A Traveling Tour of Some of the Potters Who Worked in Newburyport, Massachusetts

This is a map I made for the following report - which will help guide you through a bike ride my nephew and I took last week. It shows the location of three potter's businesses in Newburyport, Massachusetts. All are located very-close to each other with a body of water known as the Bartlett Mall in the center. Two of the businesses operated simultaneously together in the eighteenth-century - while the third was in business in the latter years of the nineteenth-century that continued into the early years of the twentieth-century.

 

Map of Newburyport, Ma with Some of Its Potters

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While riding my bike through parts of Newburyport, Massachusetts last week with my nephew, Jason - we briefly stopped at St. Paul's Church on High Street, which is the resting place of the eighteenth-century potter, Daniel Bayley. Resting alongside Daniel are additional Bayley family members most of who were involved with the area's eighteenth-century red earthenware industry. Immediately next door to the church (heading west) is where Bayley's overly successful red earthenware company operated from roughly 1766-1799. Almost all of the remains from this business were removed in the 1930s - when a Route 1 underpass was paved directly through the center of the city. Author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares) salvaged a large amount of broken shards before demolition completely destroyed all of the important remains that tell the story of who the Bayley potters were - and how many of their products appeared. Most of the shards are now kept at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; although I've heard rumors that some boxes still remain with the Watkins family.

Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Mug - Newburyport, Ma

Ca. 1766-1799

Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Slip Decorated Deep Dish or Pan - Newburyport, Ma

Very Similar to a Bowl I Recently Found in a Newbury, Ma Trash Pile

Ca. 1766-1799

Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

(See the 15th and 16th Photos for a Similar Pan Found in Newbury, Ma -- June 2 Report)

Many of the Bayley shards collected by Watkins are very colorful - especially-so for an eighteenth-century American potter's business. The glaze colors were sometimes vibrant, rich colors - and when there was a more mute glaze color used - the products were often adorned in a large amount of slip decoration. When I first saw the Bayley shards at the Smithsonian last fall, I was surprised to see some glaze colors that were in keeping with colors usually associated with nineteenth-century potters in Maine.

 Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Shards - Newburyport, Ma
Impressive Group of Colors
Ca. 1766-1799

Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

 Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Shards - Newburyport, Ma
Ca. 1766-1799
Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin
Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

  Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Slip Decorated Shards - Newburyport, Ma

Ca. 1766-1799

Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

 Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Mug Shard - Newburyport, Ma
The Glaze Appears Like Some Products Made in Maine in the 19th Century
Ca. 1766-1799

Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Milk Pan Shard - Newburyport, Ma

 The Glaze Appears Like Some Products Made in Maine in the 19th Century

Ca. 1766-1799

Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

Lura Woodside Watkins actually did excavations at a number of places where the Bayley family worked throughout Essex County  in the eighteenth-century. Those places included; Josph Bayley's operation in Rowley, Massachusetts (before 1735) and Daniel Bayley's place of operation in Gloucester, Massachusetts (before 1766).

Joseph Bayley operated in Rowley from roughly 1720-1735 before he left for Newburyport for religious reasons. He is not thought to have re-entered the potter's trade once he left Rowley.

Daniel Bayley worked in Gloucester, Massachusetts before he moved to Newburyport and began his company in 1766. The Newburyport company was the more established of the two businesses.

Joseph Bayley Red Earthenware Shard - Rowley, Ma

Ca. Before 1735

 Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

 

Daniel Bayley Kiln Furniture - Gloucester, Ma
Ca. Before 1766
 Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

 

While on our bike ride, I was surprised to see shards from Daniel Bayley's operation in Newburyport protruding from the ground at St. Paul's Church. A half-dozen or-so were easily seen without even having to put any effort into looking for shards.The frozen soil appears to force shards above ground each year.

 Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Shard - Newburyport, Ma
Ca. 1766-1799
Seen on the Property of St. Paul's Church in Newburyport, Ma

  Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Shard - Newburyport, Ma
Ca. 1766-1799
Seen on the Property of St. Paul's Church in Newburyport, Ma

This next group of photos shows where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company used to operate in Newburyport (Ca. 1766-1799). The pictures also show St. Paul's Church and the Route 1 underpass that was built in 1934.

 St. Paul's Church Graveyard in Newburyport, Ma

 St. Paul's Church Graveyard in Newburyport, Ma
Daniel Bayley is Buried Here

 St. Paul's Church - Newburyport, Ma

 This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated
The Brick Wall of St. Paul's Church Can be Seen to the Right

 This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated
The Route 1 Underpass

 The Route 1 Underpass Was Built in 1934

  This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated
St. Paul's Church is in the Background

  This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated

  This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated
The Route 1 Underpass 

  This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated
The Route 1 Underpass 

  This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated
The Route 1 Underpass 

 This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated
St. Paul's Church is in the Background

 This is Where the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Used to Operated

St. Paul's Church is in the Background 

Route 1 Sign is Seen

As we continued on our bike ride through Newburyport, we came to the place where Ebenezer Morrison (Ca, 1741-1803) operated in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-centuries. Many Bayley family members were employed at the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company (5 in all) - and some of those family members traveld back-and-forth between the Bayley and Morrison businesses. As a result, many products took similar appearances at both companies. It was only a few hundred yards that separated the two businesses.

Ebenezer Morrison Kiln Furniture - Newburyport, Ma

Ca. Late 18th Century - Probably After 1775

 Lura Woodside Watkins Collectioin

Photo Courtesy: The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

We probably rode our bikes for another 1/10 of a mile before we came to the place where Thomas Nickerson operated the Merrimac Pottery Company from 1897-1908 making high-end floral wares, garden products, formal household pottery and ancient-style Grecian wares. Once again, we could see shards sticking out of the ground. All of the following shards correspond with products seen at the Historical Society of Old Newbury in Newburyport. Historical society curator, Jay Williamson and past Vice President, Chris Snow dug the site in 1998 as a condominium development was about to be placed over Nickerson's company, which burned in 1908. All of the shards seen below are in keeping with the shards I reviewed at the historical society earlier this year. All of the shards also appear to be the remains of floral products that are somewhat utilitarian in purpose.

 Area of Newburyport, Ma that Used to be the Back-End of the Merrimac Pottery Company
Merrimac Pottery Company Operated from 1897-1908

 Interior Brown Glazed Terracotta Shard
Found Near the Site of the Merrimac Pottery Company - Newburyport, Ma
Ca. Probably After 1900

 Terracotta Shard Found Near the Site of the Merrimac Pottery Company - Newburyport, Ma
Ca. Probably After 1900

  Terracotta Shards Found Near the Site of the Merrimac Pottery Company - Newburyport, Ma
Ca. Probably After 1900

  Interior Orange Glazed Terracotta Shard
Found Near the Site of the Merrimac Pottery Company - Newburyport, Ma
Ca. Probably After 1900

Terracotta Shard Found Near the Site of the Merrimac Pottery Company - Newburyport, Ma

Ca. Probably After 1900

These were not the only potters who worked in Newburyport; however they were likely the most prominent. Clement Kent (died 1747 or 1748) was another potter who worked in town, but I do not know much about his work. He was reportedly (Early New England Potters and Their Wares) responsible for training Ebenezer Morrison. There were also Newburyport brick makes in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth-centuries. The potter's businesses were also probably responsible for many apprentices and even possibly traveling potters. Newburyport is not the largest city, but it certainly has an interesting history of important potter's businesses.

Much More to Come...