The Baddeley family are among the earliest and an important pottery families, originating at Eastwood and later potting in Hanley and Longton - their history in the Potteries extending from the early 18th century into the late 19th century. 

The family’s pottery connections began with William Baddeley [I], potter and lathe-maker at Eastwood, Hanley, who is recorded as making brown ware from about 1720 and later developing an lathe for the production of turned cane and brown ware articles.

The Eastwood works were continued by his son, William Baddeley [II] (b.1780), who manufactured Egyptian black, cane ware, red stoneware, and ornamental earthenware from 1802 to 1822. His wares were commonly impressed EASTWOOD, although the mark is often poorly struck, leading to occasional confusion with Wedgwood. 

Contemporary sources note that the Baddeleys produced wares in a style closely resembling Wedgwood’s black basalt and ornamental bodies.
During the 19th century the family’s pottery interests expanded into Hanley and Longton, where James Henry Baddeley, Henry William Baddeley (William III), and later William Baddeley [IV] operated a succession of works. 

Their production included terra cotta figures, rustic ware, pottery fittings, telegraph insulators, and decorative horticultural goods, particularly from the Drury Works, Normacot Road, Longton. The business was later continued by Lucy Baddeley, extending the family’s presence in the Potteries into the 1880s.

This page brings together the principal members of the Baddeley family of potters, showing the development of the family from the early Eastwood pottery through to their later Longton works.

NOTE: There was also a Baddeley family of potters who operated at the Broad Street Works in Shelton from around 1750, where the father John Baddeley was he manufactured cream-colored earthenware that rivalled the work of Josiah Wedgwood.

There is no known relationship between these two pottery families. 

[disambiguation of the 'William' name in this Baddeley family]

Confusingly Henry William Baddeley, grandson of William (I) often went by his middle name and is referred to in some accounts and trade directories as 'William Baddeley' and so for clarity is referenced here as 'William III'  

explore William (I)  »

Established the family pottery at Eastwood, Hanley.

• William Baddeley commenced making brown  ware at Eastwood about 1710, and 

• about 1765 'having invented an engine-lathe (sic) he began to make turned articles in cane and brown ware".

John Baddeley

b.1756 d.1841

First son of William Baddeley [I].  

• John Baddeley, took over the craft of lathe-making.

• Lathe maker to the pottery trade. In 1783 he charged £8 or £9 for the wood and ironwork of a lath, and from 6 to 10 shillings for the movements. 

William Baddeley (II)

b.1780

m. Amelia James

explore William (II)  »

Second son of William Baddeley [I], brother of John Baddeley. 

• Succeeded at the Eastwood pottery business and made improvements in the ware.

• Worked 1802 to 1822 (Jewitt). 

• On the death of this William Baddeley the Eastwood factory was sold and one of his sons Henry William Baddeley commenced in Queen Street, Hanley. 

• Small potworks used by him at Eastwood, Hanley, advertised for auction in June 1822 (Staffordshire Advertiser). 

Third son of William Baddeley [I]. James was a 'Silk throwster' of Eastwood, Hanley. 

• The silk mill erected by him was advertised for Auction in August 1827 (Staffordshire Advertiser). 

Henry William Baddeley
(William III)

b.1807 d.1864

m. Elizabeth Taylor Caulkin

explore Henry William  »

explore Elizabeth Taylor  »

Confusingly Henry William Baddeley often went by his middle name and is referred to in some accounts and trade directories as 'William Baddeley' and so for clarity is referenced as 'William III'  

• Elder son of William Baddeley [II]. On the death of his father  the Eastwood Factory was sold, and his son, Henry William Baddeley commenced to make terra cotta articles and pottery knobs for japanned tea and coffee-pots.

• Jewitt says he was 'the first to make telegraph insulators at the Market Lane Works'.

• In 1846 the business was removed to Longton where he acquired or worked factories in Commerce Street and St Martin's Lane, and introduced pottery imitations of stag and buffalo horn and bone hafts for cutlery. 

• After his death in 1864, the business did not immediately cease, but was continued by his widow Elizabeth from 1864 to 1875.

