Quilt Top

Quilt Top
New Hampshire, 1780-1840
Wool
Gift of Mrs. William R. Burleigh 

This quilt top came to Historic New England with a letter from the donor claiming it was “made from uniforms of soldiers who fell at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.” The quilt descended in the Riddle family of New Hampshire.  

In 1924, Historic New England founder William Sumner Appleton responded to the donor and said his object label would not change much from the account he received: “to put it just as given above is as near the truth as we shall be able to get.” 

He ended his letter by assuring the donor that further research would undoubtedly “uncover some member of the family who was at Bunker Hill or close enough to the scene of the fighting to secure the uniforms from which the bedspread is made.”  

Indeed, family ancestor John Ferguson (1757-1845) enlisted in the army at the age of 19 and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. However, it is unlikely that Ferguson stripped fallen soldiers of their jackets. 

The quilt is unlined and unfinished, and the grade of wool is consistent with cloth used in American military uniforms from the eighteenth century until the Civil War. British officers used a different grade of wool in their uniforms. Ferguson and other veterans may have donated their uniforms to the unidentified quilt maker who made this piece as a commemorative souvenir of the American Revolution.