178 THE WEDGWOODS. 



branch of the manufactory (the Queen's Ware), and in 

 this position Thomas Wedgwood remained until the time 

 of his death, in 1788. 



This Thomas Wedgwood wa^, I believe, cousin to Josiah, 

 being son of Aaron Wedgwood and his wife Hannah Malkin. 

 He was born, it would appear, in 1734, and was, therefore, 

 four years younger than Josiah. He was a man of high 

 scientific attainments, and has the reputation of being the 

 first inventor of the electric telegraph (afterwards so ably 

 carried out by his son Ralph), and of many other valuable 

 works. He married Elizabeth Taylor, of the Hill, Burslem, 

 and by her had issue, Ralph, of whose descendants more 

 anon; Samuel, who died without issue, at Whitworth; 

 Thomas, who died in New York of yellow fever, also with- 

 out issue ; Aaron, of Liverpool ; Abner ; and John Taylor 

 Wedgwood, the eminent line engraver, whose works are so 

 justly prized by collectors. 



Thomas Wedgwood, the partner of Josiah, of whom I have 

 just spoken, resided at Etruria, after the removal of the 

 works there, and died at that place in 1788, having, it is 

 said, been accidentally drowned. 



His eldest son, Ralph Wedgwood (elder brother of the 

 engraver), was three times married first to Mary Yeomans, 

 of Worcester, by whom he had issue Ralph Wedgwood, of 

 Barnes and Cornhill, still living ; secondly, to Sarah Taylor ; 

 and thirdly, to Anne Copeland, by each of whom also he had 

 issue. By the latter marriage was his son W. R. Wedgwood, 

 of Greyshot Hall, who has done so much, and so com- 

 mendably, to establish his father's claim to the invention 

 of the electric telegraph. 



Ralph Wedgwood was a man of extraordinary and varied 

 ability, the originator of important scientific inventions, 

 and the author of the " Book of Remembrance," published 

 in 1814, in which the invention of the electric telegraph, 

 under the name of the " fulguri-polygraph," is made known, 

 and its benefits precisely such as are now reaped by the 

 public are described. Ralph Wedgwood was born in 1766, 



