Josiah Wedgwood 



CHAP. 



youngest of the family. In that respect he resembled 

 his contemporary Sir Eichard Arkwright, who was the 

 youngest of thirteen children. 



From the year 1710 to 1715, Bursleni was the 

 principal seat of the pottery manufacture in Stafford- 

 shire. There were few potworks anywhere else in that 

 county. Of the fifty small potters in Burslem, many 

 were named Wedgwood. They and their ancestors had 

 been manufacturers of earthenware for more than two 

 hundred years. 



Burslem used to be called the Butter Pottery, 

 meaning the place where butter pots were principally 

 made. The other earthenware produced in Burslem 

 was for the most part coarse in texture, clumsy in 

 design, and very liable to fracture; yet it was not 

 totally devoid of taste, either in form or ornament. 



It may also be mentioned that at the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century there were seven small potters 

 at Hanley (now a place of some 40,000 inhabitants) ; 

 but there was only one horse and one mule in the 

 hamlet. There was neither cart nor carriage of any 

 kind in Hanley, the roads being almost impassable for 

 even pack-horses. The coals used in the place were 

 carried on men's or women's backs. There were only 

 two houses at Stoke Ward's and Poulson's but no 

 potworks as yet existed there. 



Very little is known of Josiah's childhood. There 

 are, unfortunately, no family letters or journals of the 

 period to refer to ; and biographical material of any 



