In endeavouring to revive the neglected memory of this good and great man,
I have carefully looked over the chief periodicals of his day (1730 to
1780) with very little success; perhaps because those I have at command,
the _Gentleman's Magazine_, _Universal Magazine_, and _Universal Museum_,
were not those selected for his correspondence.
If any of your readers can refer me to any papers or essays of his, or any
details of the internal management of his China works, or of his public or
private life, it will be doing me a great favour.
What I have hitherto collected are chiefly fragmentary accounts of his life
and character; general notices of his discovery of the China clay and
stone, of the progress of his manufactory, and of his treatment of British
cobalt ores; details of his experiments on the distillation of sea-water
for use on ship-board; a treatise in detail on the divining rod; and
several of his private letters, chiefly religious.
Most of these I have thrown out in print, under the title of _Relics of
William Cookworthy, &c._, which I am desirous of making much more complete.