day-labour, and daily hedged and ditched, threshed and carried Sand,
in the same Parish, and places adjacent, being never admitted of any
Universitie.
“That then he became a Sheriffe’s Bayliffe and arrested divers in his
own person.
“That about 20 yeers since he forged several Warrants, and the Justices
of Assizes having notice thereof, gave order for his Apprehension,
whereupon he fled into Ireland.
“That about four yeers after, he returned and pretended he had taken
Orders in Ireland, and did officiate as a hireling Reader, untill by
Carey, Bishop of Exeter, he was suspended for foule misdemeanors.
“That he purchased his Vicarage of Bradworthie for Money, by unlawful
Symony, by means of one Robert Yee (Yeo), who being demanded by some
how he should make a Common Bailiff (naming Lang) Vicar of Bradworthie,
who answered that he had then such power, that if his Horse-head could
but speak, he could have made him Vicar of Bradworthie.
“That same Lang, being desirous to be licensed to preach and pray,
conscious of his own Insufficiencie to undergo Examination, procured
one Nicholas Hunny to be examined for him by the name of William Lang,
and so goes for a Preaching Minister.
“That ever since he hath been Vicar, he hath taken upon him to be a
common Soliciter of Causes in the Courts at Westminster, and frequented
London Tearmly, and taken Money for Solicitations.
“That he hath commenced Causeless Suits against his Parishioners in
the Court of Star-Chamber, the Court of High Commission, the Court of
Audience, the County Court of Devon, the Consistory Court at Exeter,
all at once, and hath had above fourtie severall Suits at one time, and
above eightie of his Parishioners and others in Suite at one time, and
having by vexatious Suits utterlie undone divers of them, their wives
and children.
“That he hath had four Bills in the Star-Chambre depending at one time
against fourty of his Parishioners, where some have depended twelve
yeers, and thereby compelled his Parishioners to travell to London,
tearmely from Bradworthie, being 200 miles distant.
* * * * *
“That divers of his Parishioners have several Times been enforced to
give Compositions to him, whereof some have payed to him £40, some
ten, some four pounds, some lesse, at his pleasure to redeem them from
oppression and causeless Suits.
“That he hath prosecuted Nicolas Eliot with unjust and causeless
suits this twenty yeers and upward, to his damage above £500, and
hath utterly undone him, his wife and children, and hath kept him
excommunicate for these two years last past.
“That he hath of meere malice ... undone Robert Judd, his wife and
children, by taking wrongfully from them his lands and goods to the
value of above £300, not leaving him worth one mouthful of Bread; and
in this extreme Povertie did cast into Prison the said Robert Judd, and
excommunicated him this eight yeers last past; and the said Judd doth
still stand unabsolved, notwithstanding there is no cause against him;
nor did his malice cease there, for he hath prosecuted Robt. Judd’s
children to their imprisonment and ruine.
“That he having about six or seven yeers since agreed with Anthony
Nicholl, one of his Parishioners, for fourteen shillings per annum, in
lieu of the Tithes of his Tenement, did notwithstanding shortly after
sue Nicholl and threaten him that unless he would give him Twenty
shillings per annum, and £5 for so quiet a composition, he would make
him spend more yeerly than the Rent of his Tenement, and so forced
Nicholl to a new Agreement, and gave him a note under his hand, that
for 20 shillings per ann. he should, etc.... Yet two yeers after the
latter Agreement he sued Nicholl and forced him to compound by paying
24 shillings per annum, and £5 for his Love.
“That for 3^d due he sued Richard Snowe, in the Consistorie at Exeter,
and put him to £4 or £5 charge about it.
“That he suborned Gabriel Williams of Torrington to enforce actions
against his Parishioners.
“So he forced William Cann, John Bishop, Richard Lile, Lewis Dennis,
Robert Terdrew, John Yee, to come to composition with him.
“That he hath affirmed that if his Chancell were full of Gold and
Silver, he would spend it all to be avenged of his Enemies, and that he
would never give over his Parishioners with Suits, untill he lay down
like a Hare before the Hounds.
