As part of my forthcoming 700-900 page, tenth book that I am working on now, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, South Danvers, Peabody and Salem Massachusetts, I am trying to connect as many of the potters as I can to the Salem Village Parsonage in Danvers, Massachusetts, and in some cases, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. One case of this connection is with a potter named Joseph Wilson, who was originally from South Danvers (Peabody), Massachusetts before he relocated to Dedham, Massachusetts by the early 1760s, and then Providence, Rhode Island by 1767.
Part of the reason that Wilson is noted today in past scholarship and publications is because he advertised in the June 22, 1767 issue of the Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury: "Joseph Wilson - potter at the North End of Providence Informs the Public that he can Supply them with Earthen Ware at a Cheap Rate, made in the best Manner and Glazed in the Same Way as Practised in Philadelphia - All Persons in this Town may be regularly supplied by Means of the Boats which constantly pass between this Place and Providence."
An example of Wilson's production is owned as part of the Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-1982) Collection at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The eighteenth century slip decorated pan is dated in the center "1764." This is a significant year for Wilson and his family, seeing that this is when he along with his wife Elizabeth and his two children, Joseph and Elizabeth, were baptized on April 29, 1764. However, it is unclear how Wilson worked as a potter in Dedham, whether he was running his own kiln or perhaps working at another business.
One theory that I came up with is that maybe he was firing some red earthenware in a local brick maker's kiln, seeing that he was likely baptized by Deacon Nathaniel Kingsbury (1698-1775). Nathaniel was chosen deacon of the First Congregational Church at Dedham in the year 1749 and remained in that office until his death, a period of about twenty-nine years. Kingsbury was also connected to Dedham's brick making business, since he was involved with Captain David Fuller (1704-1777) and other men when they built Dedham's brick powder house in 1766.
However, there has also been some previous speculation that Wilson may have been working with Daniel Felton (1742-1828) in Dedham. Felton was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1742, although he was baptized in Needham, Massachusetts on March 11, 1743. He married Abigail Cook (1745-1803) in South Danvers on December 12, 1765; the Cooks were one of the families of potters working in South Danvers in the 1700s.
The Felton family of Salem dates back to Nathaniel Felton Senior (1615-1705), who arrived in Salem in 1633. He married Mary Skelton Felton (1627-1701) in Salem in 1645.
During the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, Felton Senior and his son, Nathaniel Felton Junior (1655-1733), along with other family members defended John (1631-1692) and Elizabeth Proctor (1650-1703), who were accused of witchcraft. Felton Senior was the first to sign a petition in support of the Proctors, stating that they lived a Christian life.
Wilson seems to have returned to Massachusetts after the American Revolution, although very little is known about his career; Lura Woodside Watkins wrote in Early New England Potters and Their Wares, “Wilson is twice mentioned in the Inferior Court Records of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, when suits were brought against him. The first, dated April 23, 1782, was instigated by John Thomas, potter, of Newburyport (Thomas later worked in North Yarmouth, Maine). In this case the plaintiff defaulted. Wilson was then of Providence. The second, in 1784, was brought by "Thomas Seward, Esq., of Boston vs. Joseph Wilson of Providence now resident at Boston, Potter."
Joseph Wilson: A 1760s Red Earthenware Potter in Dedham, Mass.
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