See the Potteries List section for the Redcross Street Pottery and the Baptist Mills Pottery.
Redcross Street Pottery
The Pottery had probably been established by Joseph White I in about 1823.
| 1829-40 | Joseph White II and James White I ran the Redcross Street Pottery.
In 1840 they seem to have been in partnership with someone called Doubting, the firm trading as White & Doubting. It is assumed that Joseph White I retained a financial interest in the Pottery during this period. |
The Pottery was taken over by William White, the brother of Joseph White II.
Baptist Mills Pottery
This Pottery was established by Joseph White II and James White I after their move from the Redcross Street Pottery. It is assumed that Joseph White I had a financial interest in this Pottery
| 1840-60 | Joseph White II and James White I ran the Baptist Mills Pottery. |
The Pottery was taken over by their sons, Joseph Augustus White and James White II, Joseph White II having retired to Devon by 1861 and James White I having moved to Canada between 1861 and 1869.
Born c1801 in St Philip’s parish, the son of Joseph White I, brother of Henry White and William White and father of Joseph Augustus White, Frederick James White and James White II (51C, PPR).
| 1814 | 26 Aug. He was apprenticed to J.D. Pountney, to be educated as a turner (A). |
| 1826 | 21 May. St Philip’s parish (PPR). |
| 1829 | 13 Sep. St Paul’s (PPR). |
| 1829-38 | J. (jnr)/Joseph and James White, Rich’s Buildings, Redcross Street, potters for yellow ware (MD). |
| 1830 | Potter, Pottery, Redcross Street, St Paul’s (P). |
| 1830-38 | J. White was exporting earthenware to Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Jersey, Guernsey, Jamaica and Barbados (PR-EXP). |
| 1831 | 22 May. St Philip’s parish (PPR). |
| 1833 & 38 | Stapleton (PPR). |
| 1835 | Potter, New Street, St Philip’s parish (P). |
| 1837 | Potter, Rich’s Buildings, Redcross Street, St Philip’s parish (P). |
| 1839 | J & J White, Rich’s Buildings, Redcross Street, yellow ware and black tea-pot manufacturers (MD). |
| 1840 | White and Doubting, Redcross Street, yellow ware and black tea-pot manufacturers (MD). |
| 1840-41 | Joseph (jnr) and James White, Baptist Mills, Egyptian black and teapot manufacturers (MD). |
| 1841 & 45 | Baptist Mills, St Philip’s parish (PPR). |
| 1841 | Prospect Place, St Philip’s parish (41), living with his wife Elizabeth (40), not born in Bristol and children (41C). |
| 1842-46 | Joseph (jnr) and James White, Baptist Mills, Egyptian black and Rockingham teapots, stone jug and gold lustre ware manufacturers (MD). |
| 1842 | 29 Sep. A conveyance to Joseph White, the younger, and James White of Bristol, potters, of a mill formerly used as a grist mill and afterwards by the Bristol Brass and Copper Company together with the water wheel and machinery and the yard, stable and premises adjoining and the mill stream, the mill tail, all houses and outhouses, buildings, sluices, floodgates, sewers, etc., for 14 years at £60 per annum (BRO 01788(12). |
| 1842-67 | J & J White were exporting earthenware to Dublin, Jersey, Guernsey, Melbourne, Geelong and New York (PB-EXP). |
| 1845 | Rich’s Buildings, Joseph White (owner James White) House & Pottery £16 (Consolidated Rates). |
| 1845 | 1 Oct. The conveyance to Joseph White the younger, potter, for £600, of 3 void cottages adjoining the mills called Baptist Mills with the strip of land behind the same and the blacksmiths shops thereon. Also all that piece of land adjoining and extending to Ashley Road, all the premises are bounded on the east by the mills and mill tail, on the north partly by the River Frome and a public road, on the west by a piece of ground belonging to James White and partly by the River Frome and on the south by Ashley Road – lately used as a skinners yard and parchment manufactory (BRO 01789(2)). |
| 1847 | Potter, Baptist Mills, St Philip’s parish (P). |
| 1847 | 30 Jun. Noted as a potter when his son Joseph (21) of Baptist Mills, married Catherine Brewer (HTPR). |
| 1847-52 | Joseph (jnr) and James White, Baptist Mills, Egyptian black and Rockingham tea pot, stone jug and tobacco pipe manufacturers (MD). |
| 1850 | 24 Aug. The mortgage of land, messuage and premises at Baptist Mills, from Joseph White the younger, to John Kerle Haberfield and R.J.P. Young (BRO 01789(4)). |
| 1851 | Potter master employing 95 persons, 2 Lower Ashley Road, St Philip’s parish (50), living with his wife Elizabeth (50) born in Goodleigh, Devon and children. Servant, Hester Painter (16) (51C). |
| 1851 | 12 Dec. Whereas James White is entitled to a mill, messuages and land, and mill tail, and Joseph White is entitled to land and the factory building, James conveys to Joseph a strip of land in exchange for Joseph making a culvert under his factory for drainage purposes and the culvert is granted to James (BRO 01789(6). |
| 1852 | Potter, Baptist Mills, St Philip’s parish (P). |
| 1853-60 | Joseph (jnr) and James White, Baptist Mills, Egyptian black and Rockingham tea pot, stone jug and earthenware manufacturers (MD). |
