Last week, I visited the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord to study Daniel Clark’s (1768-1828) 1789–1827 diary for my forthcoming eleventh book, A Monumental History: Stories of Red Earthenware Production in Western Massachusetts, the Berkshires and Vermont. I was particularly interested in this diary because it contains multiple entries from the 1790s and early 1800s detailing the Clark family's involvement in Vermont and Canada.
For a brief history: Daniel Clark is a vital figure in early American craft history because his career and surviving diary maps the expansion of the post-Revolutionary red earthenware trade in parts of northern New England. Operating a successful pottery shop in Concord, he produced the essential utilitarian wares that sustained regional households. Historically, his significance lies in his rare, meticulous records, which provide a window into how early craftsmen navigated local economies, exported production, managed raw materials, and expanded distribution networks across state lines from Massachusetts into New Hampshire, Vermont and Canada.
One of the most fascinating discoveries in the diary is clear evidence that the Clarks of Concord sourced some of their lead used for glaze from major coastal hubs like Salem, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I have shared a few of these intriguing entries below.
Additionally, Captain Peter Clark (1743–1826) laid the foundation for the Clark pottery dynasty through deep ancestral roots in colonial Massachusetts. Born in Danvers—originally Salem Village—he was the grandson of the Reverend Peter Clark (1693-1768), the longtime minister of the parish historically tied to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Peter learned the red earthenware trade and operated a successful kiln in Braintree, Massachusetts, before relocating to Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, on the eve of the American Revolution. After serving as a Patriot captain at the Battles of Bennington and Saratoga, he established a thriving New Hampshire pottery business, using his early Massachusetts mercantile connections to teach his sons—including Daniel—how to source materials and distribute red earthenware across northern New England. This will also be a subject discussed in my forthcoming two-volume tenth book, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts.
Interestingly, 1830s receipts from the pottery of Daniel Clark's son, Daniel (1793-1862), were discovered inside the diary. His Concord pottery business also operated across state lines, distributing throughout New Hampshire and west into Walden, Vermont. Consequently, these receipts will be included in the upcoming eleventh book.
Note: For more information - see my eighth book, 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/.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
