In the first half of the 1800s great changes were happening in the lives of the working classes. Unions had become legal, industries were flourishing and people were looking to the West as the land of opportunity and promise. Mass emigration of families was taking place; this was the age of excitement and adventure. The pioneers that had ventured forth wrote home of their experiences and encouraged others to follow. At this time it was not just the potters that found emigration so appealing as the area now known as the Potteries was rural and many farmers occupied the land, therefore, it was the farming community that first saw the first mass movement west. As the potters became more specialised they too followed and so began the trail west to a better life in another country.
In 1840 the introduction of machinery into the factories and on the land brought confusion and worry to the working folk, wages were depressed, the labour market was overstretched and folk soon became expendable The west looked very inviting and many took up the challenge of a new life abroad, America was promoted as the Land of the Free, guide books glorified the wonderful life and American goods soon began to make an appearance in the country.
The Potteries Union decided that the way forward was to emigrate and it actively encouraged people to go. The real reason was that if hundreds of workers left a saturated market it was thought that the industry would be rejuvenated and wages would improve. There was even a lottery scheme used to tempt people into going, For £5.00 a family could enter into the scheme which would pay the sea passage to America for a man, wife and 3 children, also a house would be provided with land and supplies for 12 months, a very ambitious claim. The originators of this idea had no real knowledge of what conditions were like. The weather was harsh, the land difficult to travail and proposed settlements were difficult to reach. So it was that when the first families went out not enough houses were ready for them, also the winter weather was so harsh that many went home to England. The whole scheme collapsed, it was really never going to work for £5.00!! The cost to the Pottery Unions was devastating; they lost a fortune and a reputation.
Many people did make a good living, particularly the skilled worker and the farmer and letters home were full of encouragement, but the advice was to come BUT bring money to buy land and property. Family names that we would think indigenous to the Potteries can still be traced in the U.S. Census proving that many were successful and happy to stay. Some drifted to the towns and became shopkeepers; some skilled potters established factories and the emigration flow continued.
Religion played a crucial part in the actual emigration process, Methodism was the rising religion of the masses and links were established with the Mormon Church in America. The Mormons had ships which were reputable, clean and reliable so that when the first men had become established they sent for their families but insisted that they travel on a Mormon ship, they knew that their family would be looked after, have good food, plenty of spiritual guidance and good after care. Families would travel by canal to Liverpool and then onto their designated ship. On arrival in America they would continue through the river network to wherever they wanted to go. The whole journey was undertaken by water. Ohio, St. Louis and East Liverpool were popular destinations but New Orleans was considered a den of iniquity!
As time passed the populations of emigrants expanded and by 1880 over 300 factories were established. The ware produced became more decorative and delicate and the entire American pottery industry was based on the Staffs Potteries and the imported skills of the potters. The names of these families are still to be found particularly in East Liverpool and can genuinely be called our friends in the West.
Reviewed by Anne James.
Cedric Barber came to talk to the Society about his ancestor Francis Barber, a man who rose from the hell of the slave ship to a position of note. Cedric divided his talk into three parts, the THREE R’s as he called them, Reasons, Research and Results.
Reasons:
As a child Cedric was told about an ancestor who was Dr. Johnson’s secretary, but he admitted that he was too young at the time to be impressed. When, however, he was taught at school about Johnson and Garrick he quickly became very interested. It wasn’t until 2005 that he visited Lichfield and Dr. Johnson’s birthplace that he became obsessed with finding out more. He saw documents; certificates artefacts and his reasons for investigation became apparent.
Francis Barbers roots were in Africa, he was taken forcibly from Africa to Jamaica and then eventually to England. Quashy (Francis’s real name) Grace, his mother and a brother were bought by Captain Bathhurst for £5.00. Quashy was a fashion accessory as were many slaves of the time. Eventually, though, he was given to Dr. Johnson, a friend to Captain Bathhurst. Dr. Johnson was very anti slavery and considered Francis as his son. (Bathurst had died so Francis was in fact a free man.) He was so highly regarded that on Johnson’s death Francis inherited the whole of his estate. Francis married a white girl and one of their sons, Samuel, became a well-known local preacher and was nick named Black Sam.
Research:
Another member of the Barber family, Dennis, had researched the family records and laid the foundations to build a family tree. From family knowledge, records and research done a website was constructed and even a play written about Francis’s life.
A painting was discovered, reputedly by Joshua Reynolds, which showed Francis as a well dressed, notable, handsome black man.
It is known that Francis joined the navy as a young man. He fought for the English against the French when still with Captain Bathhurst. The irony is that at that time he was still a slave in theory, as he did not become a free man until Bathurst died and he went to live with Johnson.
Sam Barber the son of Francis had a memoir written about him by John Smith, a local preacher. A copy of this can be seen in the Museum at Englesey Brook. Sam’s name stood along side those of Bourne, Clowes and Wesley the great name associated with the rise of Methodism.
