I wrote a Post recently with a photograph of the Potter’s seals, and mentioned David Holgate’s book on the New Hall pottery. This mentions four generations of Warburton Potters beginning with Joseph Warburton (1694-1752). I have failed to find Joseph’s baptism on line so the origin of the family is unclear.
Joseph was a potter in Hot Lane, Burslem, and considered to be one of the more important manufacturers. His two sons were also potters, John continuing in Hot Lane whilst his brother Joseph was established in Cobridge. John married Ann Daniel, herself a potter, who survived him by 37 years. She continued an enamelling business with their son Thomas.
John and Ann’s second son Jacob had his own pottery in Cobridge, and also became one of the proprietors of the New Hall China Manufacturer which exploited the recent patent for hard -paste porcelain. Jacob had four sons and three daughters, including Ann who married a Dorset clay merchant, Catherine who married a Dorset landowner, Peter who took his father’s place in the New Hall pottery , Francis who set up a factory at La Charite-sur-Loire, and John who continued the family pot works. The fourth son Benjamin settled in Dorset near his sisters Ann and Catherine.
Last year I wrote about Warburton Pike the explorer and described his descent from William Pike a Dorset clay merchant, and his wife Ann. Although I knew Ann was a Warburton I wrongly surmised on her origins. John Rowley has commented on my Warburton Pike post confirming that Ann is in fact Jacob’s daughter. He also describes Jacob in more detail.
I don’t know if there are descendants of the Warburton potters living today but if there are I would like to make contact with them.
John Rowley’s post deserves a wider audience so I have copied it below.
You say you have not found Ann Warbuton’s Parents. Here is an excerpt from my book to be published in 2020.
“In September 1803 William Pike married Ann Warburton daughter of Jacob Warburton (potter) of Cobridge, Staffordshire. The marriage took place at Norton in the Moors, Staffordshire. William Pike’s friend, William Voss, a landowner in Church Knowle, was to marry Ann’s younger sister Catherine Warburton in 1810.
Jacob Warburton (1740-1826) was the son of John and Ann Warburton. When Enoch Booth invented the fluid glaze, Jacob’s parents – John and Ann Warburton – were among the first to take it up, and their cream-coloured ware, enameled with all their exceptional artistic skill, is often confounded with Wedgwood’s best productions as they did most of the enameling for Wedgwood in his early days. Jacob Warburton became a potter of great repute, above all on the Continent where his business was very extensive. He spent many years travelling abroad and was a strange man among the rough potters of that day — a Roman Catholic, a great linguist, he spoke Dutch, German, and French fluently, a famous skater; and for some reason he was always known as Captain Warburton. He was an intimate friend of Wedgwood, and in 1771 acted as his arbitrator in his case against Palmer. But to Jacob Warburton the Potteries are chiefly indebted for the revival of Littler’s attempt to introduce the manufacture of hard paste porcelain into Staffordshire. Jacob Warburton (1740 – 1826) was one of the founders of the New Hall Works, Staffordshire. Jacob leased Bucknowle Farm so that he could visit his daughters.
Some years prior to his death, he had relinquished the cares and fatigue of business; and having at a late period of life, married for his second wife, Mrs Bucknall of Ford Green – a person much younger than himself, for whom he had long cherished the most affectionate regard, he retired to her house at Ford Green, near Norton, where, he indulged his fondness for literary felicity, with the true leisure with dignity.
His memory was peculiarly tenacious, and was strengthened by most extensive reading, and a correct oral and legible knowledge of French, Dutch, German, and Italian; the latter being his favourite amusement up to the day of his death; to which time his mind resembled a pure and brilliant blaze of intellect. Jacob Warburton, Esq. was equally respectable for social virtues, great mental ability, and extensive literary acquirements.
On the day prior to his death, (September 19th, 1826,) he was full of confidence, and commenced a walk to Cobridge, but returned home without achieving it. The next day, while seated on a sofa, he said to a gentleman who was reading to him, —’Do not be alarmed; I feel I am dying,’— and expired without a struggle or a groan, at the age of 86 years. He had chalked a poem on the table –
While summer’s warmth invites the old to quit,
Their chimney corners and their easy chairs,
Be it my daily task beneath this shade
To meditate on nature’s wondrous works;
To raise my soul in fervent adoration
Of nature’s God, and blessings such to crave
As He may deem meetest to bestow.
Here too the errors of my former life
I oft with tears repentance shall deplore,
Convinced too late alas that vice alone
Can render human misery complete.
Though age extreme and sickness now preclude
These soothing hopes by long continued deeds
Of active virtue and strict self-denial,
For faults and frailties passed, to compensate,
Yet t’is my firm resolve to exercise
What powers remain to doing good
With zealous ardour, and with fortitude
To bear the ills that crowd on life’s decline.
And never shall I cease a grateful love
To cherish in my breast towards one most dear
Who during twelve long years has day and night
Devoted to the toilsome care of me.
His religious tenets were those of the Church of Rome, but wholly free from bigotry and intolerance, in consequence of his extensive travels and connection with mankind.
He was the last of the Potters of the Old School. Although he was 10 years younger than Josiah Wedgwood, yet from the time of that celebrated Potter’s commencing business at Burslem, there existed between the two, the most intimate friendship and confidential intercourse.”
Leave a Reply