In 1795 Billingsley determined upon bringing his connection with the Derby China Works to an end, and for that purpose gave notice to his employer, Mr. Duesbury. Knowing how ill he could be spared from the decorative part of the manufactory, his employer endeavoured to retain his services, and, not unnaturally, put various obstacles in the way of his leaving Billingsley; however seems to have determined on the removal, and much to his credit that that removal should be an honourable one. The following letter shows his determination:—
“Sir,—From the circumstance that occurr’d when I was last in Conversation with you, I am induc’d to take this mode of informing you of my opinion on the subject then in question. My opinion is, that I have fulfill’d the warning[28] I gave (my reasons in support of which it is not necessary to advance at this time). But as I am inform’d that you believe I have some further time to work for you before the Warning is fulfill’d—namely, to make up the time I lost in the six months I was under warning, and as it is my wish to leave no ground for dissatisfaction, I take this opportunity of informing you that I am willing to come and Work that time according to that opinion of the case. If the foregoing is according to your opinion and desire, your being so kind as to send me advise to that effect at any time in the course of a week, and likewise the time I have to work according to the rule and opinion above stated, I will attend your works accordingly. If I do not hear from you in the course of the time above stated, I must then conclude that you are satisfy’d, and the information that I have receiv’d is without foundation. I am, Sir, your Humble Serv., Wm. Billingsley.—Derby, Oct. 14, 1796.”
Shortly before this time Mr. Joseph Lygo, the London agent and manager of the business of the Derby China Works, wrote to his employer, Mr. Duesbury:—“I hope you will be able to make a bargain with Mr. Billingsley for him to continue with you, for it will be a great loss to lose such a hand, and not only that, but his going into another factory will put them in the way of doing flowers in the same way, which they are at present entirely ignorant of.” Despite all this, Billingsley left the Derby China Works, where he had been apprenticed, and in which he had worked for twenty-two years, and in 1796 commenced, for or with Mr. Coke, a small manufactory at Pinxton, near Alfreton. Here his practical skill stood him in good service, and the experiments he had long tried in china bodies were brought to bear satisfactory results. He succeeded in producing a granular body (the fracture having much the appearance of fine loaf-sugar), very soft, but of extreme beauty. Here Billingsley remained for about four years only, removing in 1800 to Mansfield, where he started a small concern, which he continued for about three or four years longer. Having once become unsettled by his removal from Derby, Billingsley does not appear ever afterwards to have rested long in any one place. In 1804 he is stated to have commenced, or joined, some small china works at Torksey in Lincolnshire; and a few years later he appears to have started a china manufactory at Wirksworth in Derbyshire—no doubt being in part actuated in locating himself there through the fact of the existence of a beautiful white clay being found in connection with the lead mines at Brassington and other places in its neighbourhood. In 1811 Billingsley removed to Worcester, where he engaged himself with Messrs. Flight and Barr, of the Worcester China Works. Here, as in some of his other migrations, he was accompanied by his son-in-law, George Walker, the husband of his daughter Sarah. Of the engagement of these two at Worcester, Mr. Binns says: “In 1811, Billingsley, the Derby artist, came to Worcester. As a clever flower-painter, he was no doubt an acquisition, but that does not appear to have been the object of his visit. Billingsley knew something of making porcelain, and was possessed of a receipt which there is no doubt he valued very highly. From Messrs. Flight and Barr’s letter to Mr. Dillwyn, it would appear that he had endeavoured to introduce this special body at Worcester, but we do not think he was allowed to interfere to any extent in the manufacturing department. Walker, Billingsley’s companion and son-in-law, introduced a more important invention to the Worcester Works in the reverberating enamel kiln. These kilns had been in use in London and at Derby, but were now for the first time built at Worcester. Up to this time iron muffles were used, but from their arrangement requiring a preparatory kiln or muffle, after the same manner as the annealing oven of a glass-house, they were most objectionable, the ware having to be removed from one to the other whilst very hot. Previous to this iron muffle, a more original muffle still was used. The description given to us quite accords with the engraving in Biancourt, with the exception of the arrangement of the fire. In the old Worcester kilns the space between the bricks and the iron case was filled with small pieces of charcoal, and when the iron cover was finally placed, it was also covered with charcoal; the fire was then applied to the centre of the cover, and gradually extended all over and down the sides until it got to the bottom; the object of this arrangement was to get an equal heat all over, which would not have been the case had the bottom been heated first. The method of building these new enamel kilns was kept as a great secret, Walker always working by night. He built them both for Messrs. Flight and Barr and Messrs. Chamberlain.” After remaining two years only at Worcester, in 1813 Billingsley and Walker (the former under a name he had for cogent reasons assumed—that of Beeley, this name being a contraction of his