Josiah Spode - Personal and Family

Personal and Family

Josiah I was an accomplished violin player. He became a Freeman of the City of London in 1778 and was a Liveryman of the Spectacle Makers' Company. Josiah was married to Ellen, who died in 1802 aged 76. They had two sons, Josiah and Samuel, and daughters Anne, Sarah and Ellen. Josiah and Ellen Spode (senior) are buried in Stoke-on-Trent churchyard.

Josiah Spode II (1755–1827) succeeded to the business in 1797. He was magnificently prepared for the role, an experienced salesman as well as a potter, having gained an invaluable knowledge of marketing in fashionable London. He was also a flautist, and was father of Josiah III, and grandfather of Josiah IV, a convert to Roman Catholicism, who founded Hawkesyard Priory near Rugeley.

Josiah II married the niece of John Barker, a manufacturing potter of Fenton, in 1775 at Stoke on Trent. Josiah the elder took this opportunity to establish the regular London business. So between 1775 and 1782, when his wife died in London, Josiah the younger moved between Longton and Cripplegate, London, where he was doubtless manager of the Fore Street warehouse under the guidance of William Copeland, his father's friend and London partner. He came into power as head of the business on his father's sudden death in 1797. He was active in the North Staffordshire Pitt Club and entered politics. He became Captain of the 'Pottery Troop' Cavalry Division affiliated to the Staffordshire Yeomanry, at its foundation in 1798 until its disbandment in 1805. He was granted arms in 1804. In 1811, with James Caldwell of Linley Wood, he successfully opposed a move by government to impose taxation on the work of the Potteries.

The second son Samuel Spode, for whom Josiah I erected the Foley factory at Lane End, produced salt-glazed wares up to the end of the eighteenth century. There were also daughters, including Elizabeth, who is mentioned in the parents' wills. Samuel's son Samuel emigrated to Tasmania and afterwards to Queensland, where his descendants held positions in government.

The Spode name is now owned by the Portmeirion pottery company, which now produces some of the former Spode patterns.