This post is another preview of my forthcoming two-volume, 1,800+ page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2026/01/update-on-new-book-book-sent-to.html.
While researching the new book, I learned about the 1765 marriage of Daniel Felton and Abigail Cook in Danvers. Abigail came from three generations of Danvers/Salem potters, while Daniel likely learned the craft from Abigail's father before they married. This connection gave Daniel the skills he needed to move to Needham and open his own successful pottery shop. Here is that story.
"...This document is from an old record book kept by the Town Clerk of Danvers, Massachusetts. In the 1700s, the town clerk was responsible for recording all significant life events for the local population. The marriage surnames recorded throughout these pages include Marsh, Newhall, Upton, Goodale, Felton, Cook, Boiles, Putnam, Small, Jacobs, Whittredge, Breed, King, DeLand, Shellaber, Knish, Needham, Dole, Sawyer, and Leach.The marriage record for Daniel Felton (1743-1828) and Abigail Cook (1737-1828) documents their formal "intention of marriage" in Danvers during the fall of 1765. Both Daniel and Abigail were local residents when their intentions were first entered into the town records on October 19, 1765. According to the established custom of the time, their intention was read publicly on three separate dates—October 20, 21, and 27—to confirm there were no legal or moral objections to the union. Following this period, they were officially granted a marriage certificate on October 28, 1765, and were wed in December of that year.
Historical records show no evidence that Daniel and Abigail were Quakers; instead, they appear to have been part of the Congregationalist faith common in colonial Danvers. Daniel Felton was baptized in the local church on March 11, 1743, and shortly after the wedding, the couple moved to Needham, Massachusetts. Although his family had a long history as farmers and landowners in Danvers, Daniel's own career took a different path. In his last will and testament, signed on August 4, 1815, he is formally identified as "Daniel Felton of Needham... Potter."
Interestingly, there were three consecutive generations of Cook family red earthenware potters in Danvers: Abigail’s grandfather, Samuel Cook Senior (1695–1745); her father, Samuel Cook Junior (1720–1792); and her brother, Samuel Cook III (1742–1775). As noted previously, her brother was killed on April 19, 1775, at the Battle of Lexington. Given this lineage, it is highly probable that Daniel Felton learned the trade by apprenticing under Abigail’s father. In the eighteenth century, red earthenware skills were typically passed down through years of hands-on training under a master craftsman—a practice also common among red earthenware and stoneware potters in Manhattan and Philadelphia. Because Abigail came from a family of potters, her family’s shop is the most logical place for Daniel to have mastered his craft.
It should also be noted that this is the same time the potter Joseph Wilson relocated from his family red earthenware business in Danvers to neighboring Dedham, Massachusetts, which is further discussed in Chapter 7 in Volume I. Nevertheless, the relocation of people from Danvers and Salem to towns like Dedham and Needham in the 1760s was primarily driven by economic opportunity and the search for available land..."
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