JOSIAH WEDGWOOD Biography - Craftmen, artisans and people from other Occupations

 
 

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JOSIAH WEDGWOOD

Name: Josiah Wedgwood                                                             
Born: July 12, 1730                                                               
Died: January 3, 1795                                                             
                                                                                   
Josiah Wedgwood (July 12, 1730 - January 3, 1795, born Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent)   
was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of   
pottery. He was a member of the Darwin - Wedgwood family, most famously           
including his grandson, Charles Darwin.                                           
                                                                                   
Born the thirteenth and youngest child of Thomas Wedgwood and Mary Wedgwood (née 
Stringer; d. 1766), Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters. He   
survived a childhood bout of smallpox to serve as an apprentice potter under his   
eldest brother Thomas Wedgwood IV. Smallpox left Josiah with a permanently         
weakened knee, which made him unable to work the foot pedal of a potter's wheel.   
As a result, he concentrated from an early age on designing pottery rather than   
making it.