As I noted in a post from yesterday, Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins
(1897-1982) cited in 1950 in Early New England Potters and Their Wares that there was a
potter active in Brimfield, Massachusetts in 1780; she did not have a clear answer as to who that potter was, however, I suspect it was John Hinds in South Brimfield.
Nonetheless, some types of slip decorated red earthenware was recovered in the 1980s at the site of the relatively unknown eighteenth century pottery business of John Hinds (ca. 1714-1793) in Holland (South Brimfield), Hampden County, Massachusetts. The aspect about this archaeology that was fascinating was that the slip techniques were similar to some of the styles produced in Charlestown, Massachusetts before the American Revolution. These artifacts were then published in my third 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/.
However, as part of my forthcoming eleventh book, titled, A Monumental History: Stories of Red Earthenware Production in Western Massachusetts and the Berkshires, I explain some of the highlights of Hinds' life, which included working as a potter in Holland during the circa 1750-1793 period. This information will all be included in a chapter in the book about central Massachusetts red earthenware production. But he had to have trained in Charlestown sometime before 1741.
Hinds was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts about 1714, although he married Judith Marcy Hinds (1723-1824) in Woodstock, Windham County, Connecticut on December 25, 1741. The couple had three children in the 1740s, all born in Woodstock; Lemuel Hinds (1742-1761), Judith Hinds (1744-1761) and Judith Hinds Junior (1747-1776).
However, by 1750, Hinds was living in Holland with an occupation of “potter,” when he was given land by his father-in-law James Marcy (1691-1765). Holland is located about twenty miles northwest of Woodstock. It was written in a deed from that year that Hinds purchased his first lot of land in Holland (South Brimfield), where it was stated, “up until this time he was a potter living in South Woodstock CT.”
The couple then had four more children in Holland in the 1750s and 1760s; Suriah Hinds (b. 1754), Marcy Hinds (b. 1756), Sarah Hinds (1758-1844) and Tertullus Hinds (b. 1762). John Hinds is still listed as a potter in Holland in deeds from September 13, 1768, August 23, 1770 and January 30, 1789. He is also listed in the 1790 United States Federal Census in Holland, passing away sometime around October of 1793.
Note: The Hinds family name can also be traced back to John Hinds (1639-1720) in Salem, Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, as well as his father, James Hinds (ca. 1613-1655), who came to Salem from England around 1637, as part of the Puritan migration. The younger Hinds died in Worcester County, Massachusetts in 1720.
The Circa 1750-1793 John Hinds Pottery
Recovered at the Site of the John Hinds Pottery in Holland, Mass.
Circa 1750-1793
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Photo Courtesy: Doug Lyon
Birth Records From Holland, Massachusetts of Suriah
Hinds (b. 1754), Marcy Hinds (b. 1756), Sarah Hinds (1758-1844) and Tertullus
Hinds (b. 1762)
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John Hinds Listed as Living in Holland, Massachusetts
This is from the 1790 United States Federal Census
Hinds was a Potter in Holland, Circa 1750-1793
He Likely Obtained His Clay Locally
It is Unclear Where He Acquired Kaolin for Slip Decoration
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Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
