Ijonds of family relationship, the factors arranged the 

 exchange of American raw materials for the manu- 

 factured goods in which their English counterparts 

 specialized. 



That there was a large and important commerce in 

 North Devon earthenware to account for many of the 

 relationships between Bideford, Barnstaple, and the 

 colonies seems to have remained unnoticed. Indeed, 

 the fact that the two towns comprised an important 

 center of earthenware manufacture and export in 

 the 17th century has hitherto received little attention 

 from ceramic historians, and then merely as sources 

 of pictin-esque folk pottery. Yet in the excavations 



of colonial sites and in the British Public Records 

 Office are indications that the North Devon potters, 

 for a time at least, rivaled those of Staffordshire. 



The earliest record of North Devon pottery reaching 

 America occurs in the Port Book entry for Barnstaple 

 in 1635, when the Truelove, Vivian Limbry, master, 

 sailed on March 4 for New England with "40 doz. 

 earthenware," consigned to John Boole, merchant.'^ 

 The following year the saine ship sailed for New 

 England with a similar amount. After the Stuart 

 restoration larger shipments of earthenware are 

 recorded, as illustrated by sample listings (below) 

 chosen from Port Books in the British Public Records 

 Office. 



TvpiCAi, Shipments of Earthenw.are from North Devon 

 (Sample entries from Port Books, verbatim) 



BARNSTAPLE 1 665 '* 



24 



15 Port Book, E 190/959/6. 

 '« Ihid., E 190/954/6. 

 1" rhid., E 190/959/6. 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



