This post is another preview of my forthcoming two-volume, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts. I promise this new book is unlike any other New England redware book previously published; it runs 1,854 pages! It also ties in a number of my other published books!
While researching my new book, I learned about a significant 1791 marriage record that links the Quaker potting families of Danvers and Salem to those in Bristol County. Here is some of that information.
"...Dorcas Osborne (1768-1839) was born in 1768 in the town of South Danvers (now Peabody), Massachusetts to Abigail Chase (1740-1817) and Paul Osborne (1735-1808). Her father was a "yeoman," a term for a farmer who owned and worked his own land. When Dorcas was twenty-three, she and her fiancé, Joseph Buxton (1766-1849), announced their plans to get married.
Dorcas came from the same Osborn or Osborne family, who turned the South Danvers and Peabody area into a major hub for red earthenware production during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Because they were Quakers, the couple followed a unique set of traditions (also discussed in Chapter 6 in Volume I). Before they could wed, they had to attend several "monthly meetings" in Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts to get the official blessing of their religious community. Their marriage certificate, signed on October 21, 1791, serves as a record of this tradition, featuring the signatures of about forty friends and family members who acted as witnesses to their marriage.
This document is significant because it records the names of the Buxton, Osborne, Purinton, Shove, and Southwick families. These names reveal a direct connection between the Quaker potting dynasties of Danvers and Salem and those in Bristol County, Massachusetts.
Since Quakers tended to marry others within their same faith, these families became a tight-knit group of relatives and business partners. These marriages helped these families share their skills and trade secrets for making red earthenware, turning a local craft into a widespread family business. This certificate acts like a family tree that shows how the red earthenware industry in parts of eastern Massachusetts was actually a large network of related Quaker families..."
Quaker Marriage Certificate of Dorcas Osborne and Joseph Buxton
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