As I have previously noted in the past few weeks on this website, there will be more information about the Clark family included in my forthcoming 800-900 page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, South Danvers, Peabody and Salem, Massachusetts. One of those subjects will explain how the Clark family may have initially influenced some of the early red earthenware production in West Hartford, Connecticut. This in some ways also originally stemmed from Reverend Peter Clark in Salem Village (Danvers), Massachusetts before 1768: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/search?q=reverend&max-results=20&by-date=true.
This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book: "An interesting connection found in the Salem Village Parsonage was that Reverend Peter Clark (1693-1768), who served as the minister from 1717-1768 was the grandfather of Captain (and Deacon) Peter Clark (1743-1826) of Braintree, Massachusetts and Lyndeborough, New Hampshire. Reverend Clark was born in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1693, graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge in 1712 and was ordained as the minister of Salem Village on June 5, 1717. He then married Deborah Hobart Clark (1702-1765) in Salem on November 6, 1719, who was the daughter of Peter (1673-1751) and Deborah Hayward Hobart (1678-1759): http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/07/some-more-information-that-will-be.html.
The Clark family can be traced back to Hugh Clark (1612-1693) in Watertown, who migrated to America from London, England in 1638. He first appears in Ipswich, Massachusetts before he relocated to Watertown about 1640.
Captain Peter Clark’s (1743-1826) parents were Peter Clark (1720-1747) and Anna Porter (Clark) (Faxon) (1722-1763); they were both born in Danvers, Massachusetts. The elder Clark was the son of Reverend Peter Clark (1693-1768) of Salem Village. They were married in Salem, Massachusetts on October 3, 1741. They were then living in Braintree by 1743. The elder Peter Clark died in Braintree in 1747, and Anna Clark died in Braintree in 1763. Although, she remarried Thomas Faxon (1710-1801) in Braintree on September 14, 1752, where this second marriage likely influenced early red earthenware production in Hartford, Connecticut in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Thomas Faxon (1749-1811) was from the Faxon family of Braintree, relocating to Hartford in 1772 in order to establish a pottery business. His role in the red earthenware industry in Hartford is largely unknown today, but he is regarded as having moved to Hartford in order to establish a red earthenware business, utilizing the rich clay in the city’s Elmwood/West Hartford section. Opportunities presented by the city’s proximity to the Connecticut River also probably contributed to his decision to relocate.
However, how he learned to manufacture red earthenware is a bit of a mystery, but there is a good chance that he trained under Peter Clark in Braintree, otherwise perhaps a business owned by the German immigrant potter John Henry Benner (1726-1796) in Abington, Massachusetts. But Faxon’s Massachusetts background and a potential connection to Clark may explain why some of the early red earthenware produced by Seth Goodwin (1772-1828) and Nathaniel Seymour (1763-1849) in West Hartford appears like it has a coastal Massachusetts influence in some of the forms.
Interestingly, Faxon’s probate inventory from 1811 in Hartford is quite extensive, although there were also claims filed on the estate of Faxon in 1812, where “Seth Goodwin” is named, as well as a “Charles Seymour.”
Note: For more information about the Clark family, Ebenezer Faxon and red earthenware production in Hartford - see these two books from my ongoing pottery book series:
1) A City on the River: The Early Red Earthenware of the Hartford, Connecticut Area: https://historicbeverly.net/product/a-city-on-the-river-the-early-red-earthenware-of-the-hartford-connecticut-area/
2) An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses: https://historicbeverly.net/product/an-influential-family-of-early-potters-the-clarks-of-new-hampshire-and-related-businesses/
Ebenezer Faxon's Probate Inventory from 1811 and Claims Filed the Probate in 1812
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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