The earliest surviving samplers date back to the sixteenth century, where they were used as a personal reference for experienced or professional embroiderers. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries however, when this example was made, samplers were increasingly being used as an educational tool for girls from all social backgrounds. Samplers also had an increasingly pictoral focus by this time, often framed with embroidered border patterns; the use of moralising texts and motifs also served as an expression of dutiful piety. This example was made by twelve year old Mary Grace in 1797.