Chronology

Josiah Wedgwood I

1730

Birth of Josiah Wedgwood at the Churchyard Works in Burslem, the 'mother-town' of the area known as the Potteries.  Although we do not know the date of Wedgwood's birthday we know that he was baptised on 12th  July very soon after his birth.  In those days babies were baptised as young as possible because many died within a few days of being born.

Churchyard Works, Burslem

(Josiah Wedgwood's birthplace, 1730)

1739	Wedgwood's father died and Josiah had to give up school in order to work in the family business as an apprentice to his big brother, Thomas.
	When Josiah was about 11 years old he caught an illness called smallpox which was very common in those days and which sadly killed a lot of people.  Josiah lived at the Churchyard Works right next door to the Churchyard itself where people who suffered from the disease were buried.  Some people think this is where he caught smallpox.  Luckily Josiah survived but it left him with a very painful abscess on his knee called 'Brodie's Abscess', or to give its proper medical name 'Osteomyelitis'.  This was in fact a blessing in disguise because although it stopped him from working the potter's wheel with his foot, it meant that he turned his mind to the way pottery was made and the different types which could be produced.
1752-1754	Josiah worked in a partnership with the potters called John Harrison and Thomas Alders.

1754-1759

Josiah went into partnership with Master Potter, Thomas Whieldon of Fenton who was to teach him so much about clay and making pottery.

1759	Josiah started a career on his own at the Ivy House Works in Burslem.  Many of his shapes were decorated with a  green glaze and were made to look like cauliflowers, pineapples and melons.

1761	Josiah introduced cream coloured earthenware which had to go to Liverpool to be decorated by printing.  Just imagine all those fragile cups and saucers and plates being packed into baskets and travelling on the back of a donkey along very rough roads - of course a lot of it would have been broken by the end of the journey.  That is why Josiah was so keen to help with the promoting of canals especially the one which joined together the River Trent in Staffordshire with the River Mersey in Liverpool.  This way, his fine products would have a much smoother journey so that they could be sold at local markets or sent across the sea to other countries such as America.
1762	Wedgwood had a nasty accident on his way to do business in Liverpool when his horse bolted and Josiah hurt his already injured knee.  As he was recovering in bed in Liverpool his doctor, who knew that the lively potter would be very bored, introduced him to a local business man called Thomas Bentley who would become his very best friend and later his business partner.

1764	Josiah married his distant cousin, Sarah Wedgwood, whose father, Richard had made the marriage as difficult as possible - insisting that the wedding would not take place until Josiah had made enough money in order to provide his daughter with all she needed to give her a comfortable life.

Josiah cherished his wife who he called 'Sally', and told his friend Thomas Bentley that she was his 'chief help-mate'.  He said that he never finished any of his pots with first asking Sally what she thought of them.   Together, Josiah and Sarah had a family of seven children (three boys and four girls) although they also had another son, Richard who sadly died when he was still small.  By this time Josiah was successful enough to move to a better factory called the Brick House or the Bell Works.

Brick House Works, Burslem

(1764-73)

1765	Wedgwood's cream coloured earthenware became known as 'Queen's Ware' since Queen Charlotte herself (the wife of King George III) was very impressed with her own Wedgwood tea and coffee service.

1768

Wedgwood very bravely decided to have his leg amputated in order to stop the pain of his right knee.  This was most courageous as at this time there was no anaesthetic, and most people who were unfortunate enough to lose a limb died of shock during the operation.  Just in case, the patient had to pay for their own funeral before the operation took place!  Don't forget that this was the time in history when leeches were used in various medical treatments.     Also during this year, Wedgwood perfected a type of ceramic ware called Black Basalt.  As the name suggests this was is made from very dark clay which is found close to the seams of coal deep underground.

	Wedgwood also opened his third London showroom in Newport Street.
1769	In June of this year Wedgwood and Bentley opened their brand new factory at Etruria.  It was a very merry time with Josiah treating his workers to supper in Burslem Town Hall that night.  In order to mark the occasion Wedgwood and his friend and later partner, Bentley, made a number of Black Basalt vases called 'First Day's Vases'.  As Wedgwood was unable to turn the potter's wheel this was done by Bentley while Josiah formed the pots with his hands.

Etruria was built in what was then the middle of the countryside between Hanley and Newcastle-under-Lyme, so that the factory workers could all enjoy the clean atmosphere instead of the smoke of the busy Potteries.  Josiah even made sure that they had new cottages to live in.  Early in the morning the men and women would hear a bell ringing at the factory telling them it was time for work.   The factory itself was the most modern in the area and important people and Royalty came from all over the world to see it.  As you can see from the pictures a canal ran in front of the building, bringing the raw materials such as clay and coal needed for the manufacture of pottery.  When the ware was finished it could again be taken by canal to be sold at local markets or overseas.

1773

Empress Catherine of Russia ordered a dinner and dessert service from Wedgwood which shows that he was becoming more and more famous.  The service was enormous - there were 952 pieces altogether! And each one was decorated with at least one hand-painted picture showing a famous house or garden.  Also, every piece had a small frog painted on it because Empress Catherine's Palace was in a place called the 'Frog Marshes'.  This is why the service is sometimes called the 'Frog Service'.  The service was completed and sent to the Empress in 1774.

1775

Jasper was first made.  When people think of Wedgwood they imagine a blue and white vase or perhaps a cup and saucer.  This is what we call Jasper.  However, to begin with Jasper is white, and by adding different ingredients it can be turned into blue, green, red, black, yellow, lilac - virtually all the colours of the rainbow.

1780	Thomas Bentley died and Josiah was very sad to lose such a close friend and business partner.  Bentley had been sent to work in Wedgwood's London Showroom which had been used before as an operating theatre.  It is thought that perhaps it was not properly cleaned before Wedgwood set up his showroom and that poor Thomas most likely caught a deadly disease while he worked there.
1789	Wedgwood made his first copy in black and white Jasper of an ancient Roman glass vase which still survives to this very day in the British Museum, London.  This vase, known as the Portland Vase, was so important that a picture of it is used on the backstamp of Wedgwood ware even to this day.

	In the 1840s, the very old glass vase was smashed in an attack.  Luckily because Wedgwood had paid so much attention to detail when he was making his own copy it was possible to mend it using the Wedgwood Jasper Portland Vase as a model.
	The Portland Vase is decorated with scenes of gods and goddesses, although no one is absolutely sure who they are and what the picture tells us.  In fact on the bottom of the vase is a mysterious person who holds its finger to its lips as if to keep the secret of the vase forever.

1790	Josiah was joined in the business by his sons, John and Josiah II, who helped their father to continue the tradition of making pottery.
1795	Josiah died at his home in January, leaving the business that he had built up out of nothing when he was often ill or in pain.  No wonder he is often looked upon as a local hero.