The "Poor Potter" and his Wares

Who, then, was the "poor potter," and how wide of the mark was Gooch in so designating him?

The first clue was found in a ledger kept between 1725 and 1732 by John Mercer, who was to become master of the plantation Marlborough in Stafford County as well as an influential colonial lawyer. In 1725, at the age of 21, Mercer was making his way in the world by trading up and down the rivers of Virginia, buying imported goods in towns like Yorktown, where he had a large account with the wealthy merchant Richard Ambler, and exchanging these imports for raw materials at upstream plantations. Included in John Mercer's ledger is an account with one William Rogers having the following entry: "By Earthen Ware amounting to by Invoice 12. 3. 6."[201] So large an amount implies a wholesale purchase from a potter. Was William Rogers, then, the "poor potter" of Yorktown?

Scattered throughout the records are references to several William Rogerses from 17th-and 18th-century Virginia (see Appendix I), but none seems likely to refer to the "poor potter" until one reaches Yorktown. There a deed is recorded from the "Trustees to the Port Land in Yorktown," granting two lots of land on May 19, 1711, to "William Rogers aforesaid Brewer."[202] That he was a brewer admittedly is a weak clue to his being a potter. But, despite this, it is necessary to pursue this William Rogers further. These two lots were granted to Rogers by the Trustees in accordance with previous acts for establishing port towns. Yorktown had been established according to the Act for Ports and Towns in 1691, and Rogers' lots were numbers 51 and 55 (see plat, fig. 1), lying contiguously on the northern border of the town between Read and Nelson Streets. To this day they continue to bear the same numbers.

Figure 2.—Major Lawrence Smith's original survey plat of Yorktown, Virginia, made according to the Virginia Port Act of 1691, which set up a port town for each county. This plat, still in the York County records, bears the names of successive lot holders from 1691 on into the 18th century. William Rogers' name appears on lots 51 and 55. He was granted this property by the town feoffees in 1711. Additional properties he acquired are mentioned in his will as lots 59, 74, and 75.

For year after year nothing appears in the York County records to indicate that William Rogers was connected even remotely with a pottery works. That he was soon prospering as a brewer is suggested by the mention of "Roger's [sic] best Virga aile," as selling at sixpence per quart, in a list of liquor prices presented for Yorktown tavern keepers on March 19, 1711.[203] In 1714 an indentured woman servant of Rogers ran away and was ordered to serve an additional six months and four days.[204] His name occurs in 1718 in two small court actions to collect bad debts and in another against Robert Minge for trespass. He is recorded in these simply as "Wm. Rogers."[205] There is no other significant mention until 1730, when the wife of "William Stark, Gent." relinquished her right of dower to lands in the County, so as to permit their sale to "William Rogers."[206] Later in the same year "Mr. Wm. Rogers" was sued by Henry Ham, a bondservant, for his freedom.[207] In 1734 "William Rogers gent" took oath as "Capt. of the Troop."[208] Later that year "William Rogers gent" was appointed "Surveyor of the Landings, Streets, and Cosways in York Town."[209]

LIST OF PLAT OWNERS

—PARTIAL NAME

* ILLEGIBLE

In the Virginia Gazette for September 10, 1736, Rogers advertised for rent or sale "The House which formerly belong'd to Col Jenings, in which the Bristol store was lately kept ... in Williamsburg," and on December 22 put in a notice for an overseer.[210] The following year, on June 20, Rogers was appointed to build the county prison for £160.[211] In the Gazette for May 4, 1739, he announced the sale of "A small shallop ... in York Town: she is about Five Years old...."[212]

Then, on December 17, 1739, we find that Rogers had died and that his will was presented in court. He had identified himself as "Wm. Rogers ... Merchant." The will lists the distribution of his lands and property (see Appendix II) to his wife Theodosia, to one daughter, Mrs. Susanna Reynolds, and to his son William Rogers—the latter being under age. In addition to town properties a "Trace of parcel of Land lying & being and adjoining to Mountford's Mill Dam in the County of York commonly called & known by the Name of Tarripin Point" went to William Rogers, Jr.[213]

It is only when we arrive at this document that we find the clue we are seeking: "my interest is that no potters ware not burnt and fit for sale should be appraised." Who but a potter (or the owner of a pottery) would have had in his possession unfired "potters ware" not "fit for sale"?

