The "Poor Potter" of Yorktown

Part I: Documentary Record—C. Malcolm Watkins75THE CROWN AND COLONIAL MANUFACTURE76THE "POOR POTTER" AND HIS WARES79APPENDIXES86Part II: Pottery Evidence—Ivor Noël Hume91THE SALT-GLAZED STONEWARE91STONEWARE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES102THE EARTHENWARES105CONCLUSIONS109

Figure 1.—Modern Yorktown, Virginia, showing original survey plat on which William Rogers' name appears on lots 51 and 55. Additional properties which he acquired are mentioned in his will as lots 59, 74, and 75.

Pottery making in colonial Virginia, strongly discouraged by a mercantilistic England, seemingly was almost nonexistent according to the Governor's reports which mention but one nameless "poor potter" at Yorktown, whose wares are dismissed as being low in quantity and quality. This paper, the combined effort of a historian and an archeologist, provides evidence that the Yorktown potter was neither poor nor nameless, that his ware was of sufficient quantity and quality to offer competition to English imports, and that official depreciation of his economic importance apparently was deemed politic by the colonial Governor.The Authors:C. Malcolm Watkins is curator of cultural history in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology, and Ivor Noël Hume is director of archeology at Colonial Williamsburg and an honorary research associate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Authors:C. Malcolm Watkins is curator of cultural history in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology, and Ivor Noël Hume is director of archeology at Colonial Williamsburg and an honorary research associate of the Smithsonian Institution.

C. Malcolm Watkins

In his annual reports on manufactures to the Lords of the Board of Trade during the 1730s, Virginia's royal governor, William Gooch, mentioned several times an anonymous "poor potter" of Yorktown. At face value, Gooch's reports might seem to indicate that manufacturing was an insignificant factor in Virginia's economy and that the only pottery-making endeavor worth mentioning at all was so trivial it could be brushed aside as being almost, if not quite, unworthy of notice. Occasionally, historians have selected one or another of these references to the "poor potter" to support the view either that manufacturing was negligible in colonial Virginia or that ceramic art was limited to the undeveloped skills of a frontier potter.[183]The recent development of archeology, however, as an adjunct of research in cultural history—especially in the historic areas of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown—has produced substantial evidence challenging both the accuracy of Gooch's reports and the conclusions drawn from them, which, contrary to Gooch's statements, proves that pottery making in Yorktown was highly skilled and much at odds with the concept of a "poor potter."

The observation that a remarkably developed ceramic enterprise had been conducted in or near Yorktown was first made by Mr. Noël Hume, the archeologist partner of this paper, in 1956 when he identified fragments of saggers used in firing stoneware, which were excavated in association with numerous stoneware waster sherds and a group of unglazed earthenware sherds of good quality at the site of the Swan Tavern in Yorktown.[184]The question naturally arose, could these expertly made wares have come from the kilns of the "poor potter"? Although ultimate proof is still lacking, identification with him is sufficiently well supported by documentary and artifactual hints that—until further scientific findings are forthcoming—it is presented here as a hypothesis that the "poor potter" did indeed make them. This portion of the paper considers not only the specifics of artifacts and documents, but also the state of manufactures in Virginia before 1750 and their relationship to the character and attitudes of Governor Gooch.

It should be noted that, in general, the history of pottery making in colonial America is fragmentary and inconclusive. Scattered documents bear hints of potters and their activities, and occasional archeological deposits contain the broken sherds and other material evidence of potters' products. Difficulty in obtaining information about early pottery manufacture may be related in large part to a reluctance on the part of the colonists to reveal evidence of manufacturing activity to the Crown authorities. It was the established principle of the Mother Country to integrate the colonial economy into her mercantile system, which was run primarily for her own benefit. As a consequence, there increasingly developed a contest between those who sought to protect English manufactures by discouraging production of colonial goods and those who, in America, tried to enlarge colonial self-sufficiency, the latter inevitably resorting to evasion and suppression of evidence in order to gain their advantage.

The outlines of this struggle are suggested in the laws and official reports relating to colonial manufactures. In Virginia, during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, influential landowners encouraged manufactures as a way to offset the dominance of tobacco in the colony, while several acts were passed in the Virginia Assembly to establish official port towns which, it was thought, would result in flourishing craft communities. Although, for a variety of reasons inherent in Virginia's economy and geography, most of these failed, the acts nonetheless were consistently opposed by the Crown authorities. The 1704 Act for Ports and Towns, for example, was vetoed by the Crown in 1709 for the following reasons:

The whole Act is designed to Encourage by great Priviledges the settling in Townships, and such settlements will encourage their going on with the Woolen and other Manufactures there. And should this Act be Confirmed, the Establishing of Towns and Incorporating of the Planters as intended thereby, will put them upon further Improvements of the said manufactures, and take them off from the Planting of Tobacco, which would be of very ill consequence, not only in respect to the Exports of our Woolen and other Goods and Consequently to the Dependance that Colony ought to have on this Kingdom, but likewise in respect to the Importation of Tobacco hither for the home and Foreign Consumption, Besides a further Prejudice in relation to our shipping and navigation.[185]

This forthright exposition of official English attitudes reiterated the policy of colonial economic dependence. The wording of the veto—"encourage theirgoing onwith the Woolen and other Manufactures" and "afurtherPrejudice in relation to our shipping" [italics supplied]—shows that the dangers feared by the Board of Trade regarding the establishment of towns had already become a reality and a threat to English economic policy.

