William Cookworthy (12 April 170517 October 1780) was an English
Quaker minister, a successful
pharmacist and an innovator in several fields of technology. He was the first person in Britain to discover how to make
hard-paste porcelain
Hard-paste porcelain, sometimes "true porcelain", is a ceramic material that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at very high temperature, usually around 1400 °C. It was first made in China ...
, like
that imported from China. He subsequently discovered
china clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...
in Cornwall.
[Selleck] In 1768 he founded a works at
Plymouth for the production of
Plymouth porcelain; in 1770 he moved the factory to
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, to become
Bristol porcelain
Bristol porcelain covers porcelain made in Bristol, England by several companies in the 18th and 19th centuries. The plain term "Bristol porcelain" is most likely to refer to the factory moved from Plymouth in 1770, the second Bristol factory. Th ...
, before selling it to a partner in 1773.
Parents, birth, siblings and early life
He was born of Quaker parents in
Kingsbridge
Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the ab ...
, Devon on 12 April 1705. His father, also called William, was a weaver and his mother was Edith, the daughter of John and Margaret Debell of
St Martin-by-Looe in east
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
: they had married in 1704. Their children were:
* William – 1705
* Sarah – 1706
* Jacob – 1709
* Susannah – 1711
* Mary – 1714
* Philip – 1716
* Benjamin – 1717
William was a bright child but his education was halted when his father died on 22 October 1718 and the family's investment in the
South Sea Company
The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...
failed in the autumn of 1720.
William had been offered an apprenticeship, at no cost, by the Bevan Brothers, two Quaker
apothecaries
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
, with a successful business in London. As the family had no spare money, William walked to London to take up the offer and, eventually, completed the apprenticeship. He was taken into partnership.
Plymouth
He moved to Plymouth, where he set up a pharmacy as Bevan and Cookworthy. This flourished. He eventually brought his brothers Philip and Benjamin into the partnership and bought out the Bevans' interest in 1745. He became prominent among Devon Quakers, being appointed as an Elder. Among his concerns was that Quakers should not tolerate their members trading in prize goods (ships and their cargoes seized in war), as Quakers should not benefit from war.
The manufacture of porcelain was at the time attracting great attention in England, and while the factories at
Bow,
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
,
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
and
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...
were introducing the artificial glassy porcelain, Cookworthy, following the accounts from China of the Jesuit priest
Père d'Entrecolles, spent many years in searching for English materials similar to those used in China. From 1745 onwards he seems to have travelled over the greater portion of Cornwall and Devon in search of these minerals, and he finally located them in the parish of
St Stephen's near
St Austell. With a certain amount of financial assistance from
Thomas Pitt
Thomas Pitt (5 July 1653 – 28 April 1726) of Blandford St Mary in Dorset, later of Stratford in Wiltshire and of Boconnoc in Cornwall, known during life commonly as ''Governor Pitt'', as ''Captain Pitt'', or posthumously, as ''"Diamond" ...
(afterwards 1st Baron Camelford) he established the
Plymouth China Factory at least as early as 1768.
The factory was moved to Bristol about 1770, and the business was afterwards sold to
Richard Champion
Richard Champion (born 14 April 1968 on Yorke Peninsula in Kadina, South Australia) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League (AFL) and South Australian National Football Leagues (SANFL).
Originally from SANFL ...
and others and became the
Bristol Porcelain Manufactory. Although the Plymouth porcelain was not of high quality, Cookworthy is remembered for his discovery of those abundant supplies of English clay and rocks which later formed the foundation of English porcelain and earthenware.
Marriage
In 1735, he married Sarah Berry, a Quaker from Wellington in Somerset. They had five daughters:
* Lydia – 1736
* Sarah – 1738
* Mary – 1740
* Elizabeth & Susannah (twins) – 1743
Lighthouse engineering
He was also an associate of
John Smeaton
John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was a British civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the fi ...
, who lodged at his house when he was engaged in building the third
Eddystone Lighthouse
The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 ...
(1756–59). Cookworthy helped Smeaton with the development of
hydraulic lime, which was essential to the successful building of the lighthouse.
Swedenborg
In 1767 Cookworthy, in conjunction with Rev Thomas Hartley, translated
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had a ...
's theological works, ''The Doctrine of Life'', ''Treatise on Influx'', and ''Heaven and Hell'', from Latin into English.
His initial reaction to Swedenborg's works was one of disgust, but with persistence, he was convinced of their merits and was a persuasive advocate. Hartley and Cookworthy later visited Swedenborg at his lodgings in Clerkenwell shortly before Swedenborg's death.
Friends
It is also known that prior to his departure, Captain
James Cook, Captain
John Jervis, and the naturalists
Dr Solander and Sir
Joseph Banks, were guests of Cookworthy. He also visited
Daniel Gumb
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...
, the "Mountain Philosopher" who lived amongst the rocks at
Cheesewring.
References
*
*
Bibliography
*''Early
New Church Worthies'' by the Rev Dr Jonathon Bayley
*''Cookworthy's Plymouth and Bristol Porcelain'' by F.Severne Mackenna(1947) published by F.Lewis
*''William Cookworthy 1705–1780: a study of the pioneer of true porcelain manufacture in England'' by John Penderill-Church, Truro, Bradford Barton (1972).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cookworthy, William
English chemists
People from Kingsbridge
English Quakers
1705 births
1780 deaths
Ceramics manufacturers of England
English Swedenborgians
English pharmacists
Devonian pottery