Any remaining doubts that Rogers operated a pottery are dispelled by the inventory (see Appendix III), which describes the estate of a wealthy man, not a "poor" potter. He owned 29 Negroes, considerable plate, a clock worth £6, a silver-hilted sword and spurs, and a silver watch. There were many pictures, including "a Neat Picture of King Charles the Second" and "52 pictures in the Hall." Some of the rooms had "Window Curtains & Vallins," and one of the beds had "work'd Curtains & Vallins" [presumably crewel-worked]. The furniture included a marble table, "12 Chairs with Walnut frames & Cane bottoms," a "japand corner cupboard," "Couch Squab and pillows," "pcl Backgammon Tables," and a great deal more of lavish furnishings. But more important for us is a grouping of items:[214]

With this, added to the provision in the will, we have adequate proof that Rogers ran a pottery shop and that he made both stoneware and red earthenware.

Further evidence is found in the Virginia Gazette for February 4, 1740:

To be Sold by Way of Outcry, at the house of Mr. William Rogers, deceas'd ... all the Household Goods, Cattle, and Horses; also a very good drought of Steers, 3 Carts, a Parcel of Wheat, and Salt, a large Parcel of old Iron, Parcel of Stone and Earthen Ware, a good Worm Still, a very good Horse Mill to go with one Horse; also a new Sloop, built last March with all new Rigging, and very well fitted, with 2 very good Boats and several other Things.[215]

The horse mill was probably the potter's traditional clay-grinding mill, while we may assume that the large amount of salt was intended for stoneware glaze. Other items in the inventory show that Rogers was in both the brewing and the distilling business and every evidence is that he had achieved great affluence.

Governor Gooch's last report on the "poor potter" was filed in 1741 (none having been sent in 1740). In it he stated:

The poor potter is Dead, and the business of making potts & panns, is of little advantage to his Family, and as little Damage to the Trade of our Mother Country.[216]

There is little question now that this William Rogers was, indeed, the "poor potter." We also learn from this report that the business was being continued by his family after his death. This is confirmed by a number of documentary clues, the first of which occurs in an indenture of 1741 (proved in 1743 in the York County Deeds). It begins:

I George Rogers of Brantree in the County of Essex [England] coller Maker Send Greeting. Whereas William Rogers late of Virginia Mercht was in his life time younger brother to me the said George Rogers and at the time of his death left an Estate to his only son named William Rogers which sd last mentioned William Rogers dyed lately intestate so that in right of Law the said Estate is devolved & come unto me....

This document served to appoint "Thomas Reynolds of London Mariner" as his attorney and to assign to him all his rights in the estate.[217]

We hear no further of George, suggesting that his claim on the estate was settled permanently, but of Thomas Reynolds we learn a good deal. On June 6, 1737, as captain of the ship Braxton of London, he arrived at Yorktown from Boston "where she was lately built." He brought from New England a cargo of 80,000 bricks, "Trayn Oyl," woodenware, and hops.[218] It was he who had married Susanna Rogers.[219]

He sailed to Bristol on September 30, 1737, perhaps to sell or deliver his new ship in England. In any case, he returned from London the following April as master of the ship Maynard. He made several crossings in her until he docked her at London on October 10, 1739.[220] While there he must have learned of the death of his father-in-law; whether for this reason or some other, his name was no longer listed among those of shipmasters arriving at and leaving Yorktown. Since he then would have been in effect the head of the family, he probably gave up the sea and settled in Yorktown to manage William Rogers' enterprises, because William, Jr.,—intended to take over the principal family properties upon his coming of age—died within about a year of his father's death. Reynolds, both on his own account as Susanna's husband and as attorney for George Rogers, logically would have succeeded to proprietorship. In any case, by 1745 he was established so successfully at Yorktown that he was made a justice of the peace. At some point he went into partnership with a Captain Charles Seabrook in a mercantile venture that involved ownership of the ocean sloop Judith and two "country cutters" named York and Eltham.[221]

Reynolds lived next to the Swan Tavern in Yorktown and was characterized by Courtenay Norton, wife of the merchant John Norton, as having "shone in the World in Righteousness."[222] He died in 1758 or 1759.

That the pottery was being operated, presumably by Reynolds, at least until 1745 is evident from an advertisement by Frances Webb of Williamsburg in the Virginia Gazette for June 20, 1745. This called attention to "all Sorts of Rogers' Earthenware as cheap as at York." And, although we have no assurance that the earthenware was made at the Rogers pottery, we learn from the Gazette that two days prior to this the sloop Nancy had sailed from Yorktown for Maryland, bearing a "Parcel of Earthenware."[223]

How long the pottery may have flourished is not known. There is no further mention of it after 1745, and the shipping records do not suggest that earthenware or stoneware products were then being shipped out of York River.

