THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 147 



In 1G85 Thomas Miles made a white "stone-ware" of pipe- 

 clay procured at Shelton. A few years after this, it is said that 

 a potter named Astbury made " crouch " and " white stone " ware 

 in the same town, on which he used a salt glaze.* It is probable 

 that the "chiney" of the Burlington pottery was in reality a 

 cream-colored ware or a white stone-ware somewhat similar to 

 that made about the same time in England. It is not unlikely 

 that the clay was brought from South Amboy, as Dr. Coxe owned 

 considerable land in that vicinity. This clay has since been ex- 

 tensively employed in the manufacture of fine stone- ware. 



Among the immigrants of the seventeenth century were pot- 

 ters who had learned their trade in the mother country, and 

 Gabriel Thomas, who came from England, states in his Descrip- 

 tion of Philadelphia, published in 1697, that "great encourage- 

 ments are given to tradesmen and others. . . . Potters have six- 

 teen pence for an earthen pot which may be bought in England 

 for four pence." 



It has heretofore been generally believed that the first bricks 

 used in the erection of houses in this country were imported, but 

 it is more than probable that by far the greater proportion were 

 made here. Daniel Pegg and others manufactured bricks in 

 Philadelphia as early as 1685, and within a few years after that 

 date numerous brick-yards were in operation along the shores of 

 the Delaware. Many residences throughout the country, particu- 

 larly in certain sections of Pennsylvania, were built of brick 

 early in the eighteenth century. The cost of importing these 

 supplies from England and transporting them to the rural dis- 

 tricts, far removed from tide- water, would have been prohibitory. 

 That building-bricks were extensively manufactured here pre- 

 vious to 1753 is indicated by a statement of Lewis Evans, of Phila- 

 delphia, who wrote to a friend in England in that year : " The 

 greatest vein of Clay for Bricks and Pottery begins near Trenton 

 Falls, and extends a mile or two in Breadth on the Pennsylvania 

 side of the River to Christine ; then it crosses the River and goes 

 by Salem. The ivhole world cannot afford hetter bricks than our 

 town is huilt of. Nor is the Lime which is mostly brought from 

 White Marsh inferior to that wherewith the old castles in Brit- 

 tain were formerly built." 



When burned, as formerly, in "clamps," the bricks formed 

 their own kiln, piled on edge, a finger's breadth apart, to allow 

 the heat to circulate between. Those which came in direct con- 

 tact with the wood-fire in the kiln were blackened and partially 

 vitrified on the exposed ends ; while the opposite extremities, 



* This was made of tobacco-pipe clay mixed with flint, and was superior to anything 

 produced before. 



