32 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — September 20, 2019

A History Of Pottery Production

ALONG THE MERRIMACK RIVER
BY JUSTIN W. THOMAS
NEWBURYPORT, MASS. —
Settled in 1635, the city of New-
buryport was originally part of
the Newberry Plantation (now
Newbury), which was inhabited
by English colonists from Wilt-
shire, England in the northeast-
ern part of coastal Massachu-
setts. Waterways were certainly
a major draw for these early
settlers, with the area being
surrounded by the Merrimack
River and the Parker River. The
port city quickly became pros-
perous as a popular fishing and
trading center, and it turned to
agricultural needs.
With this success came a
growth in population, and hun-
dreds of first period and Geor-
gian-style homes were built in
the area. A demand quickly
grew for artisans, laborers,
imported goods and household
utilitarian wares.
Newburyport was formed in
1764, when the General Court
of Massachusetts passed an act
for erecting part of the town of
Newbury into a new town by
the name of Newburyport. West
Newbury set off into its own
town in 1819, forming the three
communities that make up this
area today. While Newbury and
West Newbury remain towns,
Newburyport was incorporated
as a city in 1851.
The Bayley Potteries
Almost 90 years after Newbury
was settled, the first known
local pottery was established
about 1723 by Joseph Bayley
(1701-1761), a direct descendent
of James Bayley (1612-1677)
who was among the first group
of settlers in Rowley, Mass., in
1639. It has not been identified
where Bayley was taught the
pottery craft, but he may have
learned about it from another
Colonial Essex County, Mass.,
potter or possibly in Charles-
town, Mass., which is where the
earliest red earthenware was
manufactured in New England
in the 1600s.
Joseph and his wife left Row-
ley in 1735, when they were
removed from the church, and
relocated with their four chil-
dren to Newbury (Newburypo-
rt). Joseph continued to produce
red earthenware in Newbury
until the early 1760s, when his
son Daniel (1729-1792) became
owner of the business. Daniel
must have learned the pottery
business from his father, but
there is also evidence to suggest
he operated a pottery in Glouces-
ter, Mass., in the 1750s, when he
married Elizabeth Dennen (d
1765) from Gloucester on April
21, 1750. The couple spent the
next decade in Gloucester, where
they had three children, but
only two survived. Elizabeth
Bayley was born April 2, 1753,
and Daniel Bayley Jr (1755-
1799) was born July 15, 1755
eventually becoming a potter
himself.
By 1763, Daniel had relocated
to High Street next to St Paul’s
Church in Newbury, which
became Newburyport the follow-
ing year. This is where he built
the pottery business that he is
most known for today. Sadly, his
wife died two years later, and he
quickly married a woman
named Sarah Stone (d 1792), a
widow herself and mother to
three children. Soon after, they
had four more kids, two of whom
also entered the pottery indus-
try, William Bayley (1766-1799)
born May 9, 1766 and Nathaniel
Bayley (1771-1849) born June
16, 1771.
The Bayley Pottery turned into
a family enterprise, but some of
the Bayley kids also worked for
Ebenezer Morrison (1741-1803),
who established a red earthen-
ware company next to Old Hill
Cemetery in Newburyport. As a
result, it is believed that the
forms were similar at both busi-
nesses. Morrison continued to
produce pottery into the early
Nineteenth Century, while the
Bayley Pottery declined with
Daniel Bayley’s death in 1792,
and production ceased altogeth-
er when Daniel Bayley Jr and
William Bayley died in 1799.
Daniel Bayley also employed
potters who were not immediate
relatives, such as John Thomas
(1754-1843) in the 1770s-80s,
who was a native of Gloucester
and later went on to establish
the industry in North Yarmouth
(known as Yarmouth after
1849), Maine about 1791.
The wares made at the Bayley
Pottery were not only intended
