{"id":43,"date":"2016-04-15T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/?p=43"},"modified":"2026-02-02T06:59:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:59:56","slug":"the-potteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/the-potteries\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dewsberry family of Burslem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two talented artists, a couple of thriving businesses and three houses in Staffordshire:\u00a0Thomas Chapman Dewsberry (1817-1892)<\/a> was the head of a prosperous Victorian family.<\/p>\n

Thomas Chapman’s father Thomas Dewsberry (1783-1826)<\/a> had gone to sea as a cabin boy and risen to be a sea captain, living in a large house in Liverpool.\u00a0\u00a0He was master of the brig Constitution when he drowned off Demerara on the north coast of South America. The Demerary and Essequibo Royal Gazette of July 8 1826 reported:<\/span><\/p>\n

“Drowned, last night, between the hours of nine and ten o’clock Captain Dewsberry of the brig Constitution and a boy named Hunter, of the same vessel.\u00a0 The body of the latter (with the loss of an arm) was picked up this morning but that of the unfortunate captain has not yet been found.\u00a0 It is said that the board upset crossing a hawser of another vessel at anchor in the river.\u00a0 We understand the Captain has left a wife and several children to lament his loss”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to an account written by his grandson<\/a> \u00a0the proceeds of the sale of a plantation were lost with his body and his wife and children were left penniless as a result.\u00a0 \u00a0 Whilst the UK had passed an act outlawing the international slave trade in 1807 the Guyanese slave census of 1819 counted 23,881 slaves in the neighbouring region of Berbice.\u00a0 Cargo records suggest that the Constitution, a 231 ton copper sheathed ship owned by Dixon and Company was involved in supplying plantations.\u00a0 Earlier that year it had sailed from Liverpool to Demerara with a cargo advertised as including:<\/p>\n

“well cured Lancashire hams, mess pork and beef in barrels and half barrels, planters choice in barrels and half barrels, soap and candles in boxes and half boxes, double refined sugar and strong Burton ales, new pickled Cork butter in firkins and half firkins, Barclays double brown stout in pint and quart bottles, a general assortment of plantation stores and negro clothing, and of former importations, old Madeira, wine in pipes, hogsheads, quarter casks and bottles”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
A daguerreotype sold at auction in Cardiff in 2018 believed to be of Thomas Chapman, Sarah and Richard Dewsberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After his father’s death Thomas Chapman Dewsberry was sent to live in lodgings.\u00a0 He worked in the saggar house at the Herculaneum Pottery which made creamware, pottery and bone china at Toxteth in Liverpool between 1796 and 1841.\u00a0 According to his son George Henry, food was in short supply and he often faced near starvation.<\/p>\n

At some time in the 1830s the Herculaneum Pottery took a lease on the Greenbank pottery in Saint Helens in Lancashire and it was probably there that he met Richard Guest (1803-1862).<\/a> a dipper who was involved in the early days of the temperance movement.\u00a0 David’s wife Elizabeth Guest (1803 -1832)<\/a> was only 29 when she died of Cholera leaving him with four young children. She was \u201can exemplary woman, a faithful and industrious wife\u201d, according to a report of her death in the Cumberland Packet<\/a>.\u00a0Richard was described by his son George in his evidence to the Scriven Report on child labour in the pottery industry in 1841<\/a> as \u201ca great drunkard\u201d before he signed the pledge.<\/p>\n

Thomas Chapman Dewsberry was 18 in 1838 when he married Richard Guest’s sixteen year daughter Sarah (1823-1897)<\/a> on the same day as a temperance festival was held in the town.\u00a0 \u00a0At some point after that the whole family set out on foot for Burslem in Staffordshire where the family’s fortunes were to change once again.<\/p>\n

According to his son George Henry, in 1847 Thomas Chapman Dewsberry became the first employee of James MacIntyre and Co, the company at which Moorcroft Pottery was developed by William Moorcroft in 1897.<\/p>\n