The most significant fact about the "poor potter" is the revelation that he made stoneware. Stoneware manufacture is a sophisticated art, requiring special clays, high-temperature firing, and the ability to use salt in glazing. When William Rogers acquired his first lots in Yorktown in 1711, no stoneware, so far as we know, was being made in North America. By 1725, when Rogers sold earthenware to John Mercer, the Duché family apparently had just succeeded in making stoneware in Philadelphia.[224] Since we have no documentary evidence of Rogers' first production of stoneware, we do not know whether his stoneware antedated that of the Duchés; we know only that after he died in 1739 numerous pieces of stoneware were listed in what were obviously the effects of his pottery shop. There is strong archeological evidence, however, that it was made about 1730 (see p. [110]).

Although Rogers may not have been the first to make stoneware in colonial North America, that he was at least one of the first must have elevated him to a position of prominence among colonial potters. Far from being a poor potter who conducted a business "with very little advantage to himself, and without any damage to Trade," he was supplying a colonial market that heretofore had been filled solely from England and Germany. There is a hint that he may have shipped his wares to North Carolina, because the Virginia Gazette announced on September 21, 1739: "Cler'd out of York River ... September 11. Sloop Thomas and Tryal, of North Carolina, John Nelson, for North Carolina ... some Stone Ware."[225] Three years before, Rogers had sued in court to collect "a Bill Payable to him from one Richard Saunderson of North Carolina."[226] The possibility that the stoneware in the sloop Thomas and Tryal had been made by Rogers is highly conjectural, since European imports often were redistributed and transshipped in American ports. But, since its cargo as a whole consisted of non-European materials, this still remains a possibility.

The most notable inference that Rogers' stoneware may have infiltrated distant colonial markets is found in the Petition of Isaac Parker to the Massachusetts Court to establish a stoneware manufactory in Charlestown, Massachusetts, filed in September 1742: "... there are large quantities of said ware imported into this Province every year from New York, Philadelphia, & Virginia, for which ... returns are mostly made in Silver and Gold by the gentn who receive them here."[227]

Since there is no evidence that stoneware was being made at this time in Virginia, other than at Yorktown, it is reasonable to suppose that the "poor potter's" heirs shipped stoneware all the way to New England and that they were paid in hard cash, as distinct from tobacco credits, which would have been the case with local customers. However this may be, the Rogers enterprise, even if its products were confined to Virginia, appears to have been extensive, wealth-producing, and quite the opposite of Governor Gooch's appraisal of it in his reports to the Board of Trade.

As to the location of his kilns, we know that Rogers owned two lots, where he apparently lived, at the northern boundary of the town. He also owned a warehouse by the riverside and other lots on which he was building dwellings when he died. He owned land at "Tarripin Point" and two lots in Williamsburg. Governor Gooch repeatedly located the pottery in Yorktown: "We have here at York Town upon York River one poor Potter's Work ...," or, "the Potter continues his Business (at York Town in this Colony)." This is rather good evidence that the kilns were within the town limits rather than at some outside location, such as "Tarripin Point." A waterfront location would have been desirable for many reasons, but, since a potter's kiln would have been a fire hazard not to only Rogers' but to other warehouses, it is questionable whether nearby kilns would have been tolerated. English practice was usually to locate potter's kilns at the far edges of towns or outside their limits. Nevertheless, there were many exceptions, and kilns sometimes were located near the water, especially when practical reasons of convenience in loading ships outweighed the dangers. The North Devon potteries were heavily committed to water transportation, and at least two of the kilns at Bideford in North Devon in the 17th century, for example, were located near the water in what were then densely settled areas.[228] The North Walk Pottery in nearby Barnstaple was also on the water's edge, close to a thickly populated area;[229] in 17th-century America we find a parallel in the pottery of William Vincent, located at the harbor's edge in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where it was easy for him to ship his wares along the coast.[230] The 18th-century potteries of Charlestown, Massachusetts, which also had wide markets, were clustered along the harbor shore amid a welter of wharves and warehouses.[231] It is conceivable, therefore, that the Yorktown waterfront may have been similarly exposed to the dangers of a potter's kiln, since Rogers transported his wares by water.