for the local marketplace. Based
on archaeology, pottery was dis-
tributed throughout New Eng-
land, with examples found in
Salem, Mass., Historic West-
brook, Maine, Portsmouth, N.H.,
possibly Wellfleet, Mass., on
Cape Cod, as well as the site of
Colonial trading posts in Veazie,
Maine and Saint John, New
Brunswick.
Archaeological evidence recov-
ered by Massachusetts author,
Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-
1982) at the site of the pottery
was published in 1950 in Early
New England Potters and Their
Wares. A Route 1 underpass was
constructed through the Bayley
site in 1934, revealing an excel-
lent collection of artifacts now
owned by the National Museum
of American History at the
Smithsonian Institute in Wash-
ington, DC. The evidence shows
an emphasis devoted to the pro-
duction of slipware, a style of
decoration applied with liquid
kaolin clay. The known forms
decorated in slip include cham-
ber pots, plates, pans and por-
ringers, while other styles com-
bine various forms of bowls,
jugs, mugs and flowerpots. The
glazes range from dark colors
like black and brown to more
colorful glazes such as green.
The extent of the colors and slip
applied at the Bayley Pottery in
the 1700s was among the more
decorative wares manufactured
anywhere in New England dur-
ing this period.
The Merrimacport Potteries
The landscape of the New Eng-
land pottery industry changed
drastically with the American
Revolution. The industry in
Charlestown, Mass., had been a
centralized production center in
New England in the Seventeenth
Century through 1775. Wares
were shipped all over the region
from Connecticut to Cape Cod,
Martha’s Vineyard, all over the
Boston area, Portsmouth, N.H.,
Berwick, Maine, throughout
coastal Maine (then part of Mas-
sachusetts) and even into parts
of Canada, like the Fortress of
Louisbourg on Cape Breton
Island in Nova Scotia. However,
this industry was decimated and
sacrificed in America’s fight for
independence at the Battle of
Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775,
during the siege of Boston in the
early stages of the American Rev-
olution.
Some of the Charlestown pot-
ters who were around for the
American Revolution relocated
elsewhere in New England, such
as Benjamin Bodge (1747-1822)
who moved to Merrimacport
(then South Amesbury), Mass.,
about 1775, a small village locat-
ed along the Merrimack River
just upriver from Amesbury and
Newburyport. Bodge married
Susanna Pecker in Haverhill on
September 27, 1770, but the
extent of his pottery production
in the area is unknown today.
Susanna’s brother, William
Pecker (1758-1820) also born in
Haverhill, and an Essex County
trained potter is found in Merri-
macport in 1784. It seems that
Pecker remained employed with
his brother-in-law until the early
1790s, when he established his
own pottery. Bodge’s role might
have also changed, and he may
have now helped Pecker with his
business.
The Pecker Pottery is largely
known today for the lead glazed
red earthenware that was pro-
duced during the circa 1791-1820
period. The most common surviv-
ing glaze is an orange or reddish
lead glaze with brush strokes of
manganese. The skill found at
this business is some of the most
refined wares made anywhere in
New England. Known forms
include jugs, pitchers, pots, bowls,
flasks, pans, chamber pots, por-
ringers and flowerpots. There is
also some speculation that Peck-
er or Bodge possibly produced
some slipware, but that has not
been proven in archaeology.
Archaeology has shown that
the wares made at the Pecker
Pottery were sold throughout the
Merrimack River region, with
Newburyport serving as a major
marketplace. Although, wares
have also been found throughout
New Hampshire and southern
Maine.
An aspect of the Pecker Pottery
that is somewhat unknown is the
fact that dozens of glaze colors
have been recovered at the site of
the pottery. The colors range from
black to green to vibrant multi-