“Father was the first and only worker and general factotum when James MacIntire (sic) started in business, potting at a small factory behind where the George Hotel stands at the top of Nile Street, Burslem.\u00a0 As the business grew, more hands were employed and Mr McIntire wanted father to teach another man to fire the ovens.\u00a0 Father strongy objected because for another manto take over the firing of the ovens would mean that father would just be a labourer.\u00a0 His wages then were only 18 shillings per week.\u00a0 Father left and the works was almost at a standstill.\u00a0 Eventually .. father dictated his terms which were three pounds per week for firing ovens only.\u00a0 The terms were conceded to and father stayed there until, years after, the Washington Works in Waterloo Road Burslem was built.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thomas and Sarah had twelve children, seven of whom survived. Two of their sons David and George Henry were talented artists and another, Richard, moved to South Wales to run the Llanelly Pottery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A plate painted with orchids by David Dewsberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David Dewsberry (1851-1929)<\/a> was world famous for the orchids he painted for the Doulton factory where he worked between 1889 and 1919. Examples of his work change hands today for tens of thousands of pounds. David Dewsberry conducted the Burslem Congregational Choir for thirty years. His gravestone at Burslem Cemetery bears the words ‘gone to join the choir invisible’.<\/p>\n

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David Dewsberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David’s younger brother, George Henry Dewsberry (1857-1939)<\/a> was also employed as an artist at Doulton’s.\u00a0 Trained at the Burslem School of Art from the age of 13, he later started a business with another Doulton Artist F. Bates.\u00a0 Bates, Dewsberry and Co of Hanley<\/a> decorating tiles, some of which are in Osborne House, \u00a0Queen Victoria’s home on the Isle of Wight.\u00a0 In later life he became involved in the Christian Science movement.<\/p>\n

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A painting by George Henry Dewsberry – a gift to Irene Bloor nee Rogerson on her 21st Birthday in 1937<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Richard Dewsberry (1841-1906)<\/a> moved to South Wales to run the Llanelly Pottery<\/a> with his uncle David Guest (1825-1892)<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0He was a deacon of\u00a0 Park Church, the chapel set up to cater for the growing number of English speaking pottery workers in Llanelli which was gutted in an <\/span>alleged arson attack in 2015<\/a>.\u00a0 H<\/span>e sat on the committee of the Llanelly Mechanics Institute, which became the public library, a member of the Liberal Club Committee and of the executive of the Liberal Association.\u00a0 Around eighteen months after being diagnosed with with a heart complaint he collapsed and died at the pottery.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Richard Dewsberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Richard’s father-in-law Robert Gilmore (1811-1881)<\/a> was another fire man who became a pottery manager and accumulated a substantial estate.\u00a0 Born in Glasgow he moved to Stoke and then to Burlsem.\u00a0 In his will he leaves twenty houses, four in Lyndhurst Street in Burslem, four in nearby Orme Street in Burslem and 12 in Bradwell Street in Longport as well as a \u2018piece of land he has lately purchased in Joseph Street in Burslem\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span>When he retired in 1869 at the age of 58 he was presented with a portrait by the ovenmen of the potteries.\u00a0 He sat on the Board of Arbitration \u2018as a member of which he had won the respect of both employers and workmen by his manly straightforwardness and conciliatory bearing\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018A zealous Christian\u2019 he was a member of the New Methodists at Dalehall, the local temperance society and the Burslem Board of Health.\u00a0 According to a\u00a0report in the\u00a0Staffordshire Daily Sentinel<\/a>, more than 200 people attended his funeral including members of the temperance and overmen\u2019s society.<\/p>\n

Thomas Chapman and Sarah Dewsberry’s daughter Margaret Dewsberry (b1848)<\/a> married another potter William Walker (1844-1903).<\/a> Their son Thomas Dewsberry (1862-1921)<\/a> lost an arm in a railway accident in 1874 at Black Bull railway station: he later became stationmaster at Congleton in Cheshire.\u00a0 Their daughter Sarah Dewsberry (b1856)<\/a> stayed at home caring for her sister\u00a0Elizabeth (1846-1916)<\/a> who had a learning disability.<\/p>\n

\u2022Tom Dewsberry (1871-1953)<\/a> and his wife Lena (1874-1918)<\/a> are buried with three of their children: Arthur, 23, Margery, 19, and Wilfred \u201ca promising lad\u201d who was 14 when he drowned on holiday at Llanstephan “despite the efforts of rescuers”.\u00a0\u00a0 The headstone in Box Cemetery, Llanelli says \u201cThy will be done\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two talented artists, a couple of thriving businesses and three houses in Staffordshire:\u00a0Thomas Chapman Dewsberry (1817-1892) was the head of a prosperous Victorian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dewsberry","category-gilmore","category-guest"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-content\/uploads\/David-Dewsberry-tight-crop-1.png?fit=306%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8DigF-H","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":85,"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}