Ivor Noël Hume

“ In his annual reports on manufactures to the Lords of the Board of Trade during the 1730s, Virginia's royal governor, William Gooch, mentioned several times an anonymous "poor potter" of Yorktown. At face value, Gooch's reports might seem to indicate that manufacturing was an insignificant factor in Virginia's economy and that the only pottery-making endeavor worth mentioning at all was so trivial it could be brushed aside as being almost, if not quite, unworthy of notice. ”

“ There is no doubt that bottles and jars, some of considerable size, were among the Yorktown factory's principal products, but this does not mean necessarily that all such items found in the vicinity of Yorktown or Williamsburg are Rogers' pieces. Just as the tavern tankards were copies of English mugs, so the bottles and jars had their prototypes among the wares of English, brown-stoneware potters. The difference is simply that the kitchen vessels have rarely attracted the attention of collectors and therefore are poorly represented in English museums. ”

“ Thus, one mug of his first test series was placed much closer to the direct heat than were the rest, with the result that it emerged with an overall dark, highly glossed surface somewhat reminiscent of Burslem brown stoneware.
The only real evidence of the Yorktown manufacturing process comes from the many sagger fragments that have been found around the town. The largest single assemblage was discovered on the Swan Tavern site, but another group of large pieces was recovered from beneath the Archer Cottage at the foot of the colonial roadway leading down to the river frontage. ”

“ Many items of pottery and cutlery were of late 17th-century date, though found in refuse pits of about 1730-1740. This would not be so surprising were it not for the fact that few, if any, such items have been found in excavations at Williamsburg, a town that was firmly established throughout the period covered by the Tutter's Neck occupancy as determined by the excavations. But if the kitchen site was used as a slave quarter, it would be logical to expect that such things as pottery and cutlery would have been old before being relegated to that location. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the Rogers factory at Yorktown was a sizable operation and that it employed throwers as capable in their own field as any in England. Our slender knowledge of Rogers' own background does not indicate that he himself was a potter. It must be supposed, therefore, that he obtained the services of at least a journeyman potter apprenticed in one of the brown-stoneware factories in England. ”

“ Since there is no evidence that stoneware was being made at this time in Virginia, other than at Yorktown, it is reasonable to suppose that the "poor potter's" heirs shipped stoneware all the way to New England and that they were paid in hard cash, as distinct from tobacco credits, which would have been the case with local customers. However this may be, the Rogers enterprise, even if its products were confined to Virginia, appears to have been extensive, wealth-producing, and quite the opposite of Governor Gooch's appraisal of it in his reports to the Board of Trade. ”

“ While the throwing variations of Rogers' potters may have been overlooked, little can be said for a master craftsman who would allow the use of tools so worn as to mar the esthetic quality of every mug produced. We may wonder whether there was another stoneware potter at work in Virginia in the mid-18th century or whether, after Rogers' death, his factory's standards were allowed to deteriorate to the level of the John Coke mug.
Although the tavern tankards are the most informative of the Yorktown products, numerous other stoneware forms were produced. ”

“ How long the pottery may have flourished is not known. There is no further mention of it after 1745, and the shipping records do not suggest that earthenware or stoneware products were then being shipped out of York River.
The most significant fact about the "poor potter" is the revelation that he made stoneware. Stoneware manufacture is a sophisticated art, requiring special clays, high-temperature firing, and the ability to use salt in glazing. When William Rogers acquired his first lots in Yorktown in 1711, no stoneware, so far as [Pg 84] we know, was being made in North America. ”

“ The wares run the gamut from such under-burning that the iron-oxide slip has evolved no further than a zone of bright-red coloring, to overfiring which has turned the slip a deep purple and the body to almost the hardness and color of granite. Do these differences result from a lack of control over entire batches, or do they stem from temperature variations inherent in different parts of the kiln? Mr. Maloney's experiments, made without the use of saggers, have shown that close proximity to the firebox can unexpectedly and dramatically affect the wares. ”

“ The unusual construction of the kitchen and its situation in the trash area at a skew with the residence might prompt the conclusion that it was built without much consideration for the beauty of the whole. It is probable that the kitchen was erected after the house had ceased to be the residence of the owner or a tenant of the Tutter's Neck acres, and that the dwelling was then a slave quarter. ”

