Throughout the history of polite conversation, the spouting off of unorthodox religious ideas has sometimes led to awkward moments where eyes stray to other parts of the room. Likewise, any reference to obscure religious heresies while discussing pottery making ought to be, well, irrelevant. Except when those topics crossed paths in 17th century Puritan Massachusetts.
Case in point; Phillip Drinker. Phillip was the first recorded potter in the Massachusetts Bay Colony town of Charlestown, across the bay from Boston. He arrived in 1635 on the ship “Abigail” when he was 39 years old. Being the only local potter at the time, his services were needed. Eventually, Phillip’s son Edward joined the business. The Drinker Pottery thrived.
Edward’s apprentice James Kettle proved talented. So much so that James’ own pottery became a sort of finishing school. Charleston soon became the single most important center for redware production in the New England colonies. Included in the Kettle roster was Ann MacDugale, the first documented woman potter in colonial America. Also in that roster was James’ nephew Samuel who boasted another first: probate records made at his death included the earliest known reference of a slave in New England owned specifically for use as a potter. The slave’s name was Robin.
Later, in Goshen, CT, another scion of the Kettle family trained Jonathan Norton. Young Jonathan promptly left for Vermont and war. Norton’s eventual return to pottery forever changed the face of ceramics in America.
But what about the Drinkers? Edward and his dad made the mistake of believing in the wrong kind of religious freedom. Their kind didn’t include infant baptism. Despite the Drinker’s position in town, they were labeled “Anabaptists” by a local chapter of the Dunkards. This diehard little band of total submersion baptismal fanatics even got Phillip jailed for a time. They eventually chased the Drinker family out of Charlestown.
All because of a disagreement over when people should be baptized.
So during the Drinkers’ ditching by the Dunkards, the Kettles kept their cool and cleaned up with Robin. Go figure.
Readings:
The Art of the Potter. Diana and J. Garrison Stradling. Main Street-Universe Books/New York. 1977.
Early New England Potters and Their Wares. Lura Woodside Watkins. Harvard Univ Press/Cambridge MA. 1968.
This Day in Pottery History 