Unearthing Connections: How New England Pottery Wound Up in North Carolina

This is a follow up from yesterday's post, where I wrote: "...Samuel Marshall (d. 1749) is a notable figure in the colonial history of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. First recorded as a potter there in 1729, Marshall may have initially collaborated with Nathaniel Libby (1695-1752). Although Marshall did not purchase land until 1736, he successfully operated a red earthenware business near Puddle Dock—an area preserved today by Strawbery Banke Museum. 

Marshall's operations extended beyond local production. John Parker’s (1725-1765) 1747-1761 Potter’s Daybook from Charlestown, Massachusetts, shows Marshall purchasing some quantities of red earthenware in the late 1740s. This wholesale buying was likely a continuation of his early Portsmouth business model; notably, his name also appears in Theodore Atkinson’s (1697-1779) 1732–1735 ledger, predating his land ownership.

The ledger captures the bustling commercial operations of Atkinson, a wealthy New Hampshire merchant, judge, and provincial secretary. Beyond his extensive transatlantic trade, Atkinson maintained critical ties to the American South through coastal shipping routes connecting Portsmouth to North Carolina. During this era, North Carolina relied heavily on New England merchants to export its abundant naval stores—like tar, pitch, and timber—as well as corn and tobacco. Atkinson actively engaged in this intercolonial coastwise commerce, deploying merchant vessels to exchange specialized textiles (such as the cuttanees listed in this ledger), rum, and European goods for these Southern raw materials. These commercial networks cemented Atkinson's status as a key economic bridge between New England and the Southern colonies..."

Shown here on the left is an eighteenth century slip decorated red earthenware pan. Likely crafted in Charlestown, archaeologists recovered it near Wilmington, North Carolina, at the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson site. Founded in 1726 as the first permanent European settlement in the Cape Fear region, British troops later burned the town in 1776. On the right is a similar slip decorated pan found in a colonial context at the Three Cranes Tavern site in Charlestown, which was destroyed by fire during the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.

Note: For more information - see my third published book, titled, The Dawn of Independence, the Death of an Industry: The Pottery of Charlestown, Massachusetts: https://historicbeverly.net/product/the-dawn-of-independence-the-death-of-an-industry/.

(Left) 18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pan Recovered in N.C.

(Right) Similar 18th Century Pan Recovered in Charlestown, Mass.

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Charles LeCount, Deputy Director of North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and Properties and City of Boston Archaeology Program

Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...