“ It can easily be argued that there would have been more in the 18th century, though no kiln sites have yet been [Pg 106] found. These considerations cannot be ignored, and consequently we must carefully avoid the trap of attributing all 18th-century, lead-glazed earthenwares made from Tidewater clay to the Rogers factory. A wood-fired Yorktown kiln burning pottery made from Peninsula clay and coated with a clear lead glaze would produce wares possessing variations of texture and color similar to those emerging from a comparable kiln, say, at Williamsburg. ”

“ Not only did economic depression force the industrious to turn to manufactures as an alternative to poverty, but economic prosperity, when it occurred in the 1730s, provided a financial stimulus to further that prosperity by means of local manufacturing.
Governor Gooch doubtlessly understood this. He was remarkable among Virginia's colonial governors for his ability to achieve what the colonists wanted while pleasing the home government. His administration created an era of good feeling during which the Virginians frequently expressed their gratitude and praise. ”

“ That the pottery later ceased to function and Virginia's manufactures in general failed to develop may reflect the differences in attitudes between Governor Gooch and his successors and the stubborn impositions by the Crown that eventually led to the American Revolution.
There seems little doubt that the "poor potter," William Rogers, and the maker of the pottery so liberally dispersed around Yorktown and elsewhere in Virginia are one and the same. Further archeological investigation and discovery of a kiln or kiln dump should provide the evidence needed for proof. ”

“ The only conceivable explanation for the presence of the wood must be that it was part of a frame used to hold the block of natural sandy clay together while the underhearth wall was being erected around it. As the underhearth foundation would have originally risen at least another 2 feet 6 inches above the timber to the floor level of the house, the wood would not have been in danger of igniting from the heat of the domestic fire. But if the house ultimately burned, it is possible that the exposed end of the timber might have caught fire and slowly been consumed along its entire length. ”

“ Consequently, a Yorktown origin may reasonably be considered for any of the wares made from local clay that turn up in contexts of the appropriate period. In the Williamsburg collections are such varied lead-glazed, earthenware items as closestool pans, chamber pots, straight-sided dishes, lidded storage jars, wide-mouthed and double-handled storage bins, pipkins, and chafing dishes. But whether all these things were made, in fact, at Yorktown cannot be known until the factory site is found and excavated. ”

“ Storage jar or pipkin, pale-pink ware flecked with ocher and occasional granules of quartz, a clear lead glaze imparts an orange color to the surface, and is locally streaked with green. The rim is heart-shaped in section, having a groove along its upper surface, and the body is extremely finely potted. There is good reason to suppose that this vessel is of Virginia manufacture, in which case the 17th-century colony possessed a potter of greater ability than any of those whose kilns have yet been found. ”

“ It is only when we arrive at this document that we find the clue we are seeking: "my interest is that no potters ware not burnt and fit for sale should be appraised." Who but a potter (or the owner of a pottery) would have had in his possession unfired "potters ware" not "fit for sale"?
Any remaining doubts that Rogers operated a pottery are dispelled by the inventory (see Appendix III) , which describes the estate of a wealthy man, not a "poor" potter. He owned 29 Negroes, considerable plate, a clock worth £6, a silver-hilted sword and spurs, and a silver watch. ”

“ While some of the black dirt overlay the corner foundation, its looseness suggests that it was pushed there during the bulldozing. No traces of the stratum extended inside the kitchen, and the artifacts were consistently of dates prior to the construction of the building. Finds included a pewter spoon handle, brown stoneware with a rare white interior, a tobacco-pipe bowl with maker's initials "H S," a wineglass stem comparable to that from pit B, and panes of window glass measuring 2-1/8 in. ”

“ It could also be added that two earthenware-pottery-making sites have been discovered in the Jamestown-Williamsburg area for which no documentary evidence has been found. The very fact that such enterprise was officially discouraged reduces the value of the negative evidence to be derived from the absence of documentation.
The most convincing evidence for the identification of Rogers' stoneware comes from the already mentioned Swan Tavern mugs and from a quantity of sherds found in a 4-to 7-inch layer beneath Yorktown's Main Street in front of the Digges House in the spring of 1957. ”

