According to a report published in the January 2008 issue of Cultural Resources Digest: Discovering New Jersey's Transportation Past, titled, The Morgan Pottery: Road Widening Spares 18th-Century Kiln Site: "...One large expanse of South Amboy clay would come to be known as the Morgan Clay Bank. Charles Morgan (1683-1750) purchased this tract, near Cheesequake Creek, in 1710, and 20 years later he purchased additional clay-bearing land farther upstream. Charles Morgan was not a potter, so it is presumed that his interest in these lands was in the mining and sale of clay, rather than the production of pottery. If the Manhattan potters were using South Amboy Clay for their stoneware, it is likely that it came from the Morgan Clay Bank.
Charles Morgan died in 1750. His son Captain James Morgan (1734-1784) apparently established the Morgan pottery in Cheesequake around 1770; in that year he mortgaged the land where the factory would later stand, possibly to raise the necessary capital. Sherds bearing dates in the mid-1770s have been found at the site, and Morgan later submitted a claim for damages to the kiln inflicted by the British in 1779.
Like his father, James Morgan was primarily a businessman rather than a potter. Apparently his role was that of pottery owner, supplying clay, employing skilled potters and marketing the finished products. He also experimented with incorporating some lower-quality clays, such as peach blossom, into the stoneware. Based on the types of stoneware produced, and the styles of surface treatment and decoration, some of the Morgan potters were apparently trained in the German tradition and may have come to Cheesequake via the Crolius or Remmey potteries in New York City. Because of the proximity of Manhattan to Cheesequake, it is not impossible that members of the Crolius or Remmey families may have had a more direct association with the Morgan pottery, and in this context it is tantalizing to note the appearance of a William Crolius in the tax rolls for South Amboy Township between 1786 and 1790.
Captain James Morgan's son, also James (1757-1822) but referred to as General James Morgan, inherited the pottery from his father in 1784. He sold it in 1801, apparently marking the end of the Morgan pottery, although not the end of the family's involvement with stoneware and Cheesequake. General James Morgan had a hand in another stoneware pottery in Troy, New York, that was in operation in 1801, and was a partner in the well-known Morgan-Van Wickle pottery established nearby in what is now Old Bridge, New Jersey in 1805. Jacob Van Wickle (17701854), one of Morgan's partners, was married to Sarah Morgan, James Morgan's sister. The other partner was Branch Green (1773-1847), a native of Troy, New York who had arrived in Old Bridge by 1803."
Among the notable existing stoneware objects known from Old Bridge, New Jersey today is a well-published early nineteenth century incised and cobalt decorated stoneware 'Jersey Devil' jug, which recently sold at Sotheby's in Manhattan in January 2025 for $50,400 including the buyer's premium: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/important-americana/an-incised-and-cobalt-blue-decorated-jersey-devil. This jug was also published in an article written by Peter Warwick and Leslie Warwick for the 2008 issue of Ceramics in America, titled, A Sighting of the New Jersey Devil on a Stoneware Jug: https://chipstone.org/article.php/428/Ceramics-in-America-2008/A-Sighting-of-the-New-Jersey-Devil-on-a-Stoneware-Jug.
Nevertheless, this good example of a circa 1810 two-gallon stoneware jug made at the Morgan-Van Wickle Pottery in Old Bridge was just consigned from a New York collection to Antiques Associates At West Townsend in Massachusetts. The early jug is adorned with an impressed Federal eagle medallion that was further embellished with cobalt. In some ways, this decorative technique really demonstrates the early connection found with some potters working in the Old Bridge and Manhattan area with stoneware potters in the Troy and Albany, New York area: https://www.aaawt.com/antique/stoneware-jug-old-bridge-new-jersey-federal-eagle-medallion-rare-2/
The spread-winged Federal eagle impressed on this jug also shows a shield across the eagle's chest, while the eagle is clutching an olive branch and some arrows are grasped by bird's talons.
For more information about this object - contact A.A.A.W.T.: https://www.aaawt.com/about/.
Note: For more information about production at the Captain James Morgan Pottery - see a feature story I wrote for the January 31, 2020 issue of Antiques & the Arts Weekly, titled, Early Red Earthenware & Stoneware Found on Staten Island: https://www.scribd.com/document/444232532/Staten-Island-Research-Story-Published-in-the-January-31-2020-Issue-of-Antiques-the-Arts-Weekly.
Circa 1810 Two-Gallon Stoneware Jug from Old Bridge, New Jersey
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