More logical from the standpoint of safety, however, would be the pair of lots on the western edge of the town where Rogers apparently dwelt after they were granted to him in 1711. Although it is not conclusive, his inventory, which includes the lists of earthenwares and stonewares mentioned above, appears to have been taken in a sequence beginning with the house and followed by one outbuilding after another. Presumably these were located close together. Things pertaining to the kitchen and perhaps to the quarters follow the contents of the house (in which the "work room" is mentioned), then the distilling apparatus followed by the brewing equipment. Next come the pottery items, then a miscellany of laundry, garden, and cooking gear, and finally stable fixtures and a horse. It is not until the end of the inventory that the boats and their rigging and equipment, doubtless located at the waterside, are mentioned. These speculations are offered for what they are worth in suggesting possibilities for future archeological discovery of the kiln site.

The question of William Rogers' own role in the pottery enterprise perhaps will never be solved conclusively, although, as Mr. Noël Hume points out, there is no evidence that he himself was a potter. His beginnings almost surely were humble ones, humble enough for a potter. We know that his brother George was a maker of horse collars—a worthy occupation, but not one to be equated with the role of an 18th-century gentleman—in Braintree, Essex County, England. There were many potters in Essex in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and one wonders if William Rogers was trained by one of them. But the Essex Records do not reveal a William Rogers whose dates or circumstances fit ours. We do find that a George Rogers died at Braintree in 1750.[232]

Whatever may have been William's early training, it is apparent that he knew the art of brewing and that he engaged in it at Yorktown. To be sure, nearly every farmer and yeoman in the colonies knew how to brew. Furthermore, commercial brewing was probably accepted as an honorable industry by the Crown authorities, since the colonial demand for beers and ales must have always been in excess of the exportable supply. It is possible, we may speculate, that Rogers was trained as a potter but practiced brewing and preferred to be known publicly as a brewer. In any case, he was essentially a businessman whose establishment made ale as well as pottery for public consumption, and it is clear that by 1725 he was conducting a potter's business on a considerable scale. To have done so he must have employed potters and apprentices, yet in cursory searches of the York County records, we have been unable to discover any reference either to potteries or potters, reinforcing the suspicion that every effort—including Gooch's apologetic references—was being made to conduct the pottery in a clandestine manner.

Thus, the only thing we know with certainty is that William Rogers was a very successful entrepreneur who carried on more than one kind of business. We also can deduce from what is disclosed in the records that he ascended high in the social scale in Virginia and that the rate of this ascent was, not surprisingly, in proportion to the increase of his wealth. Whether or not he was a trained potter, one thing is certain: he was not a "poor potter."

As to the role of his son-in-law and successor, Thomas Reynolds, we know with certainty that Reynolds was not a potter. For at least five years and perhaps longer, however, he evidently ran the pottery, which means that there were trained hands to produce stonewares and earthenwares. Who they were or where they came from are not revealed in the records. If, however, we can prove that the wares about to be discussed were made by them, it becomes clear that they were a remarkably competent lot, often able to equal if not to excel their English peers.

The persistence of the pottery for at least 20 and perhaps more than 34 years was owing in part, no doubt, to Governor Gooch's apologetic treatment of it in his reports to the Lords of the Board of Trade and to his leniency toward colonial manufacturers in general. Basically, however, it was a response to public need and to a growing independence and a socio-economic situation distinct from the mother country's. The Virginians had a will and direction which impelled them beyond the restrictions imposed upon them to grow tobacco and do little else. The "poor potter" is significant because he exemplified the impulse to break these restrictions and to move the colony toward a craft-oriented economy. Because his wares were skillfully made and sometimes were scarcely distinguishable from those of his English competitors, he was able to hold his position economically and at the same time to become personally wealthy and influential. The scope of his enterprise—more clearly demonstrated in the archeological section of this presentation—should lead to a reappraisal of Governor Gooch's attitudes toward the endeavors of the colonists. His reports to the Board of Trade are shown to have been dissimulations instead of statements of fact. They evidence a daring and suggest a wisdom and a degree of pragmatism on the part of the Governor that might well have been continued by the Crown and its authorities. This entire episode illustrates a remarkably fluid phase of Virginia's history in which the opportunity for an energetic man to rise from obscurity to wealth and position foretold a pattern that became legendary in American society.

Governor Gooch undoubtedly sensed these internal pressures, as much psychological as economic, to seek the rewards of industry and enterprise. That the pottery later ceased to function and Virginia's manufactures in general failed to develop may reflect the differences in attitudes between Governor Gooch and his successors and the stubborn impositions by the Crown that eventually led to the American Revolution.

There seems little doubt that the "poor potter," William Rogers, and the maker of the pottery so liberally dispersed around Yorktown and elsewhere in Virginia are one and the same. Further archeological investigation and discovery of a kiln or kiln dump should provide the evidence needed for proof.