“ But in the final analysis the Clay Bank site was to prove less rich and less historically important (owing to a lack of adequate documentation) than had been anticipated. On the credit side, however, it did contribute new facts relating to building construction in 17th-century Virginia, as well as yielding a series of closely dated tools and miscellaneous artifacts, plus one piece of glass that is not only without parallel in America, but which is of sufficient importance to merit a place in the annals of English glass. ”

“ It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that Rogers disposed of his kiln waste by using it for hard core to make good the roads under his jurisdiction. Such a use of potters' refuse has ample precedent in that the wasters and sagger fragments from the 17th-century-London delftware kilns were dumped on the foreshore of the river Thames to serve the same purpose. Similarly, stoneware waste from the presumed Bankside factory [250] was used there to line the bottoms of trenches for wooden drains. ”

“ The recent development of archeology, how [Pg 76] ever, as an adjunct of research in cultural history—especially in the historic areas of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown—has produced substantial evidence challenging both the accuracy of Gooch's reports and the conclusions drawn from them, which, contrary to Gooch's statements, proves that pottery making in Yorktown was highly skilled and much at odds with the concept of a "poor potter." ”

“ The most notable inference that Rogers' stoneware may have infiltrated distant colonial markets is found in the Petition of Isaac Parker to the Massachusetts Court to establish a stoneware manufactory in Charlestown, Massachusetts, filed in September 1742: "... there are large quantities of said ware imported into this Province every year from New York, Philadelphia, & Virginia, for which ... returns are mostly made in Silver and Gold by the gentn who receive them here." ”

“ It seems evident that the Rogers earthenware was fired to biscuit, glazed, and fired again in a glost oven; no other explanation accounts for the large quantities of unglazed earthenware found at Yorktown. Mr. Maloney's experiments at the Williamsburg Pottery have amply demonstrated that the Yorktown earthenware could have been glazed in the green state and would not have required a second firing. Furthermore, the study of a late-17th-century kiln site in James City County has confirmed that not all potters thought it necessary to make glazing a separate process. ”

“ The principal concentration of artifacts was encountered in the brick-strewn vicinity of the residence and kitchen, though neither feature was immediately discernible. This scatter was flanked on the west by a windbreak of humus, clay, and fallen trees, and had run out before reaching a parallel windbreak to the east. Finds extending in the direction of the latter break included English white salt-glazed sherds as well as bottle fragments of the second quarter of the 18th century. ”

“ While the groups of artifacts from refuse pits are closely dated by context and are consequently valuable in the general study of domestic life in early 18th-century Virginia, the history of the site is less well served. The limited nature of the excavation, the loss of the overburden through bulldozing, and the destruction of the James City County court records during the Civil War serve to leave a number of important gaps in the chronology. ”

“ It must be added also that, besides the inventory, the only extant direct documentary reference to the Rogers' factory products (1745) is to earthenware, not stoneware. Furthermore, we know that 20 years earlier he had sold a considerable quantity of earthenware to John Mercer of Marlborough.
Prior to the discovery of the Yorktown evidence we had known of no stoneware manufacturing in Tidewater Virginia in the 18th century, but archeological evidence had revealed the presence of earthenware kilns in the 17th century, with the possibility of two or three operating at much the same time. ”

“ The best example recovered from a dated archeological context in Virginia is a jar found in a rubbish deposit of about 1763-1772 at the plantation of Rosewell in Gloucester County. [259] But like the well-fired bottles, its Yorktown provenance cannot yet be proved.
The last major category of kitchen stoneware believed to have been made at the Yorktown pottery [Pg 99] is a group of pipkins (fig. 13, no. 7) . These were often overburned and improperly salted, turning the body a greenish gray and the iron-oxide slip to a coarse brown mottling with a similar greenish hue. ”

“ Thus, if the Yorktown factory worked at full capacity, it probably would have been possible to fire each kiln once a week. But, not knowing how many workmen were engaged in the operation, we would be unwise even to guess at the size of its output. The listing of stoneware and coarse earthenware included in Rogers' inventory is not particularly large, although £5 worth of "crackt" stoneware might have represented a considerable quantity of "seconds" or wasters when one considers that 26 dozen good quart mugs were worth only 4 shillings more. ”