Stoke-upon-Trent—Josiah Spode—Copeland and Garratt—Copeland and Sons—Mintons—Hollins—Trent Pottery; Jones—Albert Street Works—Copeland Street Works—Glebe Street and Wharf Street Works—Copeland Street—Bridge Works—London Road; Goss—Kirkham—Campbell Brick and Tile Company—Harrison and Wedgwood—Bankes—Hugh Booth—Ephraim Booth—Wolf—Bird—Adams and Son—H. and R. Daniel—Boyle—Reade—Lowndes and Hall.

The large and commercially important, as well as thickly populated district, known as the “Staffordshire Potteries,” or more commonly called simply “The Potteries,” comprises a number of towns known as the “Pottery Towns,” and other places adjoining them. These are Burslem, Hanley, Shelton, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Longton, Etruria, Cobridge, Fenton, Longport, and Dresden. Of these, Stoke-upon-Trent, although far from being the oldest, or largest, or busiest, is the great railway centre, and head of the electoral district; the parliamentary district of Stoke-upon-Trent (which returns two members to Parliament) comprising these towns just named, with a few other out-lying places. Some of these towns are corporate, and Newcastle-under-Lyme is both a corporate and parliamentary borough. It is estimated that in this pottery district considerably over thirty thousand persons are employed in, or dependent on, the staple trade of the place, that of china and earthenware manufacture.

Stoke-upon-Trent.

Spode.—Copeland.—The first notice of the name of Spode that I have met with in connection with potting is an entry of the “hiring” of Josiah Spode by Thomas Whieldon, in 1749. This I was the first to make public from the original book of Whieldon’s accounts in my possession. It is as follows:—

1749.£s.d.
April 9.Hired Siah Spoade, to give him from this time to Martelmas next 2s. 3d., or 2s. 6d. if he Deserves it.
2d year029
3d year033
Pd. full earnest010

This entry is of considerable historical interest, as being the first hiring of Josiah Spode, who, being born in 1733, would at that time be sixteen years of age, and was the founder of the family which subsequently rose to such eminence in the art. The “hiring” being for three years, and at wages ranging from 2s. 3d. to 3s. 3d. per week, while other men at the same time were being paid from 5s. 3d. to 7s. per week, would appear to have been a kind of apprenticeship, or, at all events, a “finishing touch” to the learning of the trade. From April till Martinmas, which is the great time for all hirings in the pottery trade, the payment was to be at 2s. 3d. per week, “or 2s. 6d. if he deserves it,” with the prospect of a rise of sixpence per week in successive years. He appears to have fully worked out his time, and to have been found deserving. Two other entries in the same book, showing successive hirings, after the expiration of the first term of three years, are as follows:—

1752.£s.d.
Feby. 22.Hired Josiah Spoad for next Martlemas, per week070
I am to give him earn.050
Pd. in Part.010
Pd. do.040
1754.
Feby. 25.Hired Siah Spode, per week.076
Earnest.1116
Pd. in part.0160

Thus in 1752 he got 7s. a week, and an earnest of 5s.; and in the following year he was raised to 7s. 6d. per week, with the unusually high earnest of £1 11s. 6d. At this time he must have been married, for in the same year, 1754, it appears the second Josiah Spode was born. But little is known of the early life of this second Josiah Spode; the probability, however, is that his father, after leaving Whieldon’s service, commenced a small manufactory on his own account, and that he learned the business with him. About 1770, Spode (the son at that time being about sixteen years old) is stated to have taken the works at Stoke, previously carried on by Messrs. Turner, or Turner and Banks. He is said also to have introduced, about 1784, transfer printing into Stoke. Previous to this time Mr. William Copeland, of London (a native of Stoke), who travelled in the tea trade, made the acquaintance of Mr. Spode and offered to undertake a commission to sell his tea ware and other goods to his customers. The enterprise was very successful, and a warehouse was taken in Fore Street, Cripplegate, London, for the general sale of Spode’s goods. Trade increasing rapidly, Mr. Copeland, who became a partner with Mr. Spode, afterwards, in 1779, purchased the property, 37, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and, at the back, in Portugal Street, opened an immense depot for the sale of pottery goods, in the place where stood the theatre (originally built by D’Avenant in 1662, and rebuilt by Rich in 1714), famous as being the house in which Garrick first appeared; the original Joe Miller flashed out his witticisms; and where the Recruiting Officer, the Beggars’ Opera, &c., were first produced. This establishment was managed by Mr. Copeland; the manufactory being conducted entirely by Mr. Spode. Mr. Spode’s son, who was ultimately taken into partnership with his father, was for a time in the London house, but on the death of the latter, in 1797, he returned to Stoke, and devoted himself to the manufactory. In 1800 Mr. Spode commenced making porcelain in addition to earthenware, and was the first to introduce felspar into its composition. In 1805 he introduced an opaque porcelain, known as “ironstone china,” which he manufactured to a very large extent, and exported in immense quantities to France and other countries. In 1806 H.R.H. the Prince of Wales visited the works, and Mr. Spode was appointed potter to him. The porcelain, the ironstone china, and the ordinary earthenware manufactured at this time were of the very highest character, both in body, in glaze, and in decoration; indeed, in all three of these respects they rank with the best of the period.

The first partnership was Spode and Copeland,[39] and next, Spode, Son, and Copeland. After the death of the elder Spode it again became Spode and Copeland, and next, on the son of the latter, who was afterwards alderman, being taken into partnership, Spode, Copeland, and Son, and was so carried on until the elder Mr. Copeland’s death, in 1826. In 1827 the second Mr. Spode died, and was succeeded by his son, the third Josiah Spode, who, however, only survived his father two years, and died in 1829. Until 1833 the business was carried on by the executors of the third Josiah Spode, of Hawksyard (his only son, also named Josiah, being a minor), and Mr. Alderman Copeland. In that year the entire concern was purchased by Mr. Alderman William Taylor Copeland, who shortly afterwards took into partnership his principal traveller and town correspondent, Mr. Thomas Garrett. The firm then became “Copeland and Garrett,” and was so continued until 1847, when a dissolution took place. From that time till 1867 the style of the firm remained simply “W. T. Copeland, late Spode.” In that year Mr. Copeland took his four sons into partnership, and from that time to the present the firm has continued under the name of “W. T. Copeland and Sons.”