See the Potteries section for the 123 (or 125) Temple Street Pottery and the St Thomas Street Pottery 1.
123 (or 125) Temple Street Pottery
| c1781-1804 | It is not known exactly when James Alsop I established the 123 (or 125) Temple Street Pottery, but it was operating from at least 1781. |
In 1804 Alsop’s pottery at 123 (or 125) Temple Street was taken over by Price and Read and James Alsop I moved to the St Thomas Street Pottery 1.
St Thomas Street Pottery 1
| 1805-06 | James Alsop I ran the St Thomas Street Pottery 1, trading as James Alsop and Company. |
James Alsop I died in 1806 and the Pottery was taken over by Morgan, Walker and Company.
Born c1747, the son of Uriah Alsop, yeoman, of St George, Gloucestershire (A). His relationship to the other Alsop potters is not known although they all came from St George.
| 1761 | 9 Nov. The son of Uriah Alsop of St George, Gloucestershire, yeoman, he was apprenticed to William Taylor with £10, the gift of Edward Colston, deceased (A, Ao). |
| 1774 | 4 Oct. Became a free potter (F, G). |
| 1774 | Potter, Temple parish (P). |
| 1775 | Potter, 9 Water Lane, Temple (SD). |
| 1776 | Possibly the John [sic] Alsop who stood surety for John Marsh to keep an alehouse in St James’s parish (AKL). John Marsh was James’s brother-in-law having married his sister Martha at St Philip & Jacob church on 11 April 1773 (information from V. Radford). |
| 1776 | 5 Dec. Potter, Temple Street (Ao). |
| 1777 | 21 Oct. A potter of Temple parish he was granted a licence to marry Hannah Podger of Castle Precincts at Temple. Bondsman: John Marsh of St Philip & Jacob, wine merchant (M). |
| 1777 | 2 Nov. James Alsop of Temple parish married Hannah Podger (information from V. Radford). |
| 1781-94 | Described as a potter or brown stone potter of Temple Street (P, BWMD, RD, BD, BBD, Ao, MD). |
| 1789-94 | He was noted as having a female servant, one horse and a cart with two wheels (Temple-W). |
| 1795-1803 | Brown stone potter, 125 Temple Street (MD). |
| 1796 | 9 Jan. ‘Thursday died, after a long indisposition, borne with that exemplary patience becoming a Christian, Mrs Alsop, wife of Mr Alsop, potter, in Temple-street’ (BMBJ). |
| 1797 | 25 Jan. A list of persons whose gouts lead into the common sewer between Temple and St Thomas parishes includes James Alsop of Temple Street (Q). |
| 1798 | 3 Mar. A list of voluntary subscribers for the defence of the country includes ‘Temple parish James Alsop £4 4s 0d’ (FFJ). |
| 1798 | 19 Mar. Witnessed the marriage of Robert Torkington of Chatham, Kent, gent. And Patty Marsh, spinster, at Temple church (information from V. Radford). Other witness was Rachel Maybury. |
| 1798 | 22 Sep. Licence for the marriage of James Alsop of Temple, potter, widower, and Margaret Griffiths of St Michael, spinster. Bondsman: William Maybury of St Peter’s, silk dyer (information from V. Radford). |
| 1799 | 29 Oct. A Grand Jury Presentment regarding the common sewer includes James Alsop of Avon Street (Q). |
| 1803-04 | A brown stone potter living in Temple Street, Temple parish (MD). |
| 1804 | Alsop’s pottery at 125 Temple Street was taken over by Price and Read. Alsop moved to St Thomas Street. |
| 1805 | James Alsop and Company, brown stone potters, Thomas Street (MD). |
| 1805 | 29 Jun. ‘Tuesday night about 12 o’clock a fire broke out in the pottery of Messrs. Alsop & Co. in St Thomas-street, which was soon got under without any considerable damage’ (FFJ). |
| 1805 | He stood surety for Philip Tanswell to keep an alehouse in Temple parish (AKL). |
| 1806 | Trading as James Alsop & Co., brown stone potters in ‘Temple Street’ (MD). This is presumably a mistake for Thomas Street. |
