Part 1 (2/2)

Jenkinson._)]

Aside from such indications of a well-established mercantile trade, the entrenchment of North Devon interests in the colonies is repeatedly shown in other ways. Before 1645, Thomas Fowle, a Boston merchant, was doing business with his brother-in-law, Vincent Potter, who lived in Barnstaple.[11] In 1669, John Selden, a Barnstaple merchant, died after consigning a s.h.i.+pment of goods to William Burke, a merchant of Chuckatuck, Virginia. John's widow and administratrix, Sisely Selden, brought suit to recover these goods, which were ”left to the sd. W{m} Burke, &c, for the use of my late husband.”[12] Burke was evidently an agent, or factor, who acted in Virginia on Selden's behalf. In Northampton County, alone, there resided six Bideford factors, remarkable when one considers the isolated location of this Virginia Eastern Sh.o.r.e county and the spa.r.s.eness of its population in the 17th century.[13] John Watkins, the Bideford historian, adds further evidence of mercantile involvement with the colonies, stating of Bideford that ”some of its chief merchants had very extensive possessions in Virginia and Maryland.”[14] Both in New England and the southern colonies, local merchants acted as resident agents for merchants based in the mother country. Often tied to the latter by bonds of family relations.h.i.+p, the factors arranged the exchange of American raw materials for the manufactured goods in which their English counterparts specialized.

That there was a large and important commerce in North Devon earthenware to account for many of the relations.h.i.+ps between Bideford, Barnstaple, and the colonies seems to have remained unnoticed. Indeed, the fact that the two towns comprised an important center of earthenware manufacture and export in the 17th century has. .h.i.therto received little attention from ceramic historians, and then merely as sources of picturesque folk pottery. Yet in the excavations of colonial sites and in the British Public Records Office are indications that the North Devon potters, for a time at least, rivaled those of Staffords.h.i.+re.

The earliest record of North Devon pottery reaching America occurs in the Port Book entry for Barnstaple in 1635, when the _Truelove_, Vivian Limbry, master, sailed on March 4 for New England with ”40 doz.

earthenware,” consigned to John Boole, merchant.[15] The following year the same s.h.i.+p sailed for New England with a similar amount. After the Stuart restoration larger s.h.i.+pments of earthenware are recorded, as ill.u.s.trated by sample listings (below) chosen from Port Books in the British Public Records Office.

TYPICAL s.h.i.+PMENTS OF EARTHENWARE FROM NORTH DEVON

(Sample entries from Port Books, verbatim)

BARNSTAPLE 1665[16]

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Date s.h.i.+p Master For In Cargo Subsidy --------------------------------------------------------------------- s d

26 Aug Exchange of W{m} t.i.therly New England 150 doz. of 7-6 1665 Biddeford Earthenware

4 Sept Philipp of Edmond Virginia 30 doz. of 1-6 1665 Biddeford p.r.i.c.kard Earthenware

28 Nov Providence Nicholas Virginia 20 doz. of 1-0 1665 of Taylor Earthenware Barnstaple ---------------------------------------------------------------------

BARNSTAPLE AND BIDEFORD, 1680[17]

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Date s.h.i.+p Master s.h.i.+pment --------------------------------------------------------------------- Aug 6{th} Forester of Christopher Browning Twenty dozen of 1680 Barnstaple, Earthenware for Maryland Subsidy 1/

Sept 6 Loyalty of Philip Greenslade 30 dozen Earthenware Barnstaple Andrew Hopkins, merchant Subsidy 1/6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

BARNSTAPLE, 1681[18]

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date s.h.i.+p Master To Goods & Merchants ----------------------------------------------------------------------- May 30 Seafare of Bartholomew New Forty-two hundred [weight]

1681 Bideford Shapton England parcells of Earthenware Subsidy 7/

28 June Hopewell of Peter Prust Virginia 30 cwt. parcells of Bideford Earthenware Peter Luxeron Merchant Subsidy 5/

Aug. 12 Beginning John Limbry Virginia 15 cwt. parcells of of Bideford Earthenware Subsidy 2/6 Richard Corkhill Merchant[19]

BIDEFORD, 1681[20]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date s.h.i.+p Master To Goods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 21 June Beginning Thomas Virginia Thirty hundred of Bideford Phillips pclls of Earthenware Joseph Conor merchant Subsidy 5/

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