The Hillborn Farm
Painted by Edward Hicks ca. 1845

Above: *The Residence of Thomas Hillborn,* by Edward Hicks, painted ca. 1845. Image source: Colonial Williamsburg
Inscriptions on the stretcher, not in Hick’s hand, added later: "Purchased by his son Cyrus Hillborn in 1845, when/this Picture was painted, by Edward Hicks in his 66th year."
"The Residence of Thomas Hillborn in Newtown Township/Bucks County Pennsylvania, in the Year 1821."

Thomas Hillborn was a Quaker farmer whose family had emigrated from Somerset, England. The painting shows Hillborn wearing typical Quaker clothing of that era, while he plows a farm field. Wife Margaret Hillman stands in the farmhouse doorway. Also in the painting are their five sons, a daughter-in-law and hired workers.
In 1821, Thomas Hillman was forced to sell this family homestead to pay off a debt. Years later, in 1845, his son Cyrus commissioned this painting from Hicks. By January 1846, Cyrus, then a prosperous Philadelphia merchant, wrote to Hicks expressing regret at having left Bucks County. That same year Cyrus Hicks resolved those doubts by buying back the farm.