The Prescott Girls - Study Guide
Preview the printable study guide below, or download the PDF for classroom use.
Accessible text version
This text version is provided for accessibility, classroom copying, and search.
The Prescott Girls - Study Guide
The Prescott Family and the Betsy Ross Connection
Family Ties Behind the Samplers
The needlework samplers connected to the Prescott, Johnson, and Canby families tell a story that stretches across generations. By studying the names stitched into the samplers and researching historical records, historians have been able to reconstruct how these families were related.
These family connections link the girls who stitched the samplers to one of the most famous figures in American history: Betsy Ross.
The Prescott Family
Rebecca Goodwin Johnson Prescott, often called Beckie, was born in 1827 in New Sharon, Maine. She was the daughter of:
Warren Prescott – a schoolteacher
Rebecca Johnson Prescott – who also made a sampler preserved today
Beckie had two younger sisters:
- Caroline Louisa Prescott
- Sarah Augusta Prescott
After the death of their father in 1833, the family moved to Dresden, Maine, where they lived with relatives at the Old Pownalborough Court House.
The Johnson Family
The Prescott sisters’ mother, Rebecca Johnson Prescott, came from the Johnson family of Dresden.
Several members of this extended family lived in the courthouse, including:
- Thomas Johnson, the Dresden postmaster
- William Johnson
- Captain Rowland Johnson, a sea captain
Because extended families often lived together in the nineteenth century, the Prescott girls grew up surrounded by relatives.
The Canby Family
The Prescott family later became connected to the Canby family of Philadelphia.
Beckie’s sister Caroline Louisa Prescott later married:
William Jackson Canby
William was the grandson of Betsy Ross, the Philadelphia upholsterer traditionally associated with sewing the first American flag.
William Jackson Canby later became known as the family historian who recorded the stories about Betsy Ross that helped make her famous.
The Claypoole and Ross Families
William Jackson Canby’s mother was Jane Claypoole, the daughter of Betsy Ross and her third husband, John Claypoole.
Through Caroline Louisa Prescott’s marriage to William Jackson Canby, the Prescott family became connected to the descendants of Betsy Ross.
This connection links the Maine sampler makers to a family that played a small but memorable role in the story of the American Revolution.
#
Simplified Family Tree
Betsy Ross married John Claypoole Captain John Johnson married Rebecca Goodwin
│ │
Jane Claypoole married Caleb Canby Rebecca Johnson married Warren Prescott
│ │
William Jackson Canby married Caroline ‘Louisa’ Prescott
Why Family Trees Matter in History
Family trees help historians understand how people were connected in the past.
By studying family relationships, historians can learn:
- how families moved between regions
- how traditions and stories were passed down
- how historical artifacts stayed within families for generations
The samplers stitched by the Prescott and Canby families were preserved because descendants recognized their importance and kept them safe for more than two hundred years.
Questions for Discussion
- Why do you think families preserved objects like samplers for so many years?
- How can family trees help historians understand the past?
- Why might family stories change as they are passed down through generations?
- How might the Prescott girls have felt knowing their sister later married into the Canby family?
- What objects in your own family might help tell your family’s history?
Activity
Create a simple family tree showing three generations of your own family.
Include:
- parents
- grandparents
- siblings
Family trees help historians and genealogists understand how people and stories are connected across time.