“He dealt with one Christopher Pugsley to poyson four of his
Parishioners, Thomas Vigers, Richard Facye, Robert Bishop, and Thomas
Boundye, and gave 20^s 6^d to said Pugsley to buy Ratsbane with promise
of Money upon the Fact committed, which Pugsley attempted three
Times, and besides there is more than Suspicion that he poysoned his
Predecessor’s Wife, whose Estate he had, and was tied to maintain her
during her Life.
“That he Conspired to cause the Death of his Predecessor Twiggs.
“That he carried a Pistoll to kill Mr. Thomas Vigurs then in Suit with
him, and did threaten Thomas Woodroffe, a Minister.
“That he dealt with Pugsley to burn the Barn and Corn Mowes of Samuel
Chappell.
“That he committed divers Forgeries since he hath been Vicar of
Bradworthie.
“That during his Absence above 7 yeers since he left Matthew Lile, a
Miller, to read Prayers in Church, and since then Philip Natt, a Taylor.
“That he causeth Dorothie Lang, his daughter, to catechise in Church.
“That being required to baptize a child, he bade the Woman to cast a
Dish of Water in the face of the child, and call it _John_ or _Joan_,
in the Name of, etc., and this would be well enough. Which Child lived
more than 10 weeks after and died unbaptized.
“That he obtained a Licence to sell Wine, and hath kept a Tavern in the
Vicarage for four yeers.
“That a Child being baptized, the Woman that held the Child softly
and modestly requested him to put back the Child’s Head-covering; he
answered, ‘Go thy Wayes home, and teach thy Maid to whip her Cat.’
“That being requested by a parent to christen her child, he answered,
‘What, wilt thou have me christen thy Old Sow?’
“That he affirms the Book of Canticles to be but a kind of bawdy Song.
“That he never preacheth or catechiseth in the Afternoon on Sabbath
Days, but goes to the Alehouse, and makes himself so drunk that he
can neither go nor stand.” When this was published William Lang was a
prisoner in London.
That there is considerable exaggeration in these charges--I have
not given all--goes without saying, but that there was a strong
case against the vicar nevertheless cannot be doubted. The facts of
his legal proceedings against his parishioners were indisputable;
the surmises that he had poisoned Mr. and Mrs. Twigg are worthless.
That his daughter catechized in church is harmless enough; it is
what is done by many a parson’s daughter nowadays where there is no
Sunday-school room.
Reckless charges and complaints against the clergy whom their
parishioners did not like were eagerly received by the Parliament on
one side and by the King on the other. Thus Larkham, the intruding
vicar of Tavistock, was petitioned against, and the petition put into
the King’s own hand, with twenty-four articles against him, imputing
faction, heresy, witchcraft, rebellion, and treason. This was in 1639
or 1640.
Mark Twigg, the vicar, was buried on 9 November, 1622, and seems to
have been a son of Ralph Twigg, of Lawhitton, and Joan, daughter of
John Cory, of Putford. His widow was buried by Lang in 1638, so that if
Lang had the charge of her he endured it for sixteen years. The wife of
W. Lang was Helen Hockin; he married her in 1607.
Lang was succeeded by Elias Eastaway in 1641. He was buried 10 June,
1646, when his son, of the same name, quietly stepped into his place.
This Elias married Penelope Cleverdon on 25 March, 1647-8; and his
daughter, Elizabeth, was baptized 23 January, 1647, before they were
married, and she was buried 30 June. Elias had a son of the same name
baptized 14 November, 1649, and a daughter in 1652, another son, Elias,
in 1653, and a son, Richard, in 1656, and a daughter, Margaret, 1659.
Elias was quite ready to conform, so as to retain his living, at the
Restoration, though he had been a burning and a shining light among
the Puritans. He held the living till his death in 1680. He had been
instituted 10 January, 1648-9, only a few days before the execution of
the King.