Pitchers, attributed to the James Chase Pottery, Merrimacport, Mass, circa 1820-49. These
forms could be mistaken for production from the William Pecker Pottery today. Courtesy
the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute.

Six-gallon stoneware presentation jar attributed to William Pecker impressed with two Jug attributed to the Bayley Pottery recovered at the site of
bird and flower stamps on each side, a bust of George Washington and the initials “S.H.” Jonathan Lowder’s Trading Post in Veazie, Maine, within a
This form of handle has also been recovered at the site of the Pecker Pottery. Courtesy circa 1775-79 archaeological context. Courtesy the Univer-
Crocker Farm Auction. sity of Maine.

Various Eighteenth Century slip-decorated sherds from the Daniel Bayley
Pottery Company recovered by Lura Woodside Watkins during construc-
tion of the Route 1 underpass in Newburyport, Mass., in 1934. Courtesy of
the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute.
colored glazes.
But Pecker was also a stone-
ware potter. In fact, it was not
identified in publication until the
2004 issue of Ceramics in Ameri-
ca that there are known pieces of
marked Pecker stoneware in
existence. Archaeologist John
Kile wrote that article based on a
2-gallon handled crock marked
“Wm Pecker” found at a Ken-
tucky flea market. The crock was
decorated on one side with a
stamped bird perched on a
branch and the other with a
stamped flower. Since that article
was published, somewhere
around one to two dozen (maybe
more) pieces of Pecker stoneware
have been identified, some of
which have been previously
attributed to other locations. It
has also been discovered that
Pecker applied a fish stamp, as
well as cobalt used for an aes-
thetic blue decoration.
Nonetheless, Pecker apparently
taught his nephew, James Chase
(1778-1849) the potter’s craft;
James was born in 1779 to Peck-
er’s sister, Hannah, who had
married Edmund Chase, and by
1816 began making his own pot-
tery in Merrimacport. He saw
how Pecker ran the pottery busi-
ness; he witnessed Pecker’s
secrets on the potter’s wheel; he
knew his glaze recipes; and he
even understood Pecker’s won-
derful eye for proportion within a
perfectly balanced form. The
Charlestown connection also con-
tinued with Chase, having mar-
ried Olive Lucas of Charlestown.
The couple reportedly met in
Andover, Mass. We do not know
for sure why he was in Andover,
but he may have been attempt-
ing to establish a business, mov-
ing back to Merrimacport in
1816.
Chase took ownership of all red
earthenware production in Mer-
rimacport in 1820, when William
Pecker died from a tragic kiln
accident. He owned a house next
door to Pecker, and about the
time of Pecker’s death, a kiln was
built on his property. Chase con-
tinued to run the business in the
same way as his mentor. In the
latter years of the 1830s-40s,
James’ son, Phineas Chase (1820-
1911) worked alongside his
father, learning the family busi-
ness.
The forms made at James
Chase’s business are just as well
made as the wares produced at
the Pecker Pottery, and can be
confused for some of Pecker’s pro-
duction today. The Smithsonian
Institute owns the best museum
collection of wares made during
this period in Merrimacport,
acquired from the collection of
Lura Woodside Watkins.
After James’ death in 1849, the
business was taken over by
Phineas, and continued to oper-
ate at the same location in Mer-
rimacport until 1863, when he
sold the land to the South Ames-
bury Wharf Company, and moved
the business to his property
about one-quarter mile from the
Merrimack River. The forms
evolved with Phineas in the
Some of the artifacts collected in the 1990s at the site of the Merrimac Pot-
tery Company in Newburyport, Mass. Some of the objects are impressed
“Merrimac Pottery Company.” The pottery used two types of earthenware
clays, one with a white clay body and the other with a red clay body. Cour-
tesy the Museum of Old Newbury.
1870s-80s, when he focused on
the production of flowerpots and
vases, some painted and others
decorated in a variety of glazes.
He also manufactured tradition-
al utilitarian forms like pie
plates, custard cups, pans and
pots.
The story of the Bodge, Pecker
and Chase potteries ended in the
1890s, when Phineas ceased pro-
duction altogether in his 70s. His
obituary reading in 1911, “Mr
Chase was a man of sterling hon-
esty and marked integrity and
had the respect and confidence of
the community.”
Thomas Nickerson’s
Merrimac Pottery Company
Thomas Nickerson established
the Merrimac Ceramic Company
in Newburyport in 1897, largely
manufacturing floral and garden
wares. Nickerson was an Eng-
lish-trained potter, who had relo-
cated from Portland, Maine. The
pottery was given its name after
the Merrimack River. A condo-
minium development now
resides in place of where the pot-
tery business once stood. When
the condominiums were built in
the 1990s, former curator of the
Museum of Old Newbury, Jay
Williamson and Chris Snow
recovered hundreds of artifacts
from the pottery, showing that
Nickerson was utilizing multiple
types of earthenware clays.
Nickerson’s products in the
first four years were sometimes
marked with a paper label, “Mer-
rimac Ceramic Company” with a
September 20, 2019 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 33
Slip-decorated pan attributed to the Bayley Pottery recov-
ered within a circa late 1760s and early 1770s archaeologi-
cal context at the site of a trading post in Saint John, New
Brunswick. Courtesy of the New Brunswick Museum.
picture of a sturgeon, a fish accomplished forms, which are
native to the Merrimack River. represented in major art muse-
In 1902, Nickerson changed the ums across the country, such as
name of the business to the Mer- the Museum of Fine Arts, Bos-
rimac Pottery Company. Rather ton; the Metropolitan Museum of
than a paper label, an impressed Art; and the Smithsonian. The
mark was incorporated on the wide variety of glaze colors
base of many products that read, include variations of green, yel-
“Merrimac” with an image of a low, rose, blue and orange. Nick-
sturgeon. The company made erson was also recognized for his
colorful art pottery, exquisite matte, luster and crackle finish-
garden pottery and reproduction es.
Roman pottery taken from actu- Unfortunately, only a few years
al 2,000-year-old ancient objects after the company was rebrand-
owned by the Museum of Fine ed, the Merrimac Pottery Com-
Arts, Boston. This new direction pany burned to the ground in
allowed Nickerson to demon- 1908, never to be rebuilt, and
strate his true skill as a potter to ending the longstanding tradi-
a national marketplace. tion of utilitarian and household
Nickerson’s glazes are often pottery production along the
breathtaking with a variety of Merrimack River in the greater
vibrant colors that adorned Newburyport area.
This example features the most common type of glaze that
Pecker is known for today. Jug, attributed to the William
Pecker Pottery, Merrimacport, Mass., circa 1791-1820. Cour-
tesy National Museum of American History at the Smithso-
nian Institute.
Justin Thomas’ niece, Alexis, and nephew, Jason, holding
kiln furniture and kiln bricks recovered at the site of
Phineas Chase’s circa 1863-90s business in Merrimacport,
Mass. Inset Photo: More kiln furniture recovered at the site
of the Phineas Chase Pottery.