The terrible epidemic of small-pox visited Burslem, and the Wedgwood family, living as they did on the edge of the churchyard, were among the first to take it, the youngest so badly that his life was despaired of. However, after long struggle, they pulled him through; but the disease left behind it a knee which gave him hours and days of excruciating pain, and seemed almost as if it would blight his whole life and ruin his career. Every remedy was tried, in vain. At first when he rose in bed, weak and unstrung, he fell back again. When later he began to stand it was with weariness and pain. But the dark cloud had, though all unseen at first, a silver lining. Out of what looked a great calamity there sprang good. The boy when he crawled back to work was no longer fit for the “thrower’s” bench. The position he had now to take—with his leg stretched out in front of him—cramped and impeded him. No longer active and able-bodied, he was thrown, as it were, in upon himself, and so took to thinking—not in a gloomy, despondent way, but thinking how best he could improve himself, how best he could succeed in that calling that from the very outset held a charm for him and all through life lay very near to his heart.
At the age of fourteen Josiah was formally bound apprentice to his brother. Here is the form. The quaint words sound ceremonious—almost solemn. The writing provided that he was—
“To learn the Art, Mystery, Occupation or Imployment of throwing and handling which he, the said Thomas Wedgwood, now useth, and with him as an apprentice to dwell, continue and serve.”
An apprentice in those days at the pottery works was allowed “his meat, drink, washing and lodging, with suitable apparel of all kinds, both linen and woollen and all other necessaries, both in sickness and in health.”
In return the master “was to teach or cause to be taught the art of throwing and handling.”
How poor these potters were, and how poorly they paid their apprentices, may be gathered from this:
For the first three years he got 1s. a week, for the second three years he got 1s. 6d. a week, and for the seventh and last 4s. a week. Besides this he got, once a year, a pair of shoes. At the end of his apprenticeship, if he chose, he got 5s. a week for five years. It was a dreary enough outlook for an eager, ambitious boy anxious to make his way in the world.
But boy though he was, the difficulty of getting on—pain, weakness—none of these obstacles were allowed to overcome Josiah. Then even at that early age he showed the germs of that perseverance that stood out so strongly by-and-by in the character of the man.
Strange as it may seem to us, what sounds the very common business of making rough earthenware milk-bowls and butter-pots and plates was often half shrouded in mystery, and went near to being something of a secret.
Pottery was yet in its beginnings—not yet an art—and it could only grow and come to perfection by someone giving to it deep thought and long, patient, painstaking experiments. For instance, one man might pore over the matter and discover something new or come to some conclusion. He might find one substance, a clay or a soil, that when mixed with a second substance produced a third thing—something new. He might begin to work this out in his pottery, and immediately all the workmen in the place knew the secret of how he did it. The knowledge spread, and while he believed it was still all his own, other men had seized on his discovery; other potteries were turning out his ware and selling it.