WILLIAM COOKWORTHY
Augustus was about to indulge the Romans in a great series of
spectacles, races in the circus, gladiatorial shows in the arena, and
theatrical performances, all gratis, free and for nothing. Down came
the rain in torrents all night. The streets were swimming, the Tiber
swelled and rolled down a volume of yellow water. The good folks of
Rome were in despair. But when morning dawned the skies cleared, the
sun shone forth, the streets dried as by magic, and the shows were
carried out with the utmost splendour. At night on the palace wall was
scrawled in chalk:--
It rained all night, the day was bright,
Jove and Augustus share All-might.
Augustus was flattered and asked who had written these lines. Presently
a poetaster, Bathylus, stood forward and confessed that he was the
author, and was rewarded most liberally. Next night, the same lines
were written on the wall, and under them the line: “I wrote the verse,
another claimed the fame,” and underneath four times repeated “Sic vos
non vobis,” or “Thus you, but not for you.” Bathylus was sent for and
required to complete the lines. He scratched his head, turned red, and
declared his inability to do this. Then from the throng came a tall,
swarthy man, modest in his bearing, and wrote in chalk:--
Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves,
Sic vos non vobis velera fertis oves,
Sic vos non vobis melificatis apes,
Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves.
That may be rendered thus:--
Thus you, but not for you, birds build their nest,
Thus you, but not for you, ye sheep in fleeces drest,
Thus you, but not for you, ye bees the honey drain,
Thus you, but not for you, ye oxen ploughing strain.
He who wrote this was P. Virgilius Maro, and Bathylus became the
laughing-stock of Rome.
[Illustration: WILLIAM COOKWORTHY OF PLYMOUTH
_From the original portrait by Opie in the possession of Edward
Harrison, Esq., of Watford_]
I tell this story because up to a certain point it illustrates the
fortunes of William Cookworthy. At the present day many hundreds of
men live in ease and happiness through the discovery of china-clay by
Cookworthy, but he himself reaped no advantage by what he discovered.
The town of St. Austell in Cornwall may be said to live on china-clay
that is exported to the Staffordshire potteries. Before the discovery
by Cookworthy, it was not known that the kaolin, the essential
ingredient of porcelain, was to be found anywhere, except in China. But
Cookworthy, who has put bread into the mouths of thousands, who created
the manufacture of porcelain in England out of home-produced kaolin,
reaped not a penny advantage from his discovery.
Kaolin is found elsewhere, in Devon, on the fringe of Dartmoor. Now,
the visitor to Plymouth, as he passes by the head of the Laira, will
see a milk-white stream flow past the line. It is the overflow from the
kaolin works at Lee Moor. Cookworthy did not, however, discover the
china-clay on the borders of Dartmoor, where it abounds.
China-clay or kaolin is obtained from highly decomposed granite, and
consists of the disintegrated and metamorphosed felspar of that rock.
Often on the outskirts of the granitic masses of Cornwall the rock is
so decomposed by the percolation of rain-water holding carbonic acid
in solution that the granite may be dug with a spade to the depth of
twenty feet or more. China-stone also is found similarly composed of
disintegrated granite, and contains quartz as well as kaolin. It is
used in the manufacture of glaze for earthenware. From S. Austell,
where three thousand persons are engaged in raising and cleaning the
kaolin, something like forty thousand tons are annually exported to
Staffordshire for the manufacture of porcelain. But it is employed also
largely in the calico-weaving districts as the principal ingredient in
sizing and loading calico. It is also used in paper manufacture for the
highly glazed and smooth sheets employed for illustrations.
But to come to William Cookworthy. He belonged to a Quaker family of
Kingsbridge. His grandfather, William Cookworthy, married Susanna
Wearmouth in 1669, and died in 1708. His father, a weaver, also William
Cookworthy, born in 1670, married Edith Dobell in 1704, and died in
1718. William the third Cookworthy was born in 1705. After the father’s
death the widow was left in straitened circumstances, and received
assistance from the Friends’ Monthly Meeting. Although reduced to
poverty, with a family of seven children, the eldest only fourteen
years old, the widow struggled bravely through her difficulties.
