Yearsley.
The earliest, and, indeed, only potters of whom anything is known at this place, are members of the Wedgwood family, as recounted in my “Life of Josiah Wedgwood” (p. 583), where these works were first brought into notice. One branch of the Wedgwoods of Staffordshire settled at Yearsley, in the Yorkshire Wolds, at an early date, and commenced pot-making, which was carried on successfully for some generations. In 1682 John Wedgwood, of Yearsley, was “buried in woollen,” as were also in 1692 William Wedgwood, and in 1690 Isabell, who was wife of one of these. John, the son of this John Wedgwood, who died in 1707, was, I have reason to believe, the John Wedgwood whose name appears on the puzzle jug here engraved, with the date 1691. It is in the Museum of Practical Geology, in the Catalogue of which museum is an engraving of the opposite side from Fig. [888]. It is of brown ware body, coated with green lead glaze, and has, round the body, the name “John Wedg Wood 1691. incised in writing letters.
Fig. 888.
The ware made by the Yorkshire Wedgwoods was the common hard brown ware, made from the clays of the district, and consisted, of course, mainly of pitchers, pancheons, porringers, and other vessels of homely kind. From researches I have made, I have succeeded in tracing out, with tolerable accuracy, a pedigree, of the Yorkshire Wedgwoods for seven or eight generations, ranging from the middle of the seventeenth century down to the present time, when their descendants are still living in the district, not as potters, but in other equally useful walks of life.
So well known were the Wedgwoods of this district, that one member of the family has been immortalised in song, thus:—
“At Yearsley there are pancheons made
By Willie Wedgwood, that young blade.”
For this interesting fragment of a Yorkshire ballad I am indebted
MM
to my late friend the Rev. Robert Pulleine, Rector of Kirkby Wiske.
“Pancheons” are thick coarse earthenware pans, made of various sizes, and used for setting away milk in, and for washing purposes. They are made in several localities, and besides being sold by earthenware dealers, are hawked about the country by men who make their living in no other way.
Several fragments of brown pottery have at one time or other been dug up at Yearsley, and, among the rest, a brown earthenware oven, green glaze, semicircular, open at top, with a hollowed ledge round the inner side about half way, and a flat bottom, having two handles at the sides, and between them a crinkled ornament, bearing some letters and the date 1712.