Josiah Wedgwood II
Encyclopedia
Josiah Wedgwood II the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...

, continued his father's firm and was Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent (UK Parliament constituency)
Stoke-upon-Trent was a parliamentary borough in Staffordshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1832 until 1885, and then one member from 1885 until 1918, when the borough was enlarged, renamed Stoke-on-Trent, and split into three single-member...

 from 1832 to 1835. He was an abolitionist, and detested slavery.

Josiah and his brother Thomas
Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805)
Thomas Wedgwood , son of Josiah Wedgwood, the potter, was an early experimenter with Humphry Davy in photography.-Life:...

 gave their friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...

 a life annuity of £150, with the goal of freeing Coleridge from financial worries and the need to support himself by noncreative work, so that he could pursue his literary and philosophical interests.

In 1807, Wedgwood bought Maer Hall
Maer Hall
The large 17th century stone built country house and estate of Maer Hall dominates the village of Maer, Staffordshire. Its location in the district of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, is attractively rural, but fairly close to the pottery manufacturing area around Stoke-on-Trent which...

 in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

 and his family lived there until his death in 1843.

Wedgwood was responsible for the Wedgwood Company’s first bone china
Bone china
Bone china is a type of soft-paste porcelain that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin. It has been defined as ware with a translucent body containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phosphate...

 wares.

Wedgwood married Elizabeth Allen (1764–1846) and they had four sons and three daughters, two of whom married their first cousins, the offspring of Robert Darwin
Robert Darwin
Dr Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S. was an English medical doctor, who today is best known as the father of the naturalist Charles Darwin. He was a member of the influential Darwin-Wedgwood family.-Biography:...

 and Susannah Wedgwood:
  • Josiah Wedgwood III
    Josiah Wedgwood III
    Josiah "Joe" Wedgwood III , a grandson of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood.Wedgwood was the eldest son of Josiah Wedgwood II and his wife Elizabeth Allen...

     (1795–1880); married his cousin Caroline Darwin, sister of Charles Darwin
    Charles Darwin
    Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

    .
  • Charlotte Wedgwood (1797–1862); married Charles Langton (1801–1886) in 1832. After her death Charles Langton remarried her cousin Emily Catherine Darwin, daughter of Robert Darwin
    Robert Darwin
    Dr Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S. was an English medical doctor, who today is best known as the father of the naturalist Charles Darwin. He was a member of the influential Darwin-Wedgwood family.-Biography:...

    , sister of Charles Darwin
    Charles Darwin
    Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

    .
  • Henry Allen Wedgwood
    Henry Allen Wedgwood
    Henry Allen "Harry" Wedgwood was an English barrister.Wedgwood was the third child and second son of Josiah Wedgwood II and his wife Elizabeth Allen...

     (1799–1885) married secondly his cousin Jessie Wedgwood, daughter of John Wedgwood
    John Wedgwood (1766–1844)
    John Wedgwood , the eldest son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, was a partner in the Wedgwood pottery firm from 1790-1793, and again 1800-1812....

     (1766–1844).
  • Francis "Frank" Wedgwood (1800–1880)
  • Hensleigh Wedgwood
    Hensleigh Wedgwood
    Hensleigh Wedgwood was a British etymologist, philologist and barrister, author of A Dictionary of English Etymology. Wedgwood was the fourth son of Josiah Wedgwood II and Elizabeth Allen...

     (1803–1891)
  • Fanny Wedgwood, died unmarried in August 1832 at the age of 26.
  • Emma Wedgwood (1808–1896); married her cousin Charles Darwin
    Charles Darwin
    Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

    , son of Robert Darwin
    Robert Darwin
    Dr Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S. was an English medical doctor, who today is best known as the father of the naturalist Charles Darwin. He was a member of the influential Darwin-Wedgwood family.-Biography:...

    .

External links

  • Wedgwood Website
  • http://www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/biogresults.asp?BiographySelection=35
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