88 THE WEDGWOODS. 



" Thomas "Wedgwood, films Thome et Marie uxoris ejus, bapti- 

 zatus fuit 11 die," January 1686-7 



His father and mother having, as will be seen from the 

 following entry, married in 168^ : 



"Inter Thomam Wedgwood et Mariam Leigh, 26 die." 



The father of Josiah was therefore, it would seem, in his 

 forty-fourth year at the time of his birth, and had had a 

 family of thirteen children, most if not all of whom were 

 then living. 



At the time of Josiah's birth, as for many years before, 

 his parents occupied the house and pot-work closely adjoin- 

 ing the churchyard of Burslem, which had belonged to their 

 fathers before them, and in that house the man whose 

 memory all delight to honour was born. The house stood, I 

 have reason to believe, near the site of the slip-house shown 

 in the view of the Churchyard Works given on a succeeding 

 page; but it has been taken down many years, and not a 

 vestige of the building now remains. I believe in those 

 days there was an open pathway through the churchyard, 

 and that there was also an entrance to the works and house 

 from the churchyard. It is well to note, while speaking of 

 the birthplace of Josiah Wedgwood, that the house near the 

 works, now known as the " Mitre Hotel," in Pitt Street, 

 has, but erroneously, had that honour assigned to it. This 

 error has, no doubt, arisen from the fact of the house having 

 been built and inhabited by one of the Wedgwood family, 

 but at a somewhat later date. It has, however, been occu- 

 pied since then as a residence by a later owner of the 

 Churchyard Works, Mr. Green, and this has, doubtless, 

 strengthened the belief that the father of Josiah Wedgwood 

 had previously lived in it. 



Of the boyhood and early life of Josiah Wedgwood, as a 

 schoolboy, we know, unfortunately, literally nothing, beyond 

 the fact that he was an amiable, thoughtful, and particularly 

 intelligent child, ever quiet and studious, and delighting 

 more in thoughtful occupations than in the games and rough 



