An Important Red Earthenware Potter's Daybook from Charlestown, Massachusetts, Circa 1747-1761

I have previously written about the various slip-decorated sherds, which were made in Charlestown, Massachusetts that have been recovered in mid eighteenth-century (or earlier) contexts in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Maine and Canada. All of these objects are thought to have been made at the Isaac and Grace Parker Pottery in Charlestown, circa 1714-1755. However, Isaac and Grace's son, John Parker was also a potter and his circa 1747-1761 potter's daybook is owned by the Baker Library at Harvard University today.

I studied this daybook a few years ago and I thought it would be fun today to share some of the important information that is kept in this journal.

John Parker's Potter's Daybook
Basically, fourteen-years of John Parker's work as a Charlestown potter is accounted for in this book - he kept track of his employment at the John Harris Pottery and Robert Standly's Pottery in Charlestown in the 1750's. But he also listed many red earthenware orders that were placed by outside merchants. For example, there were at least thirteen merchants from Boston, who individually placed frequent orders of red earthenware from the Parker Pottery in Charlestown. The majority of the red earthenware wholesale orders were also placed before 1755.

18th-Century Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware from Charlesetown, Massachusetts

Both Objects Probably Made at the Parker Pottery, Circa 1714-1755

Photo Courtesy: (Left) Private Collection and (Right) Boston Archaeology Department

18th-Century Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware from Charlesetown, Massachusetts

Both Objects Probably Made at the Parker Pottery, Circa 1714-1755

Photo Courtesy: (Left)  Private Collection and (Right) Boston Archaeology Department

The fact that red earthenware from the Parker Pottery has been discovered in various archaeological contexts in Maine and Canada can be partly interpreted, when Parker indicates in his dabyook, that wholesale orders of red earthenware were shipped to Casco Bay in Maine in the late 1740's. According to Parker, "Mr. Joshua Freeman, Casco Bay, Earthen Ware 1747, April 15."

Wholesale Order of Earthen Ware that was Shipped to Casco Bay in Maine

 This Order was Placed at the Parker Pottery on April 15, 1747

Photo Courtesy: Baker Library - Harvard University

However, the journal also maintains cash sales for objects that are less expected from a potter's daybook in colonial Charlestown, such as wiggs, shaving accessories, soap, Indian corn, corn, onions, handmade cloth, rye, fish, flour, timber, cords of wood and a shovel. But there is also the mention of lead and various references to kilns in Charlestown, such as repairs that John Parker performed on the Parker Pottery kiln in 1748. He references it as "My Mother Parker's Estate, Repairing of Kiln at Sunday Times 3." However, there also appears to have been a Charlestown potter, who purchased a sketch of a kiln from John Parker.

John Parker Referencing Grace Parker's Estate in Charlestown, MA

He Seems to Have Repaired the Kiln 3 Times in 1748

Photo Courtesy: Baker Library - Harvard University

I also found it fascinating to learn that it appears that Parker was selling wholesale orders of red earthenware to merchants in Charlestown, as well as a few potters in Charlestown.

The name James Osborn was also listed in Parker's daybook, but there were no orders of red earthenware sold to Osborn. Instead, Osborn appears to have purchased various supplies, but this could be a significant name seeing that this may have been a son of Joseph Osborn, who established the Osborn Pottery in Peabody (formerly South Danvers), Massachusetts, circa 1736.

The history that this book preserves is amazing - I also found it intriguing with what I interpreted as wholesale orders of red earthenware from individuals, who did not live in Boston or Charlestown. Orders of red earthenware were fulfilled and sent to Massachusetts merchants in Roxbury, Milford, Duxbury, Norwich, Marblehead, Malden, Nantucket, Barnstable and Harwich. Although, there was also an order of red earthenware purchased by Mr. Griffith from Killingworth, Connecticut on August 19, 1747, as well as multiple orders of red earthenware placed in May and July 1751 by Mr. Daniel Gray, who was also from Killingworth, Connecticut.

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), "Charlestown red earthenware was sent by boat along the seacoast as far as Casco Bay and around Cape Cod (Barnstable, Harwich, etc) as far south as the Connecticut River. This method of selling by water was the only one possible in an era when roads were bad and inland towns scattered, and when the larger markets were in the seacoast settlements."

Wholesale Order of Earthen Ware that was Shipped to Killingworth, CT

 This Order was Placed at the Parker Pottery on August 19, 1747

Photo Courtesy: Baker Library - Harvard University

Wholesale Orders of Earthen Ware that were Shipped to Killingworth, CT

 These Orders were Placed at the Parker Pottery in May and July 1751

Photo Courtesy: Baker Library - Harvard University

Charlestown was really New England's centralized red earthenware industry before the American Revolution. It would be fascinating to see how this industry would have proceeded if it were not destroyed at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.

Note: Here are links to two more articles, which I just posted this week about the Charlestown, Massachusetts potter's industry, circa 1635-1775.

1) Charlestown: New England's Potter's Industry, Circa 1635-1775

2) Stoneware Made in Charlestown, Circa 1741-1745

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...