William, the eldest son, was apprenticed after his father’s death to
the firm of Bevan, chemists and druggists, London, also Quakers. At the
close of his apprenticeship, with the assistance of his employers, he
set up for himself as a wholesale chemist and druggist at Plymouth, the
firm being entitled Bevan and Cookworthy, and the place of business was
in Notte Street, and here he lived for many years, and there died.
“He was in many respects a remarkable man, and his life is one of
the most illustrious examples of men who have risen of which England
can boast. Emphatically self-made, he had none of the foibles which
frequently mark the characters of those who have been the architects
of their own fortunes. An industrious man of business, a shrewd
and painstaking inventor, deeply versed in the science of the day,
valued in society for his geniality and power of conversation, he
was at the same time one of the simplest and devoutest of Quakers,
and an enthusiastic believer in the views of Swedenborg. He was a
firm believer in the divining rod, and left a treatise on its uses.
In short, Cookworthy was a man of many sides, but always genial,
courageous, and persevering; a man who won the respect and esteem alike
of high and low by his strict integrity, wide sympathies, and varied
powers; one who, having set his hand to the plough, was not ready to
turn back.”[36]
In 1735, at the age of thirty, Cookworthy married Sarah Berry, of a
Somerset Quaker family; and about this time he assumed the peculiar
dress of the Society, a drab suit and a broad-brimmed hat, and became
more accentuated in the phraseology adopted by the sect. He was an
absent-minded man. One Sunday, in Exeter, on leaving the house of
a friend, a physician, to go to meeting, as the rain was streaming
down, he took down a cloak that was hanging in the hall and threw it
over his shoulders, little noticing that this was not his own, but
that of the owner of the house. In those days a physician’s walking
costume was a scarlet cloak, with a gold-headed cane. In this garb
Cookworthy strolled into meeting, and into the Ministers’ Gallery to
the scandal of all the Friends assembled, but quite unconscious of his
transformation.
On another occasion he was on his way to attend the quarterly meeting
of the sect at Exeter, and halted at Ashburton to refresh himself and
his horse. After having lunched, he took up a copy of _Sir Charles
Grandison_, in seven volumes, began to read, read on and on, finished
one volume, took up the next, forgot all about his purpose of going
to Exeter, and was found by the Friends on their return from that
town, and the conclusion of the meeting, still immersed in Samuel
Richardson’s novel. As novel-reading is forbidden in the Society, no
doubt but that poor Cookworthy was severely reprimanded, and prayed for
as a back-slider.
Porcelain in China has a high antiquity, and must have been made there
at least 1250 years before it was manufactured in England; it was
introduced into Europe in 1518, when it acquired the name of _China_.
For a long period it was supposed that the fine white clay consisting
of silica and alumina, and called by the Chinese _Kaolin_, was found
only in the Celestial Empire, and specimens brought to Europe fetched
a high price. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it was
discovered in Saxony in an odd way. A merchant named Schnorr, being on
a journey, was struck with the whiteness of some clay near Schneeburg,
and collecting some of it, thinking it might be employed instead of
wheaten flour for the manufacture of hair powder, used it for this
purpose. It succeeded, but had this disadvantage, that wigs dressed
with the new hair powder were very heavy. An apothecary named Bötcher
noticed the increased weight of his wig and instituted inquiries,
when he found that the new material used was precisely that which
was required for the manufacture of porcelain; and Dresden china was
begun to be made by him in 1709, and was carried on with the greatest
secrecy, and the exportation of the earth was forbidden under heavy
penalties.
