TERMINATION OF APPRENTICESHIP. 107 



trade, and made proposals to be received into partnership. 

 His brother, however, did not think it right to put his 

 wealth at stake in the pursuit of projects which he deemed to 

 be visionary, and declined the proposition. 



The term of Josiah Wedgwood's apprenticeship for five 

 years naturally expired on the llth of November, 1749, 

 when he was a little more than nineteen years of age, and 

 it appears more than probable that, for a short time at least, 

 after he was " out of his time," he remained at his old home 

 as journeyman to, instead of as he had hoped partner with, 

 his brother. It will have been noticed that by the terms of 

 the indenture, no wages were paid him during those five years, 

 his brother merely covenanting to find him in meat, drink, 

 lodging, and clothes. He had at this time, as will have been 

 seen by his father's will i.e., when he should attain the age 

 of twenty years the legacy of twenty pounds to begin life 

 with, and we next find him, having left home, lodging with 

 a Mr. Daniel Mayer, a mercer, at Stoke, and engaged in 

 making mottled earthenware knife handles, in somewhat 

 rude imitation of agate, tortoiseshell, and various kinds of 

 marble, which he supplied to the hardwaremen of Sheffield 

 and Birmingham. 



Here, at Stoke, in 1752, Josiah Wedgwood entered into 

 partnership with John Harrison, of Newcastle, afterwards 

 of Cliff Bank, Stoke, a man possessed of some means but 

 little taste ; and the two commenced business in manufac- 

 turing the same kind of goods as I have just named. Har- 

 rison was not, it appears, a practical potter, but was taken 

 into partnership by Wedgwood for the advance of capital. 

 Wedgwood, it is said, found the brains, and Harrison the 

 money, and the craft to appropriate to himself the lion's 

 share of the profits. The partners carried on their manu- 

 factory at what was Mr. Aldersea's pottery, at the top of 

 Stoke, and opposite to the works belonging to Mr. Hugh 

 Booth. Here, besides agate and other knife hafts, they 

 made the ordinary kinds of wares then in demand, both 

 " scratched and blue," and no doubt, but for " the cupidity 