Results:
This year is the bi centenary of the abolishment of slavery also the anniversary of the first camp meeting at Mow Cop. These two factors coupled with the knowledge that he is a direct descendant of a slave have had a profound influence in the life if Cedric Barber. He is passionate about his history and about disadvantaged black people, particularly children, in the world. Cedric has inherited the passion of Black Sam one of the first “Ranters”; his talk was full of absorbing facts about his slave ancestry and his pride shone through all he had to say.
To learn more about Francis and Black Sam a visit to Lichfield and Dr.Johnson’s birthplace is an essential and a recommended afternoon’s occupation.
Review by Anne James.
Edmund Audley was the son of James, Lord Audley and Eleanor his wife. He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, and took his B.A. in 1463. It is presumed, though no record exists, that he afterwards took an M.A.
In 1464 he was given the prebend (a benefit, which was usually the income from cathedral estates) of Colwall in Hereford Cathedral and, three years later, to that of Iwern in Salisbury. In 1472 he was made a canon of Windsor. In the same year he received the prebend of Farrendon in Lincoln Cathedral, in 1474 that of Gaia Minor in Lichfield and, in 1475, that of Codeworth in Wells. On Christmas day in the same year he was made archdeacon of the East Riding of Yorkshire and in 1479 archdeacon of Essex.
He does not seem to have found all these substantial preferments (the act of preferring) incompatible with each other and, though he resigned the rectory of Bursted Parva in Essex on 9th April 1471, he had no difficulty in accepting another prebend, that of Givendale in York, on 18th October 1478.
In 1480, when he resigned his two archdeaconries and most of his other preferments, he was made bishop of Rochester. In 1492 he was transferred to Hereford and in 1502 to Salisbury. About the time of this last preferment he was also made chancellor of the order of the Garter—an office that in the sixteenth century Dr. Seth Ward tried to unite, or, restore to the see of Salisbury, for which he maintained it was intended when given to Bishop Audley.
This catalogue of his
honours and church preferments comprises almost all that is known about him and
whereas his two last bishoprics are supposed to have been given to him for the
loyalty of his family (the Audley’s) to the house of Lancaster, all his previous
benefices, including the bishopric of Rochester, were bestowed upon him during
the reign of Edward IV.
What is his claim to distinction?
The answer is that although not an author he was a patron of letters and was complimented by the University of Oxford for having bestowed a prebend in Salisbury on Dr. Edward Powell (afterwards a martyr at Smithfield for denying Henry VIII's supremacy) who had written a book against Luther.
He was a benefactor to Lincoln College, Oxford, to which he gave, in 1518, 400 marks to purchase lands. He also bestowed upon it the patronage of a chantry in Salisbury Cathedral.
He seems, moreover, to have been a contributor to the erection of a stone pulpit in St. Mary's Church at Oxford, at the bottom of which, according to Wood (Wood's Antiq. of Univ. Oxf. i. 667), his arms were seen carved along with those of Cardinal Morton and FitzJames, bishop of London. With regard to the pulpit, even Anthony à Wood, writing in the seventeenth century, speaks in the past tense and what became of it no one knows.
Godwin (Godwin de Præsulibus) says that Bishop Audley also gave the organs to St. Mary's Church but this is doubted by Anthony à Wood.
In 1509 he gave a donation of 200 marks to Chichele's chest at Oxford (Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury), which had been robbed. He was a legatee and executor of King Henry VII, and one of the trustees for the foundation of the Savoy Hospital (Calendar of Henry VIII, i. 776, 3292).
In 1516 he obtained from Henry VIII a license to found and endow two chantries (the establishment of an institutional chapel on private land or within a greater church), one in his own cathedral and one in the south side of the Lady Chapel in Hereford cathedral. The policy of granting the endowments of their chantries direct to the chantry chaplains was carried a step farther by Bishop Audley, whose executors arranged in 1516 that the chaplain of his chantry should be a body corporate capable of defending its right to its property in a court of law.
In 1521 he suppressed the nunnery of Brome-hall in his diocese on account of the misconduct of its inmates, for which he received a letter of thanks from the king.
The register of Bishop Audley (1502-1524) at Salisbury has 48 judgements, 3 people as relapsed and incorrigible and being delivered over to the secular power. Of the remaining 45 judgements only three were from Salisbury.
He died at Ramsbury in Wiltshire on 23rd August 1524, and was buried in a chapel erected by himself in Salisbury cathedral in honour of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
Is it possible to be religious and proudly self-centred? Bishop Edmund Audley’s chapel in Salisbury cathedral is probably 7' by 12' and contains a little shrine to him and a request to pray for him. Bishop Audley paid to have the chapel built. In fact, he paid to have spots reserved for his name in every place where he served around the country. He also gave a piece of land and paid for a house to be built on it for men to be trained for the priesthood. Initially, this sounds very religious but the reason for all this activity was that Bishop Audley wanted everyone to pray for him so that he might get out of Purgatory early.