| 1806 | 20 Jan. He died and was buried at Iron Acton, Glos. (information from V. Radford). |
| 1806 | 22 Feb. ‘Iron Action, Glos. To be sold (in fee by auction) At the Lamb Inn at Iron Acton … A very comfortable and desirable messuage lately fitted up at a considerable expense in a neat and desirable manner in the cottage style; comprising a small entrance hall, two parlours, two kitchens, a cellar, six bed-chambers and a dressing room; with a paved yard, coach-house, stalled stable, a walled pleasure garden, planted with choice fruit trees, a small kitchen garden, and other conveniences adjoining, situate opposite the Parsonage at Iron Acton aforesaid … now [in the occupation of] Mrs. Alsop, widow of the late Mr. james Alsop. Also a close of rich meadow or pasture ground containing about siz acres (more or less) situate at a small distance from the said messuage …’ (information from V. Radford). |
| 1806 | 14 May. James Alsop’s will was proved: ‘Being in good health and sound in mind I do make this my last Will and Testament. I give and bequeath to my loving wife the whole of my property during her natural life and at her demise I will and bequeath my two houses situate in Wine Street Bristol to Wm. Maybury and his wife for the use of their two children Henry and Eliza jointly after the age of twenty if living and for their use if living. My houses situate in Temple Street I bequeath to my neice Patty Torkington if living during her natural life and at her death to her son Andrew if living if not to revert to Henry Maybury son of Wm. And Rachel Maybury as above mentioned. I bequeath to Ann Jenkins the sum of £20 if living in my family if not if she is living the sum of £10 for her faithful and honest service. I constitute John and William Snook of the City of Bristol wine merchants to be my executors leaving them One Guinea each as a token of friendship to purchase a ring. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 21st day of June 1804 in the presence of John Snook Wm. Lovell and Wm. Snook’. (information from V. Radford, will at PRO). [Note: Rachel Maybury was the Rachel Alsop who married William Maybury at St Michael’s, Bath on 10 Oct 1790. Her relationship to James Alsop I is not known (information from Rosemary Potter)]. |
| 1810 | 22 Dec. ‘To Be Sold By Auction, At the Globe Tavern, in Christmas Street, on Monday the 14th day of January next … the reversion in fee, expectant on the decease of Mrs Margaret Alsop, widow, aged about 60 years, of all those Three Messuages or Tenements adjoining together, situate in Saint Thomas Street, in the said city of Bristol – And also the extensive Yard and Potter’s Manufactory complete, situate behind the said Messuages, one of which said Messuages is now in the occupation of William Peters, Tinman, and the other two are used as warehouses, and are, together with the said Manufactory, in the occupation of Charles Price, Potter …’ (FFJ). |
| 1850 | 23 Mar. Obituary ‘March 18th at 190 Oxford St., Mrs. Margaret Alsop, formerly of Bristol and of Iron Acton in the county of Glos. in her 98th year of her age’ (information from V. Radford, Bristol Mercury). |
| Apprentices: Alone: Isaac Alsop, 5 Nov or Dec 1776 (A, Ao) – 7 Apr 1784 (F) With his wife Hannah: Uriah Alsop, 17 Mar 1788 (A, Ao) – 9 Oct 1812 (F) James Alsop II, 10 Sep or 10 Nov 1788 (A, Ao) – 6 Jun 1802 (F) With his wife Margaret: John Hibbard, 30 Jul 1800 (A, Ao) Thomas Bawn Yabbicom, 2 Aug 1802 (A, Ao) It was probably James Alsop who took as apprentices: John Milsom, 25 Jan 1805 (A, Ao) – discharged 12 May 1807 (A) Soloman Edmunds, 21 May 1806 (A, Ao) Rate and tax book entries: |