Miranda Goodby
"Our Home in the West": Staffordshire Potters and Their Emigration to the America in the 1840s

Ceramics in America 2003

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    F. Micklewright, Hanley Market Place, 1840. Enamel painting on bone china. (Courtesy, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent; photo, David Barker.)

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Church Street, Stoke-upon-Trent, ca. 1840. Colored engraving. 6 1/4" x 4 3/4". (Private collection.)

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    T. Williams, Sr., The Bank, ca. 1840. Colored engraving. 5" x 6". (Private collection.) Packing the finished ware for sale.

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Masthead of The Potters’ Ex­am­iner and Workman’s Advocate, published 1837–1847.

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Notice to the “Shareholders of the Potters’ Emigration Society” in The Potters’ Examiner and Workman’s Advocate, May 18, 1844. In May 1844 the United Branches of Operative Potters union formed The Potters’ Joint Stock Emigration Society and Savings Fund.

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    “Important to Emigrants” in The Potters’ Examiner and Workman’s Advocate, November 2, 1844. The editor filled the paper with articles and editorials recommending emigration, with poetry and dramatic sketches eulogizing America as a promised land, and, more practically, with enticing advertisements.

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    “Notice to Emigrants” in The Potters’ Examiner and Workman’s Advocate. This advertisement, with minor changes, appeared every week from April 6, 1844, to October 26, 1844.

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Map showing the locations where various immigrants mentioned in the article worked.

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Postcard, ca. 1915. The Pioneer Pottery of East Liverpool, Ohio. (Private collection.) This single-kiln pottery was built by James Bennett on the Ohio River in 1840. Bennett’s three brothers, Edwin (inset), Daniel, and William, emigrated from England the following year. Bennett and Bros. produced yellow ware and Rockingham ware in East Liverpool until 1844, when the firm moved to the Pitts­burgh area. There thrower George Garner, a Staffordshire immigrant, worked for the Bennetts in 1844.