own B[illings]ley, or B’ley, otherwise Beeley) left that place and went to Nantgarw, a small, out-of-the-way village in Glamorganshire, near Pontypridd, where they established themselves and commenced making china. From here they sent up a specimen of their ware to Government,[29] to show their special body, and to seek Government aid; and the Board of Trade, through Sir Joseph Banks, requested Mr. Dillwyn, of the Swansea pot-works, to visit Nantgarw and report on the quality of the ware. This visit of Mr. Dillwyn’s resulted in his entering into an arrangement with Billingsley and Walker to transfer themselves and their works to Swansea, where he built a small manufactory for them, closely adjoining his other works. Not long after this Mr. Dillwyn received a notice from Messrs. Flight and Barr, of Worcester, informing him that Billingsley and Walker “had clandestinely left their service,” and warning him not to employ them. This occurred, I believe, in about two years from the time of founding the Swansea China Works, and on Mr. Dillwyn being assured by Messrs. Flight and Barr that china with the granulated body could not be made to be commercially successful, he gave up the manufacture, and dismissed Billingsley and Walker, who then at once returned to Nantgarw, where they resumed their manufacture of china, and produced many beautiful services and pieces, which now fetch remarkably high prices. The productions of this small manufactory having found their way into some of the best London dealers’ hands, Mr. Rose, of the Coalport China Works, feeling that the Nantgarw trade, if allowed to continue, would seriously affect his business, went over to Nantgarw, and after some negotiation, made a permanent engagement with Billingsley and Walker, and bought up from them at once their stock, their moulds, and their receipt for the body, and removed them and all their belongings (as he did also those of Swansea) to Coalport. Thus the manufacture of Nantgarw porcelain, just as it was approaching perfection and becoming known, was, unfortunately, at once and for ever closed.
William Billingsley remained at Coalport[30]—living in a small cottage a short distance on the Shiffnal Road—for the rest of his days, which, however, were but few in number. In 1827 or 1828 (I am uncertain which), this remarkable man—one of the most remarkable in the whole line of English potters, and one to whose artistic genius the exquisite decorations of some of the Derby and of the Worcester productions are indebted, and to whose practical skill and life-long energies so many important factories owed their origin—passed away in complete obscurity and in much greater poverty than his talents deserved.
George Walker, after the death of William Billingsley, removed with his family to America, where he founded and built a manufactory in New Troy, which he called “Temperance Hill Pottery,” at which he and his family were, I am enabled to add from reliable information, working to great advantage a few years ago, and where, I believe, they still continue.
Jonathan Wedgwood, “of the Borough of Derby, China or Porcelain Repairer or Thrower,” was employed for some time at the Derby Works. On the 2nd of December, 1772, articles of agreement[31] were drawn up between him and William Duesbury, by which he was to serve Mr. Duesbury for three years “in the Arts of Repairing or Throwing China or Porcelain Ware,” at the weekly wages of fourteen shillings “for every whole week” he “shall work according to the usual hours of Repairing at the said Wm Duesbury’s Manufactory in Derby aforesaid.” In the contested election of 1776, a John Wedgwood, son of William Wedgwood, of St. Peter’s Parish, Derby, claimed, through apprenticeship, to be admitted and vote as a freeman, and before the Committee of the House of Commons, was accordingly admitted. By the registers of St. Alkmund’s, Derby, it appears that a Jonathan Wedgwood was married on the 12th November, 1785—thirteen years after the date of this agreement—to Mary Stenson; and that three years before this time, 22nd Sept. 1782, an Amy Wedgwood was married to Abijah Tyrrell, both of that parish. The probability is that the Jonathan Wedgwood whose agreement I have quoted was born at Ellenborough in 1735; that he migrated to Burslem (where one of his children was born in 1757), and afterwards to Derby; and the Jonathan and Amy, whose marriages are noted, were his son and daughter. His name appears as one of the workmen in 1787.
Other artists, &c., were as follows:—
John Ash, a thrower and presser in 1794.
Joseph Bancroft, who belonged to the old Derbyshire family of Bancroft, of Swarkestone and elsewhere, was apprenticed at the Derby Works, and became a proficient in painting flowers, birds, insects, and shells. He did not remain long after the expiration of his apprenticeship, but worked for Copelands and others, and lastly for Minton’s, in whose employ he died.
James Banford, of London, a clever painter, was employed from 1790 till 1795. He removed from London to Derby in the middle of 1790, his wife, Bernice Banford, and family following him in August of that year. He appears, from penitent letters, to have been, like many of the other hands, addicted to drinking, and to have been of improvident habits. In one of his letters (Feb. 1, 1794) he says, “I cannot help informing you that I have been dissatisfied some time at the difference of wages between Mr. Boreman and self. I am not conceited of my work, but every man knows what he is capable of doing, and in any line of painting china except landscapes, I have the advantage of Mr. B. Cannot help observing that in the landscape line, when there is anything minute or requires neatness, my optic nerves are to be strained for 18s. pr week less, and tim’d to ten hours each day at the manufactory.”