CHAP, in Learns his Trade 2 1 



The next event of which we have positive know- 

 ledge is, that Josiah was apprenticed to his brother 

 Thomas at the age of fourteen. The deed of his 

 apprenticeship is still preserved in the Hanley Museum. 

 Five years is the term of apprenticeship mentioned 

 in the indenture, but as seven years was the usual 

 period allowed in such agreements, it is inferred that 

 Josiah had already served for some time in the pottery 

 when his apprenticeship commenced. Shaw, the local 

 historian, states that he worked as a thrower at the 

 early age of eleven years ; and he adds that a workman 

 of his day, named John Fletcher, could remember 

 making balls of clay for Josiah and his elder brother 

 Eichard, both throwers, when they were seated at two 

 corners of a small room, and he was placed between 

 them. 



The pottery turned out at the Churchyard Works 

 was of a common description, consisting chiefly of 

 black and mottled ware, baking dishes, pitchers, milk- 

 pans, porringers, and such like. Butter -pots were 

 made in large numbers. The butter-pot was a coarse 

 cylindrical vessel, about fourteen inches high, made 

 from the clay found in the neighbourhood of Burslem. 

 These pots were glazed before firing, with a mixture of 

 lead and manganese, and were sent on the cratemen's 

 backs to every part of the adjoining country, or sold 

 to the higglers, who carried them from village to village 

 in the panniers of their donkeys. 



Josiah continued to apply himself to the art of 



