Josiah Wedgwood I | People from Stoke-on-Trent

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Josiah Wedgwood I

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father: Thomas Wedgwood mother: Mary
Josiah Wedgwood I wife: Sarah
Sons: John; Richard; Josiah; Thomas
Daughters: Susannah; Catherine; Sarah, Mary Anne

more on his children and death
Wedgwood pottery works

1730 Josiah Wedgwood born
1744 Josiah was apprenticed to his brother Thomas (who had inherited the family pottery business).
1752-3 In 1749 Thomas (Josiah's elder brother) refused his proposal for partnership and Josiah formed a brief partnership with John Harrison at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
1754 Wedgwood formed a partnership with Thomas Whieldon of Fenton Low, Stoke-on-Trent, probably the leading potter of his day. This became a fruitful partnership, enabling Wedgwood to become a master of current pottery techniques. He then began what he called his "experiment book," an invaluable source on Staffordshire pottery.
1759 After inventing the improved green glaze which is still popular even today, Wedgwood finished his partnership with Whieldon and went into business for himself at the Ivy House factory in Burslem. (which he rented from his uncles John and Thomas Wedgwood)
1762 On one of his frequent visits to Liverpool to arrange export of his ware, Wedgwood met the merchant Thomas Bentley. 
1763 Wedgwood moved to the nearby Brick House works which he rented from the Adams family. 
1765 The planning of what was to become the Trent & Mersey Canal. "On Friday last I dined with Mr. Brindley, the Duke of Bridgewater's engineer, after which we had a meeting at the Leopard on the subject of a Navigation from Hull.... to Burslem" – Josiah Wedgwood, 11th March 1765.
1766 It was at the Brick House site that Wedgwood produced the tea and coffee service which earned him, in 1766, permission from Queen Charlotte to style himself ‘Potter to Her Majesty’. 

In 1766 Wedgwood bought the Ridgehouse Estate and built a new factory there. (Wedgwood knew that the proposed new canal would run through the estate and right past his new factory.) 
1768 Josiah Wedgwood had his right leg amputated (midway between the thigh and knee) on 28 May 1768. Surgical opinion suggests that smallpox suffered as a boy left him with an infection known as ‘Brodie’s abscess’, which eventually disabled the joint completely. more on this
1769 In November 1769 Wedgwood received notice to quit the Brick House premises because his landlord, William Adams, required the buildings for himself. Wedgwood did not fully re-locate from this site to his new Etruria factory until 1772.
   
   
   
   
   

 

 

 


18/11/2001