| 1854 | 14 Oct. ‘James Hobbs was charged with throwing stones and breaking three panes of glass at Mr White’s pottery, Baptist Mills. A witness named George Thomas deposed to having seen the prisoner deliberately throw three stones, each of which broke a pane of glass, and Mr White’s foreman stated that some scores of panes had been broken in a similar way by the prisoner and his companions. Fined in the amount of damage and costs, or seven days imprisonment’ (Bristol Mercury). |
| 1856 | 27 Sep. ‘To be let, at Baptist Mills, premises comprising large yard, workshops and sheds, suitable for any kind of manufacturing business. For particulars apply to Messrs White, Baptist Mills Pottery’ (Bristol Mercury). |
| 1861 | Retired potter, Goodleigh Road, Barnstaple, Joseph White (61), born in Bristol, living with his wife Elizabeth (61), born in Goodleigh, Devon, and children James (19) and Corrinna (15) (61C). |
| 1862 | 15 Aug. Mortgage from Joseph White to the Trustees of the Third Bristol Benefit Building Society of messuages at Baptist Mills upon an advance of £1000. Between Joseph White, formerly of Bristol, potter, now residing at Waytown, near Barnstaple, Devon, Edward Burgess, gent., William Daniel White of Bristol, railway carrier, etc … The property described as: All that land at Baptist Mills, and all that kiln and other buildings erected on the land now in the occupation of James White, the younger and Joseph Augustus White and used by them as an earthenware pottery; All that land and warehouse erected thereon now in the occupation of James White, the younger, and Joseph A. White; All that messuage with garden and cottage in the occupation of William Daniel White and all that yard with workshops, etc., commonly called the Brookland Works in the occupation of Gunters; All that tenement situated at Baptist Mills commonly called the Porch House in the occupation of James White the younger and Joseph A. White (BRO 01789(7)). |
He later emigrated to St John, New Brunswick, Canada, with his sons, James Alfred and Frederick James White. He took over the Courtney Bay Pottery at Crouchville. He died in 1870 in St John (Walker 1977, 1340).
‘Joseph White brought with him to the colonies a determination to transplant to the shore of Courtenay [sic] Bay in New Brunswick the typical products of a successful pottery in Bristol. Stoneware glazing as the Bristol potters carried it out as part of his plan. Conditions in the New World cramped and confined his efforts, but his was a conspicuous attempt to enlarge the scope of potting in a colony by introducing English standards. From Crouchville he advertised the same wares (at least in name) that he had made at home in England. Hutchinson’s New Brunswick Directory for 1867-68 tells us what he was trying to do: “Joseph White & Sons, Manufacturers of Earthen & Stoneware, Rockingham and Black Teapots, Common and Fancy Stone Pitchers of the latest English Designs, Stoneware Spirit Jugs, Milk Pans & Preserve Jars, Common and Ornamental Flower Pots, Vases, &c, Courtney Bay Pottery, St John, N.B. J. White & Sons (of the Potteries, Bristol, England) have lately commenced manufacturing a superior description of Stoneware, coated with a glaze, impervious to acids, to which they respectfully invite the attention of Wine and Spirit Merchants, Chemists and Importers”.
It was at the beginning of the 1860s that Joseph White and his family [wife, two daughters and sons James A. and Frederick J.] arrived in Saint John from Bristol. Trained as a potter in England, where the Whites had been working with clay for generations, Joseph White acquired a small pottery already in operation at nearby Crouchville … (now known as East Saint John). It is said that he very soon put into effect 2new ideas pertaining to pottery manufacture in conformity with the English practice of the day”.
Joseph died in 1870 and the pottery was carried on by his sons Frederick J. and James A. (and for a short while by William Daniel) until the end of the 1880s. Frederick was called back to England to assist his brother Joseph’s widow and young sons with the Bristol business. Later he went to the United States. James A. White was left alone. Fire devastated the plant in 1885 and bankruptcy closed it not many years after’.
A price list survives for the Courtenay Bay Pottery Company. James A. White was the manager, and their products included Rockingham, Bariole, Cane and Common Earthenware, Tobacco Pipes, &c. Priced goods included bread pans, milk pans, cream crocks, butter crocks, covered and preserve jars (Collard, E. 1967. Nineteenth-century pottery and porcelain in Canada. Montreal: McGill University Press, 253-256).
| Children: Charlotte Amelia, bapt 21 May 1826 (PPR), Joseph Augustus, bapt 13 Sep 1829 (PPR), Corinna Ann, bapt 22 May 1831 (PPR), William Daniel, bapt 14 Apr 1833 (PPR), Frederick James (aged 5 wks), bapt 30 Dec 1838 (PPR), James Alfred (aged 1 mth), bapt 26 Dec 1841 (PPR), Corrinna Ann (aged 1 mth), bapt 12 Oct 1845 (PPR) |