Margery Fletcher Sampson (10 August 1890 – 14 January 1915) was Scotland’s first female

bell-ringer A bell-ringer is a person who rings a Bell (instrument), bell, usually a church bell, by means of a rope or other mechanism. Despite some automation of bells for random swinging, there are still many active bell-ringers in the world, particularl ...

. She was also a teacher.

Early life

Margery Sampson was born in

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

to Alexandrina Dobbie and William Brook Sampson, a clerk.

Bell Ringing

There were no female bell-ringers in Scotland until 1907 when Sampson became a member of the bell-ringers at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, where her father was the ‘ringing master’. Two years later, she was the first woman to ring a church bell in Scotland, doing so at St Cuthbert’s Church in Edinburgh. Whilst living in Tamworth, England, Sampson became a member of both the Stafford Archdeaconry Society and The St Martin’s Guild of Church Bell-ringers in Birmingham. She went on to found the Ladies’ Guild of Bell-ringers, alongside others. Sampson rang twelve peals and she was the second woman to ring a peal of ‘Stedman Cinques (twelve bells)’ in the world.

Career

After school, Sampson attended the Edinburgh School of Cookery before moving to Tamworth, where she was employed by Staffordshire County Council. She lived in Tamworth for two years. Following this, Sampson returned to Edinburgh, where she taught at the Edinburgh School of Cookery.

Death

In 1915, Sampson died at the age of 24 years old. In tribute, bell peals were rung in several towers. The publication, Ringing World, commemorated her ‘whole-heartedness and enthusiasm which was an example to others’.

References

External links

https://cccbr.org.uk/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Sampson, Margery 1890 births 1915 deaths Campanologists 20th-century Scottish women 20th-century musicologists