Maria Simpson of New Bern, was the sister of Mrs. Elizabeth Adam Simpson Kirkland, and Mary Simpson (Mrs. Henry K) Nash, and had summered in Hillsborough with her family as a young woman. Miss Rebecca’s cousin, Annie Nash, was also a founding member of the St Matthew’s Ladies Sewing Society.
Sources:
St. Matthew’s Ladies Sewing Society Minute Books and Parish Records
Smith, Stuart Hall and Smith, Claiborne T., Jr., The History of Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, Edgecombe Parish, Halifax County , 1955. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/16850 Accessed online February 21, 2012.
Censur, Jane Turner. The Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood, 1865-1895. http://books.google.com/books?id=-elYTzynX4gC&dq=censur,+southern+womanhood&source=gbs_navlinks_s Accessed on line February 20, 2012.