EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: 18th/19th Century Red Earthenware Pitcher Found Yesterday in a Shop in Central Massachusetts

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

18th/19th Century Red Earthenware Pitcher Found Yesterday in a Shop in Central Massachusetts

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), "Not the least important among the South Danvers (today known as Peabody), Massachusetts craftsman are the Southwicks, also of Quaker descent. They stemmed from Lawrence Southwick (circa 1594-1660), who, on account of his religion, was banished from Salem, Massachusetts in the dead of winter.

Joseph and William of the fifth generation were both potters and both lived on Lowell Street; Joseph at No. 151, where his kiln and shop stood in 1786, and William at No. 161.

Joseph was blessed with four daughters, but William had a son, William Southwick, Jr., who became a potter, and he in turn had three sons, William Southwick, Jedebiah Kilbourn Southwick, and James Chapman Southwick, who followed the family calling."

It fascinates me that this potter's business was directly related to Lawrence Southwick, where according to the Salem Patch, "Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick immigrated to Salem with four of their six children in 1637. Lawrence was perhaps the first glassmaker in America and set up his works in what became known as the Glass House Field in the present day Aborn Street area.

The Southwicks converted to the Society of Friends and hosted two Quaker preachers in their home in 1657. They were promptly arrested for this crime and jailed. Lawrence, since he was still a member of the First Church, was released, while his wife remained jailed for seven weeks and was whipped and fined 40 shillings (a substantial fine) for having a document written by the Quaker missionaries.

Realizing that a 1656 law was not slowing the arrival of Quakers, the legislature passed a new law calling for cutting off an ear, branding, and boring a hole in the tongue for returning after banishment, in addition to fines, whipping and banishment. This did not stem the flow of missionaries who were making converts in the colony. The legislature, fed up with the banished returning to witness to these unjust laws, added a death sentence to those returning after banishment. This lead to four executions on Boston Common. King Charles II eventually intervened in 1661 and ordered the persecution of Quakers to end.

The Southwicks and their son, Joshua were again arrested in 1658 for being Quakers and not attending proper church services. They were imprisoned for twenty weeks and fined. Unable to pay the fines, some of their property was seized and sold, reducing them to dire circumstances.

In 1659, two of their children, a daughter, Provided, and son, Daniel, were ordered to be sold as slaves in Barbados to pay the fines. No merchant captain agreed to transport them, so they were allowed to stay until a captain willing to transport and sell them could be found. The poet, John Greenleaf Whittier immortalized this confrontation in his poem, 'Cassandra Southwick.'

While public sentiment was shifting in favor of leniency to the Quakers, the leaders refused to back down from this 'threat.' Impoverished and banished, the Southwick family went to Shelter Island in New York in the winter of 1659-60. Reacting to this privation, both Cassandra and Lawrence died within days of each other.

The persistent persecution of the Southwicks is often cited as one of the worst cases of religious discrimination in Puritan Massachusetts. Here was an elderly couple, deprived of their freedom and estate, prosecuted retroactively by laws passed while they were imprisoned, banished, penniless in the dead of winter, which caused their deaths. This case is most notable in that they were not zealous missionaries, but residents who chose to follow a new path."

Nevertheless, yesterday was a slow day at the antique shows in Brimfield, Massachusetts; I didn't find anything that I had to bring home. But I did stop at a shop on my drive home, where I found this eighteenth or early-nineteenth century red earthenware pitcher that is related to a pitcher owned by the Peabody, Massachusetts Historical Society, as well as Historic New England. Both of the museum's pitchers are attributed to the Southwick Pottery in South Danvers (today known as Peabody), Massachusetts. This is only the second time I have seen a Southwick pitcher for sale, and I happen to own both examples.

Note: Any variations found in the exterior/interior glazes in the following photos is a result of the type of lighting used in the photographs. I have handled each of these objects and the glazes all appear the same.

Southwick Pitcher Found Yesterday in Central Mass.