Turner (potters)

Josiah Wedgwood was both a friend and a commercial rival of John Turner the elder, the first notable potter in the family.

The Turner factory was the leading and best maker, but many others also made this body, mainly for items like tankards and jugs, decorated with scenes in relief.

[2] John Turner the elder (christened 7 June 1737, St Nicholas Church, Newport, Shropshire – 24 December 1787) was apprenticed in 1753 to the Staffordshire potter Daniel Bird.

[5] William had been in Paris during the French Revolution, and arrested, and escaped with his life only by the intervention of the British ambassador, Earl Stafford.

In money trouble, allegedly in part because of the turmoil caused by the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the brothers in 1803 took in partners and formed Turner & Co. By December 1804 there was a notice in the Staffordshire Advertiser announcing the cessation of trading.

Son William, continued potting apparently working for several potters until he returned to the original factory 1824-1829 to produce again in the Turner name.

[6] Son John married Mary Hyde on 26 November 1803 and the closure of the business notice of 1804 stated that he had already left the partnership.