Victor S. Clark, inThe History of Manufacturesinthe United States, points out that the colonists passed so many laws to encourage their own manufactures "that such British intervention as occurred must be regarded rather as indicating the passive disposition of the home government than as defining an administrative policy vigorously carried out."[186]Nevertheless, from 1700 until the Revolution, reports on American manufactures made by royal governors to the Board of Trade demonstrate not only that the Americans were vigorously promoting manufactures but also that they were being evasive and secretive in doing so in the face of official disapproval. The Board of Trade reported in 1733: "It is not improbable that some former governors of our colonies ... may, in breach of their instructions, have given their concurrence to laws, or have connived for many years at the practice of trades prejudicial to the interest of Great Britain...."[187]Governor Belcher of Massachusetts in his report to the Board of Trade complained that "we cannot conceal from your lordships that it is with the greatest difficulty we are able to procure true informations of the trade and manufactures of New England; which will not appear extraordinary when we acquaint your lordship, that the assembly of the Massachusetts Bay had the boldness to summon ... Mr. Jeremiah Dunbar [Surveyor General of his Majesty's woods in North America] before them and pass a severe censure upon him, for having given evidence at the bar of the House of Commons of Great Britain with respect to the trade and manufactures of this province...."[188]

After the Port Act of 1704 was disallowed, the Virginians were harder pressed than the northern colonists, who managed to maintain their frowned-upon industries. Ignoring the Virginians' resentment at being limited almost exclusively to the growing of tobacco, additional economic pressures were put upon them. For example, whereas stripped tobacco—the leaves separated from the stalks—had constituted the principal form of exported tobacco, an Act of Parliament was introduced on January 17, 1729, containing clauses prohibiting the importation into England of "Stript Tobacco." John Randolph, Clerk of the Council of Virginia, wrote a letter to Parliament, petitioning the repeal of the clause. By having to export the stalks, he complained, the planters

are loaded with the duty and Freight of that which is not only of no Value, but depreciates the pure tobacco at least 2din every pound. The Tobacconists are under a temptation to manufacture the Stalk and mingle it with the leaf, whereby the Commodity is adulterated, and of course the consumption of it is lessend. And the Merchants are obliged to keep great quantities in their Warehouses, and at last to sell upon long Credit. In consequence of which the price of the Planters Labors, is fallen below what they are able to bear. And unless they can be relieved, they must be driven to a necessity of Employing themselves more usefully in Manufactures of Woollen and Linen, as they are not able under the present circumstances to buy what is Necessary for their Cloathing, in this Kingdom....[189]

Although the usual covering phrase, "other manufactures," was omitted here, it could well have been included. Under such adverse restraints, enterprising Virginians were almost forced to turn to surreptitious manufacturing; perhaps the restraints became excellent excuses for pursuing such manufactures, which, perhaps, were in any case inevitable.

Relief came by 1730 with the passage of a new tobacco act, liberalizing the restrictions on the planters. Meanwhile, in 1727, William Gooch was appointed Lieutenant Governor and, owing in part to his political astuteness and sympathetic awareness of the colonists' difficulties, the lot of the planter was greatly improved. Nevertheless, manufacturing persisted as the colonists increased in strength and numbers. Although official restrictions may have been a perverse encouragement to manufactures, the dynamics of a growing population in a new country predetermined even more an expansion of enterprise. Not only did economic depression force the industrious to turn to manufactures as an alternative to poverty, but economic prosperity, when it occurred in the 1730s, provided a financial stimulus to further that prosperity by means of local manufacturing.

