JOSIAH'S EARLY LIFE. I f ^V; \ V , 10V 



Wedgwoed was born, and at which he-s 

 ticeship. 



Having traced, briefly, the history of the works in which 

 Josiah Wedgwood was born, at which he was apprenticed, 

 and at which he grew up to man's estate, down to the 

 present day, it will be necessary to again revert to the time 

 when he there learned the " art, mistery, occupation, or 

 imployment of Throwing and Handle ing." Of the period 

 of his apprenticeship, of the habits of the boy, of his occu- 

 pations when away from the wheel, or of his progress at the 

 wheel or the mould, but little is known. It is not mere 

 conjecture, however, to say, that his boyhood, and the years 

 which he passed in growing up to man's estate, were spent 

 in the most exemplary manner, and that he grew up a credit 

 to himself, an honour to the place which gave him birth, and 

 a blessing to his friends and relatives. I have heard it from 

 those best able to know from some of the oldest inhabitants 

 of the place that in their boyhood, at the end of the last 

 century, they were continually admonished by their parents 

 and grandparents to be good, as Wedgwood had been, and 

 to lead such a life as he, as a youth, had done before them. 

 It is pleasant to put this fact on record, and to hear this 

 kind of testimony given to the character of this great man, 

 even when young, that he was held up to the youth of his 

 native place as a pattern for emulation. 



