28 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



him, and exhorted him to confine himself to the beaten 

 track of the trade. Nevertheless, Josiah continued to 

 pursue his experiments as before. It was not so much 

 that he desired to be original, as that he resolved to 

 pursue his profession to the furthest limits of efficiency 

 and beauty. 



While still in his apprenticeship, Josiah's mother 

 died in 1748, and was laid beside her husband in 

 the churchyard at Burslem, adjoining the pottery 

 works. Josiah, who was now about eighteen years old, 

 continued to live in the same house with his brothers 

 and sisters, who were all older than himself, but 

 Josiah was the only one of the thirteen children who 

 arrived at any distinction. His brother Eichard, who 

 was five years his senior, was a thrower, and had 

 worked in the same room as Josiah; but, becoming 

 tired of the pottery trade, he left the works and enlisted 

 as a soldier. He went away and never returned to 

 Burslem. It is not altogether surprising that Richard 

 Wedgwood thought he could do as well as a soldier, 

 for the wages paid to young men at the potteries were 

 very small. William Fletcher, who made balls of clay 

 for the two brothers, was paid fourpence a week for 

 the first year, sixpence for the second, and ninepence 

 for the third. 



Besides what we have said as to Josiah's progress, 

 comparatively little is known of him during his ap- 

 prenticeship. Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, however, says of 

 him : " I have heard it from those best able to know 



