THE WEDGWOODS OF YORKSHIRE. 85 



It will be seen from this interesting document of tlie grand- 

 mother of the great Josiah, that his father (who inherited the 

 pot- works and other property) was made executor to the will 

 along with his uncle, Thomas Leigh. This Thomas Wedg- 

 wood, the eldest son, was born in 1687, and married Mary 

 Stringer, by whom, who survived him, he had a family of 

 thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters. The 

 daughters were, I believe, Maria, born in 1711 ; Anne, born 

 in 1712; Mary, born in 1714; Margaret, bom in 1720; 

 Catherine, born in 1726; and Jane, born in 1728; while the 

 sons were Thomas, of the Churchyard and Overhouse, born 

 in 1716; Samuel, in 1718; John, in 1721; Aaron, in 1722; 

 Abner, in 1723; Eichard, in 1725 ; and Josiah, in 1730. 



Most of these Wedgwoods were, of course, potters, and 

 carried on, in the different places in which they were 

 located, the ordinary business of the district. One branch 

 of the family settled at Yearsley, in the Yorkshire wolds, 

 at an early date, and commenced pot-making, which was 

 carried on successfully for some generations. In 1682 John 

 Wedgwood, of Yearsley, was " buried in woollen," as were 

 also in 1692 William Wedgwood, and in 1690 Isabell, who 

 was wife of one of these. John, the son of this John 

 Wedgwood, who died in 1707, was, I have reason to believe, 

 the John Wedgwood whose name appears on the puzzle jug 

 engraved on the following page, with the date 1691. 



The ware made by the Yorkshire Wedgwoods was the 

 common hard brown ware, made from the clays of the 

 district, and consisted, of course, mainly of pitchers, 

 pancheons, porringers, and other vessels of homely kind. 

 From researches I have made, I have succeeded in tracing 

 out, with tolerable accuracy, a pedigree of the Yorkshire 

 Wedgwoods for seven or eight generations, ranging from 

 the middle of the seventeenth century down to the 

 present time, when their descendants are still living in the 

 district, not as potters, but in other equally useful walks of 

 life. 



So well known were the Wedgwoods of this district, that 



