Ceramics in Stockton and at the Middlesbrough pottery
Robertsons, Swales and Bartley.
Alexander Robertson was born in Scotland but moved to Middlesbrough sometime around 1820. He married Mary Thurlon from Penshaw and is recorded as working in the Middlesbrough Pottery in 1830.
Building of the Middlesbrough Pottery in 1831
The Middlesbrough Pottery was the first established industry in Middlesbrough predating iron and steel. It was established in 1831 and Middlesbrough Pottery today is highly collectable. The Middlesbrough Pottery Company was founded in 1834 and was in production until 1857.
Shipyards sprang up, namely Harkness, Dixons, Rake Kimber, and J G Holmes. Industry associated with the Cleveland Docks were developed, and later salt and chemical production came into being.
This more detailed census gives a clearer picture of what was going on ‘on the shop floor’ than the earlier one did. John Fawley and Thomas Birks were ‘slip makers’, preparing the liquid clay. Throwers, Jonathon Nels and his son would operate the wheels to produce jugs and vases. Alexander Robertson and his son attend to plates and dishes as ‘pressers’. Cup-making was a separate job – John Jones of Wellington Street was one of them; his wife, like most of the women and girls, being employed as a transferrer.
The above based on Knowledge would be Alexander Robertson and his son James. James marries Mary Ann Swales daughter of William Swales and Ann Bartley.
Little is known about the Bartley and Swales family but Mary Ann was born 13th May 1841 and lives at Black Bull Yard in Stockton, which at the time was a slum area of the town. Ann Bartley had siblings and from the 1941 census John Bartley is recorded as a General Labourer but her siblings are Apprentice Potters (males) and her sister a Painter, assumed decorator of pottery. They live in Thornaby with father John and mother Jane. I cannot find an 1851 census record of the family.
The Swales family headed by William (born in Whitby around 1820) is recorded as a Potter also living in Thornaby.
The following is an extract of Potteries in Stockton-on-Tees.
The Harwood family and the Clarence Potteries…. From the Stockton Council Heritage Site
This is the story of three generations of the Harwood family and the Clarence Potteries, to begin the tale we will deal first with their connection with the Stafford pottery in South Stockton, or Thornaby as it is today.
William Smith, a builder, founded the Stafford pottery situated between Thornaby road and the river in 1825 with a clay pit in close proximity for the manufacture of brown ware. However shortly afterwards he decided to branch out into making the more saleable white ware by importing the specialist clay from the West country. Then he went headhunting in Stoke on Trent and engaged, and ultimately took into partnership Mr John Whalley, a potter of considerable skill to carry out the work. The company changed ownership over the years but went on producing some very good pottery up until 1904.
By the late 1826 William Smith & Company were selling more white ware than brown ware as a consequence the brown ware pottery on the same site was let to other interested parties, and this is where the Harwood family enters the picture.
What the two families have is the connection to the Pottery industry and the linking through marriage James Robertson and Mary Ann Swales.
The Swales and Bartley’s have only been partly researched but records do seem scarce.
Swales seems to be a name very much associated with the Thornaby Pottery and believe John Swales (Mary Ann’s younger brother) is recorded in later census as a Potter.
Later it is known that James Robertson and Mary Ann (nee Swales) moved to Staffordshire before going to Boston, USA. Mary Ann died in Boston in 1871.
The above picture is the Middlesbrough Pottery before its demolition in the early 2000's.
Note
Two pieces, specifically commissioned from Middlesbrough Pottery belong to John Duncan who is descended from John Duncan, Tees Pilot – the very first pilot to live in Middlesbrough way back in 1830. The handsome soup plate and bowl specially made by Middlesbrough Pottery were for his son. John Duncan to take to sea with him. No danger of young John (he was 20 years old at the time) having to sup his soup from another man’s bowl – his name appears in bold letters. On the plate is a picture of a square rigged, three masted sailing ship, surrounded by the initials J.D.H.C. We haven’t been able to identify the ship and no one is quite sure what the initials stand for – except they are not the usual combination that commemorate a marriage. It has been suggested that they represent the identifying letters of the ship. Source: Middlesborough Pottery history book.