Governor Gooch doubtlessly understood this. He was remarkable among Virginia's colonial governors for his ability to achieve what the colonists wanted while pleasing the home government. His administration created an era of good feeling during which the Virginians frequently expressed their gratitude and praise. In 1728, after serving as Governor for sevenmonths, he was given £500 by the Assembly as well as an illegal grant by the Council of £300 from the royal quit-rents, which led George Chalmers, an English historian, to comment sourly in 1782 that for this gift "he in return resigned in a great measure, the government to them."[190]

This was not altogether a fair conclusion, for, though Gooch, as Campbell in hisHistory of Virginiastates, may have been possessed of "some flexibility of principle,"[191]he was an extraordinarily successful Governor. Percy S. Flippin concluded that Gooch "was a striking example of what an energetic, forceful royal governor, who was influenced by conditions in the colony and not altogether by his instructions, could accomplish, both for the colony and for the British government."[192]He repeatedly acted in the interests of the colonists, particularly regarding improved tobacco laws. He attended almost every meeting of the Council, whose members constituted the most influential persons in the colony, and thus established a close working relationship and understanding with those who expressed the colonial view-point. Quite evidently he understood that prosperity in the colony was a prerequisite to successful trade with England and to a substantial tax return. In respect to improving the tobacco laws, we know that he opposed existing British attitudes; in relation to colonial manufactures beneficial to colonial prosperity, we may assume that he was sympathetic, even though he could not advocate them openly. Certainly, as Campbell stated, "Owing partly to this coalition [between Gooch and the planters], partly to a well-established revenue and a rigid economy, Virginia enjoyed prosperous repose during his long administration."[193]

Gooch's reports on manufactures to the Board of Trade provide an exercise in reading between the lines. They suggest that he was doing his best to support the colonists while observing the letter of the Crown's instructions. They allude to manufactures here and there, but usually in terms that minimize their importance or that brush aside the possibilities of their growth. Yet in his depreciations one senses that while he was trying to state such facts as were necessary, he actually was trying on occasion to create an impression that was at variance with the whole truth. In tracing the Yorktown potter we shall see that this must have been the case.

In his report of 1732 he made a general statement calculated to allow the Lords of the Board of Trade to relax in calm reassurance, while at the same time encouraging their recognition of his wisdom in initiating a new tobacco law:

There hath been much Discourse amongst the common People of Sowing Flax and Cotton, and therewith supplying themselves with Cloathing: but since the late Tobacco Law hath begun to raise the Price of that Staple, all these projected Schemes are laid aside, and in all probability will Continue so, as long as Tobacco is of any Value, seeing the necessary Cloathing for the Planters and their Negroes, may be more easily Purchas'd with Tobacco than made by themselves. Nor indeed is there much ground to suspect that any kind of Manufactures will prevail in a Country where handycraft Labour is so dear as 'Tis Here; The Heat in Summer, and severe Colds in Winter, accompani'd with sundry Diseases proceeding from these Causes, such as Labouring People in Great Britain undergo, and where the Earth produces enough to purchase and supply all the necessitys of life without the drudgery of much Toil, men are tempted to be lazy.

He then added inconsistently that four ironworks making pots and "Backs for Fireplaces" had been set up in Virginia and admitted that one even included an air furnace. The Lords of the Board of Trade might well have asked how these were accomplished without "the drudgery of much Toil."

He also stated that: "there is one poor Potter's work of course earthen Ware, which is of so little Consequence, that I dare say there hath not been twenty Shillings worth less of that Commodity imported since it was sett up than there was before."[194]It is remarkable that Gooch felt the need to mention the potter at all, since pottery making was usually an anonymous, little-noted craft. Nevertheless, in 1733 he reported again on this seemingly insignificant enterprise:

As to Manufactures sett up, Wee have at York Town upon York River one poor Potter's Work for Earthen Ware, which is so very inconsiderable that I dare Saythere has not been forty Shillings' worth less of that Commodity imported since it was Erected than there was before; the poorest Familys being the only Purchasers, who not being able to send to England for such Things would do without them, if they could not gett them Here.[195]

Clearly, we, like the Lords of the Board of Trade, are led to believe that a semiskilled country potter was operating a small shop which produced crude pottery incapable of competing with English wares. The word "poor" can be interpreted doubly, connoting both poverty and low quality. Hence, by inference, it was an enterprise destined to failure. But such an impression of failure was not supported by Gooch's own evidence that the pottery works were continuing year after year. In 1734 he reported:

As to Manufactures We have at York Town, on York River, one poor Potters' work for earthen Ware, which is so very inconsiderable, that there has been little less of that Commodity imported since it was Erected, than there was before.[196]

The 1735 report was equally depreciating,[197]while the following year Gooch opened his report with the comment: "The same poor Potter's Work is still continued at York Town without any great Improvement or Advantage to the Owner, or any Injury to the Trade of Great Britain."[198]

The 1737 report on Trade and Manufactures even contained a special subheading: "Potters' Work." There then followed: "The Potter continues his Business (at York Town in this Colony) of making Potts and Panns, with very little Advantage to himself, and without any dammage to Trade."[199]One wonders why Gooch's persistence in mentioning this enterprise in such terms almost annually did not lead the Board of Trade to question his reasons for mentioning it at all if the pottery was so insignificant. Perhaps they did question it, because in the next report, filed in 1739 after a two-year interval, Gooch dismissed the pottery succinctly, almost impatiently, as though to turn aside further questions that might be raised: "The poor Potter's Operation is unworthy of your Lordships notice." Gooch then proceeded with an admission that:

