1. The initial discovery of the “Poor Potter” site was a waster pit on Lot 51, which contained numerous whole and partial pots, usually defective in some manner. It was not until 1970 that a kiln was found nearby. See the following reports: Norman F. Barka, “The Kiln and Ceramics of the ‘Poor Potter’ of Yorktown: A Preliminary Report,” in Ceramics in America, edited by Ian M. G. Quimby (Winterthur, Del.: Winterthur Museum, 1972), pp. 291–18; Norman F. Barka and Chris Sheridan, “The Yorktown Pottery Industry, Yorktown, Virginia,” Northeast Historical Archaeology 6, nos. 1–2 (1972); Erwin N. Thompson, The Poor Potter of Yorktown, Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia, Historic Structure Report, nps 836 (Denver: Denver Service Center, Historic Preservation Team, National Park Service, 1974); Norman F. Barka, Edward Ayres, and Christine Sheridan, The “Poor Potter of Yorktown”: A Study of a Colonial Pottery Factory, Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia, 3 vols. (Denver: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1984).

2. C. Malcolm Watkins and Ivor Noël Hume, The “Poor Potter” of Yorktown (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967).

3. Items linking Rogers with the “poor potter,” taken from the Inventory and Appraisal of William Rogers the Estate, December 17, 1739, include:

1 pr. large Scales & Weights £2.10 a pcel crakt redware £2 a parcel crakt Stone Do £5 11 pocket bottles 3/8  barrel Gun powder £2.10 1 old Sain & ropes £1.10 1 horse Mill £8 2300 lb. old Iron £9.11.8 26 doz qt Mugs £5.4 60 doz pt Do 7.10 11 doz Milk pans £2.4 9 large Cream potts 4/6 9 Midle Sized Do 3/ 12 Small Do 2 2 doz red Saucepans 4/ 2 doz porringers 4/ 6 Chamber potts 2/ 4 doz bird bottles 12/ 3 doz Lamps 9/ 4 doz small stone bottles 6/ 4 doz small dishes 8/ 6 doz puding pans 2/ 26 Cedar pailes £2.12 40 Bushels Salt £4

A total of 1,511 pottery vessels are listed in the inventory.

4. Personal communication with Rob Hunter, 2004.

5. The term Bourry box is derived from Emile Bourry, A Treatise on Ceramic Industries: A Complete Manual for Pottery, Tile and Brick Manufacturers (London: Scott Greenwood and Son, 1911). Emile Bourry described a firebox arrangement where the fuel is placed in an upper opening to rest on brick hobs. As the wood burns, the embers fall into the ash pit, providing continuous upward heat. The air supply, from an upper opening, moves first through the burning wood and then the ash pit before it enters the ware chamber.

6. Cipriano Piccolpasso, The Three Books of the Potter’s Art, facsimile of 1548 ed., translated and edited by Bernard Rackham and Albert Van de Put (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1934).

7. Chris Green, John Dwight’s Fulham Pottery: Excavations 1971–79, Archaeological Report, no. 6 (London: English Heritage, 1999): 28.

8. Brian J. Bloice, “Norfolk House, Lambeth: Excavations at a Delftware Kiln Site, 1968,” Post-Medieval Archaeology 5 (1972): 99–159; Graham J. Dawson, “Two Delftware Kilns at Montague Close,” London Archaeologist 1, no. 10 (1971): 228–31; Roy Edwards, “The Vauxhall Pottery, History and Excavations, 1977–81,” London Archaeologist 4 (1981–82): 130–36, 148–54; Green, John Dwight’s Fulham Pottery, pp. 21–28.

9. Piccolpasso, Three Books of the Potter’s Art.

10. Richard Hunter, “Eighteenth-Century Stoneware Kiln of William Richards Found on the Lamberton Waterfront, Trenton, New Jersey,” in Ceramics in America, edited by Robert Hunter (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2001), pp. 239–43.