One of the many interesting aspects of our work here at Ipswich Libraries, is the unexpected directions in which our endeavours take us. While researching information about Australian quilts, one of our colleagues came across an entry on the National Museum of Australia’s website which mentions a rare autograph quilt.
In the late 19th century, autograph quilts increased in popularity as fundraising activities with subscribers making donations to have their signature or monograph on a square. In this particular instance, the quilt featured 650 embroidered signatures, names, initials and motifs and thus far, only a small amount of actual names have been identified.
While certainly an interesting piece of Australian history, how is this relevant to Ipswich, Queensland?
Through the detective work of curators at the museum, which you can read about here, it turns out that the first mention of this quilt was in The Coburg Leader in 1895. The quilt was displayed at the Coburg Presbyterian Church Bazaar which was held to raise money in response to the Kucheng Massacre in China. A rebel group called the “Vegetarians” attacked Western missionaries in China and of the eleven people killed, one of them was Miss Mary Ann Christina (Annie) Gordon from Ipswich.
Miss Gordon was born in Ipswich on 13 September 1864 and worked as a Sunday School teacher at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Brisbane Street. One hundred and twenty-five years ago today, Annie left Ipswich for Melbourne and along with sisters, Elizabeth Maud (Topsy) and Harriette Elinor (Nellie) Saunders, departed Australia to engage in overseas missionary work. At dawn on 1 August 1895, these missionaries were three of the 11 people who were killed in what is today still regarded as one of the most violent attacks on foreigners in China before the Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901. As you can imagine, this event shocked the people of Ipswich and Australia and was covered in great detail in the local newspapers.
In 1995, the Anglican Church bestowed martyrdom on Miss Gordon. This recognition was prompted by her great grand-niece, who visited Ipswich’s St Paul’s Anglican Church in 1993 and realised that while Miss Gordon was noted for her Sunday School teaching, there was no mention of her martyrdom. In the Anglican faith any person who is killed in the act of Christian witness is regarded as a martyr. The matter was presented to the Church hierarchy and on August 6 1995 a special remembrance service was held for her at at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Ipswich. With this recognition Annie, like the well-known Ipswich Anglican martyr Mavis Parkinson, will be remembered by the residents of Ipswich for years to come.
Information taken from – Honour for Ipswich Martyr : Missionary Killed in China 100 years ago, The Queensland Times 24 June 1995; A Lady Missionary, The Telegraph 30 January 1891; Autograph Quilt, National Museum of Australia; Nellie, Topsy and Annie : Australian Anglican Martyrs, Fujian Province, China, 1 August 1895.