The Common People in all Parts of the Colony, and indeed many of the better Sort, are lately gott into the use of Loom Weaving coarse cloth for themselves and Negroes; And our Inhabitants on the other side of the Mountains, make very good Linnen which they sell up and down the Country. Nor is the making of Shoes with Hides of their own Tanning less practiced, tho' the Leather is very Indifferent.[200]

It was easier, of course, to admit that the "common People in all Parts of the Colony" were engaged in domestic manufactures than to allow attention to concentrate on a single commercial, industrial enterprise. Only with difficulty could sanctions have been brought to bear against home industries throughout the colony—a single manufactory reported almost annually for eight years was quite another matter. To have lasted this long, the "poor potter" must have been less than poor, and his pottery must have had an importance that either had to be revealed by truthful statement or dissimulated. It appears that Gooch chose the latter course: the pottery being a large enterprise was noticeable; being noticeable it had to be reported; but being large it contributed to the wealth of the colony while competing with British imports which did not, and therefore it should be condoned. Gooch made a practical decision which may reflect his obligation to the colonists: the pottery works had to be downgraded in his reports and attention distracted from it.

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 Invoice12. 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 platof 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 Virgaaile," 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 theVirginia Gazettefor September 10, 1736, Rogers advertised for rent or sale "The House which formerly belong'd to ColJenings, in which theBristolstore was lately kept ... inWilliamsburg," 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 theGazettefor May 4, 1739, he announced the sale of "A small shallop ... inYorkTown: 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 theVirginia Gazettefor 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 Bra[i]ntree in the County of Essex [England] coller Maker Send Greeting. Whereas William Rogers late of Virginia Merchtwas 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 sdlast 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 shipBraxtonof 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 shipMaynard. 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 sloopJudithand two "country cutters" namedYorkandEltham.[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 theVirginia Gazettefor June 20, 1745. This called attention to "all Sorts ofRogers'Earthenware as cheap as at York." And, although we have no assurance that the earthenware was made at the Rogers pottery, we learn from theGazettethat two days prior to this the sloopNancyhad 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 aswe 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 theVirginia Gazetteannounced 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 sloopThomas and Tryalhad 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 gentnwho 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.

In order to feel absolutely certain that the William Rogers of Yorktown was the "poor potter" so often mentioned by Governor Gooch, a check was made through the records of all 17th-and 18th-century Virginians named William Rogers to see if any others might possibly have been associated with the Yorktown pottery.

The earliest William Rogers found was listed as one of a group of 60 persons transported and assigned to Richard Cooke in Henrico County.[233]In 1639 a "Mr. William Rogers" was viewer of the tobacco crop in Upper Norfolk.[234]In 1718 a William Rogers died in Richmond County.[235]It is quite evident that none of these was the "poor potter."

In 1704 a William Rogers owned 200 acres in Accomack County on the Eastern Shore,[236]and in 1731 a will of William Rogers was recorded there.[237]

In Surry County several men of this name are noted.

One of them was bound as an apprentice in 1681;[238]this William Rogers was probably the same man who was listed in 1687 in the Surry militia "for Foot."[239]In 1702 a William Rogers took up some newly opened land "on the South side of Blackwater," which was measured by the surveyor for Charles City County (only meaning, perhaps, that Surry did not have its own surveyor).[240]In 1704 a William Roger (sic) owned 450 acres in Surry.[241]Two years later William Rogers, Jr., had 220 acres surveyed on the "S. side of Blackwater" in Surry County.[242]Meanwhile a William Rogers had recorded a will in Surry in 1701, and another (presumably William Rogers, Jr.) did so in 1727.[243]

A William Rogers was listed in Lancaster in 1694 as the husband of Elizabeth Skipworth,[244]and he appears to have been tithable in the Christ Church parish in 1714.[245]Wills are recorded under the name in Lancaster County in 1728 and 1768.[64]

None of these records dispute the strong evidence discovered at Yorktown concerning the identity of the "poor potter."

Virginia Gazette,SEPTEMBER 10, 1736

"To be Lett or Sold, very reasonably. The House which formerly belong'd to ColJenings, in which theBristolstore was lately kept, being the next House toJohn Clayton's, Esq.; inWilliamsburg: It is a large commodious House, with Two Lots, a Garden, Coach-House, Stable, and other Outhouses and Conveniences. Enquire of Capt.William Rogers, inYork, or ofWilliam Parks, Printer inWilliamsburg."

Rogers' Will(1739)

Back to Index Next