To continue yesterday's post, titled, An 1830s Document that Cites "Kitchen and Cabin Earthenware" Used Aboard a Ship in Salem, Massachusetts, I believe I may have found more evidence of Preserved Peirce or Pierce's involvement with red earthenware trade in Bristol County, Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the eighteenth century. But there is a lot more to this story than just Peirce's history.
It was published in a feature story I wrote for the June 2018 issue of Maine Antique Digest, titled, The Pottery Industry in Southeastern Massachusetts, and later in my fifth published book, titled, A Celebrated Industry: The Historic Wares of Southeastern Massachusetts, Bristol County and Cape Cod: "The potters were not the only persons responsible for peddling the wares from this industry (Bristol County). Winterthur's library contains a 1757-1766 account book kept by Preserved Peirce (1736-1798), a merchant from Swansea, Massachusetts, who traded along the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. He sold wooden and pewter goods, pottery, and tools for craftsmen and potters. The account book reveals that he purchased red earthenware from potters John Law, Caleb Purinton, and Isaac Upton.
Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins also cited a post-American Revolution account book from Peirce when she published Early New England Potters and Their Wares in 1950. Watkins wrote that Preserved Peirce "owned a sloop called Rosemary, in which he sailed up and down Mt. Hope Bay and along the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut selling wooden ware, pewter, pottery, and such articles as tea kettles, hats and shoe buckles, or bartering his stock for flour or flax, lead and manganese for the potters, or brass and copper for the metal workers. The account book verifies that Peirce was still in business with the Purinton family, as he was before the American Revolution, and he was also in business with the Shove family (the Shove and Purinton families were also related through marriage). An entry from 1786 reveals that the red earthenware forms Peirce had in his possession included milk pans, platters, plates, basins, pots, bread pans, chamber pots, jugs, pitchers, mugs, bowls, porringers, and churns."
One of the names that Peirce did business with is of particular interest, seeing that Isaac and Samuel Upton (1748-1810) established a red earthenware company in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, circa 1771-1783. Interestingly, Peirce is documented in the Rhode Island Census as living in East Greenwich in 1774 and 1782. But he may have lived there for a longer period of time. Little is known about the Upton's production today, although Peirce’s coastal trade may have been a component of that pottery’s business model. Peirce is listed in the 1774 Rhode Island Census in East Greenwich with a household of nine people, one of which was an “Indian.” In many cases, Native Americans were slaves in America before the American Revolution.
The Upton brothers also had ties to the Salem and Danvers, Massachusetts area, seeing this is where their father, Edward Upton (1714-1772) was born, on April 16, 1714. He married Eleanor Osborn Upton (1713-1769) in Salem, on November 18, 1735. Although Isaac was born in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire in 1736 and Samuel was born in Berkley, Massachusetts in 1748. Isaac also married Phebe Pierce (1739-1782) in Swansea on December 30, 1763, who was related to Preserved Peirce.
However, I am also interested in what happened to the Upton brothers after the East Greenwich business closed; not much is documented about the final 25 years of Samuel's life, while Isaac appears in Adams, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, which is where his daughter Sarah Upton (1784-1796) was born in 1784. He married Anna Sherman (1759-1822) in Adams in 1786. This was his second marriage, where his first wife, Phebe Pierce died in 1782. Isaac then lived the remainder of his life in Adams, although the big question I have is whether he operated as a potter at all while he lived here!?
It also seems that the Friends Society (Quakers) of North Adams was established just after Isaac Upton arrived in Adams. The society was formed in 1781 and worshipped in a log cabin until 1786, when they erected a house that still stands today. According to a book written in 1885 by William F. Spear, titled, History of North Adams, Mass., 1749-1885, "The families of David Anthony, Isaac Killy, Isaac Upton, Joshua Lapham and Adam Harkness constituted the society at its first organization."
Note: For more information about production in East Greenwich - see a story I wrote for the May 2019 Newsletter of the East Greenwich Historic Preservation Society, titled, The Upton Pottery In East Greenwich: https://www.scribd.com/document/408579817/Newsletter-Eghps-May2019-Final.
The 1780s Quakers of Adams, Berkshire County, Mass.
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Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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