Misses Jane and Mary Hampson are considered the joint creators of the Westbury Quilt, an historic quilt created in the folk art tradition, depicting everyday life in the rural farming community of Westbury, Tasmania, Australia. The Hampson family Named after the regional Tasmanian town of Westbury, the historic quilt was created by sisters Mary Hampson (26 June 1868 – 1944) and Jane Hampson (13 October 1873 – 10 April 1950), possibly with the assistance of other family members such as sister Hannah (died 18 October 1952) over the years 1900 to 1903. They were the unmarried daughters of farmer John Hampson and Mary Ann Parker, and the grand-daughters of emancipated convicts. Biography The Hampsons were a long-established farming family, living on the farm "Fernbank" at Osmastin, outside of Westbury towards the Great Western Tiers. There were seven siblings and it is likely only one ever married. As no descendants were able to be traced, the quilt eventually passed through the hands of a Westbury neighbour, Mary Gray, who had assisted the last Hampson sibling in his later years. She did not have wall space to display it, so gave it to the Misses Genevieve and Myra Fitzpatrick, who hung it on the wall of their historic hostelry, the Fitzpatrick Inn, located on the Bass Highway at the eastern entrance to Westbury. Quilt provenance The Westbury Quilt is an historic quilt, completed in a domestic setting by two sisters from the Hampson family. Assistance may have come from a third sister Hannah, or other members of the family. The red cotton fabric could have been dyed at home, as the natural bright red colour known as turkey red or madder red comes from rubia tinctorum, an introduced plant. Construction of the quilt included patchwork, appliqué, embroidery, and piece work, with many delicate and intricate stitches. The quilt would have been created by gaslight or candle-light, as electricity did not arrive in the district until the late 1920s. The completed size is 223.0 h x 191.0 w cm and it is backed with pink flannelette. There are a number of panels with dates. The earliest panel with a date is the central motif featuring Queen Victoria, with the embroidered words "Good Queen Victoria", surrounded by "a floral garland representing the Empire", dated 1900. The latest dated panel is 28 December 1903, but it is not known in what order the individual patches