CHAPTER II. 



BIRTH OF JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. HIS FATHER AND GRAND- 

 FATHER. BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. INDENTURE OF 

 HIS APPRENTICESHIP. ABNER WEDGWOOD. THE AST- 

 BUR YS. THE SECRET OF THE ELERS DISCOVERED BY 

 STRATAGEM. DISCOVERY OF THE USE OF FLINT. THOMAS 

 WEDGWOOD. THE " CHURCHYARD " WORKS, BURSLEM, 

 AS THEY WERE, AND AS THEY ARE. DESCENT OF THE 

 PROPERTY. MESSRS. BRIDGWOOD AND CLARKE. PRO- 

 DUCTIONS OF THE WORKS. CHARACTER OF JOSIAH 

 WEDGWOOD AS AN APPRENTICE. 



JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, it will have been seen, was like 

 another self-made man, Sir Richard Arkwright, who was 

 born only two years later the youngest of a family of 

 thirteen children ; and therefore, whatever patrimony there 

 might be in the family, it is tolerably certain the usual 

 fate of younger sons that of having to work out the 

 problem of their fortunes must have awaited him. How 

 successfully he solved that problem future chapters will 

 amply show. 



He was born in July, 1730, and was baptised on the 12th 

 of that month, as will be seen by the following extract 

 from the parish register of his native place, Burslem : 



" 1730. Josiah, son of Thomas and Mary Wedgwood, bap d 

 July 12th." 



His father was, as has been shown in the preceding chapter, 

 Thomas Wedgwood, eldest son of Thomas Wedgwood, 

 potter, of the Churchyard House and Works, by his wife 

 Mary Leigh. Thomas Wedgwood, the father of Josiah, 

 was baptised at Burslem in 1686-7. The following is the 

 entry in the register of that parish : 



