126 THE WEDGWOODS. 



the farm buildings belonging to the Overhouse. They were 

 connected with the house by a doorway in the old brick wall, 

 still remaining, which forms an interesting link between the 

 present and the past. This doorway is shown in the vignette 

 on the preceding page. It is s'urmounted, as will be seen, by 

 a cleverly carved stone tablet, of remarkably good design, 

 and has evidently been intended to bear an inscription. The 

 Overhouse estate appears for a long time to have belonged 

 to the Wedgwoods. From 1620 to 1657 it was held by 

 Thomas Colclough, who married Catherine, one of the 

 co-heiresses of Thomas Burslem, and sister to the other 

 co-heiress, Margaret, married to Gilbert Wedgwood. Mr. 

 Colclough had an only son, who died without issue, when 

 most of his estates passed to his second cousin, Burslem 

 Wedgwood. Mr. Colclough (who at one time was constable 

 of the Manor of Tunstall) and his wife, Catherine Burslem, 

 resided for many years at the Overhouse, and he is described 

 as its occupier in 1662. In 1678, as appears by the will 

 which I have already given on a preceding page, Thomas 

 Wedgwood, who had married Margaret Shaw, died, seized 

 of the " Upper or Overhouse, with all barns, outhouses, 

 stables, cowhouses, yards, fields, orchards, and gardens 

 thereunto belonging, with the fish-pond and fish, and also 

 the Oxley Crofts, the great Old Field, the little Old Field, 

 the Oxley Croft Meadow, the Kill Yard," &c., along with 

 a considerable estate in land and houses. The Overhouse 

 and kilns, and other appurtenances, he devised to his widow 

 for life, or so long as she remained single, and at her 

 death, to his son John Wedgwood. This John Wedgwood 

 had a daughter, Catherine, who married her relative, Richard 

 Wedgwood. In 1718, Richard Wedgwood, by will, gave to 

 his wife, Catherine (daughter of John Wedgwood), all the 

 messuages, lands, &c., in the holding of Samuel Malkin, 

 with a piece of land, called the " Town Croft," and several 

 closes, called the " Brown Hills," for her life, and after her 

 decease, to his son John, in fee ; and to his said wife he 

 gave a work house, and one parcel of ground, called the 