• She is described as a manufacturer of rustic and terra cotta figures. 

James Henry Baddeley

b.1811 d.1890 

m. Ann Baylay Caulkin (1837)

explore James Henry  »

Son of the second William Baddeley [II]. 

• He operated the Gloucester Street works in Hanley and then the Barker Street works in Longton. 

• J. H. Badddeley died in the workhouse in 1890 

William Baddeley (IV)

m. Lucy Ball (1862)

explore William »

explore Lucy  »

The son of Henry William and Elizabeth Baddelev - opened a factory for similar products called Drury Works, Normacot Road, Longton. 

• He married Lucy Ball in 1862.

• These business was continued by his wife Lucy from around 1879 to 1882. 

• In the 1881 census William is described as a Commission Agent and Lucy as a Terra Cotta Manufacture. 

account of the Baddeley family of potters 
in Jewitt's Ceramic Art of Great Britain, 1878

Accounts such as this can helpful in filling gaps in knowledge, but need to be handled carefully - this account covers a wide period of some 30 to 150 years before the time of writing - such history narratives can sometimes mix solid fact with anecdote and a bit of embellishment.

For example:

• Jewitts use of the term "Engine-lathe" refers to what we now know as a simple turning lathe - more »

• the supposed deception with the impressed name stamp may be: true, exaggerated, or an apocryphal anecdote which developed over time - the latter is probable as known examples of Baddeley's ware have a clear impressed 'EASTWOOD'

"Baddeley. — About 1720 William Baddeley (an old name in the district) commenced making brown ware at Eastwood, Hanley. 

About 1740, having invented an "engine-lathe," he began to make "turned articles in cane and brown ware. He was succeeded in the pottery by his son, William Baddeley; his other son, John Baddeley, taking the business of the lathe making, by which he acquired a competency, and died in 1841, aged eighty-five." 

This second William Baddeley made many improvements in the ware, and attempted, both by an imitation of body of his vitreous wares, and by his mark, to palm off some of his goods as Wedgwood's. His mark was the word EASTWOOD impressed on the ware, but he contrived always to have the EAST indistinct and the WOOD clear (EASTWOOD), thus hoping to catch the unwary by the latter syllable. 

He died at an advanced age, and the works at Eastwood having been sold, his son, William Baddeley, commenced in Queen Street, Hanley, for the manufacture of terra-cotta articles, and a large trade was carried on in earthenware knobs for tin and japanned tea and coffee-pots. 

He also made fancy pipes, japanned terra cotta, and other goods. He also, at the Market Lane Works, "was the first to make telegraph insulators in iron moulds with screw and lever pressure." 

The works were in 1846 removed to Longton (Wharf Street), and here the manufacture of imitation stag, buck, and buffalo-horn, and bone handles for knives, forks, &c., for the Sheffield trade, was first introduced. 

In this branch "a very good trade was done, but the working handlers of Sheffield refused to work them up, and threats were sent to several masters, that if they did not give up the terra-cotta knife-handle trade, their works would be blown up." The masters, thus intimidated, gave up the use of these handles, and on Mr. Baddeley visiting Sheffield, an attack was made on his life, and letters sent to him on his return threatening that if he did not give up making the handles, he and his works "would be done for." 

The manufacture was then discontinued. Mr. Baddeley "invented the thimble placing rack, now so extensively used; this he sold to Elias Leak, of Longton, who, in 1856, took out a patent for the invention." 

Mr. Baddeley, who died in 1864, held the St. Martin's Lane Works, and his widow now carries on business in Commerce Street. 

Their son, William Baddeley, commenced manufacturing in the Normacott Road, in 1862. His productions were rustic terra-cotta articles for floral, horticultural, useful, and decorative purposes ; the principal articles being fern-stands, vases, flower-stands, hyacinth-pots, flower-pots, garden-seats, flowerbaskets, mignonette-boxes, crocus-pots, globe-stands, brackets, inkstands, &c. The designs were all taken from nature, and appropriate to the intended use of the vessel. His imitations of bark, &c., and of various woods and plants, were remarkably good."

Jewitt's Ceramic Art of Great Britain, 1878, pp 401, 402.