In 1745, Cookworthy heard that a similar clay had been discovered
in Virginia, and sent a Quaker to procure some for him. Somewhere
about 1748 he himself discovered it in Cornwall. He wrote: “I first
discovered it in the parish of Germo, in a hill called Tregonnin
Hill.” After a long description of the properties of the clay and his
experiments upon it, he says: “I have lately discovered that in the
neighbourhood of the parish of S. Stephen’s, in Cornwall, there are
immense quantities both of the Petunse stone and the Kaulin, and which
I believe may be more conveniently and advantageously wrought than
those of Tregonnin Hill, as by experiments I have made on them they
produce a much whiter body, and do not shrink so much in baking, nor
take stains so readily from the fire. S. Stephen’s lies between Truro,
S. Austell and S. Columb; and the parish of Dennis, the next to S.
Stephen’s, I believe, hath both the ingredients in plenty in it.”
The same materials were afterwards found at Boconnoc, the seat of the
Hon. Thomas Pitt, afterwards created Lord Camelford. This discovery
led to an acquaintance with Thomas Pitt, and together they obtained a
patent in 1768 and started the Plymouth China Factory, that brought the
manufacture of porcelain to great perfection; but for some reason did
not yield profit to the patentees.
In precisely the same year kaolin was discovered at St. Yrīeix, near
Limoges. The wife of a surgeon there had used it for the purpose of
bleaching linen, when her husband, suspecting its real value, took it
to Bordeaux, and on trial it was found to be the very thing needed as a
base to real hard porcelain. The manufactory of Sèvres which had used
imported Chinese clay, now employed that of St. Yrīeix; and the Limoges
manufacture of porcelain was then started.
After six years’ trial, outlay, and discouragement, the Plymouth
China Works were removed to Bristol and the patent was assigned to
Richard Champion, a connexion by marriage of the Cookworthy family.
The endeavour to make the porcelain manufactures there a paying
concern failed as it had at Plymouth, and Champion removed his works
to Staffordshire, where the fuel was close at hand. The Bristol
patent-right was transferred to a company of six partners. Champion
received through Burke, who was then in office, the appointment of
Deputy-Paymaster of the Forces, in 1782, when he left Staffordshire,
but on a change of Ministry he lost the post, and went to America,
where he died in 1787. Neither his family, nor that of Cookworthy,
ever received any benefit from the important art and industry they had
been the means of establishing. William Cookworthy died on the 17th
October, 1780. Among the worthies celebrated in the memorial windows of
the Plymouth town hall is “William Cookworthy, Chemist and Potter, the
discoverer of the English China-clay, and the first maker in England of
true Porcelain.”
Abundant information relative to Cookworthy exists.
_Memoir of William Cookworthy_, by his Grandson, G. H. Harrison.
London, 1854.
_Relics of William Cookworthy_, by John Prideaux. London, 1853.
“William Cookworthy and the Plymouth China Factory,” by R. N. Worth, in
the _Transactions_ of the Devonshire Association, 1876.
_William Cookworthy_, by Theodore Compton. London, 1894.
Strangely enough, though Cookworthy has not received the recognition
due to him as a discoverer. Ure, in his _Dictionary of Arts and
Manufactures_ (London, 1853), makes no mention of him. Nor does
Tomlinson in his _Cyclopædia of Useful Arts and Manufactures_,
London, 1854; nor did Marryatt in the first edition of his _History of
Pottery_ in 1850. But Cookworthy has received due acknowledgment in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_.
WILLIAM JACKSON, ORGANIST
The autobiography of William Jackson was printed and published for the
first time in the _Leisure Hour_, 1882. It is not of much personal
interest, as it concerns almost exclusively his musical education
and his travels abroad. For instance, concerning his marriage, it
is dismissed with the curt remark, “At twenty-three I married.”
Nevertheless it affords us some particulars which we might have sought
for in vain elsewhere.
He informs us: “Of my family I know nothing but that for many
generations they were farmers at Morleigh, an obscure place in the
south-west of Devon. It seems trifling to add that all the Jacksons
in Devonshire have a family face and person. What mine was may be
known by a picture by Rennell, painted at twenty years of age; one
by Gainsborough at forty; another by Keenan at seventy. I recollect
also sitting for a miniature to Humphrey, for a portrait in crayon
to Morland, and for two in oil to Opie.” He goes on to say: “My
grandfather Richard Jackson was a serge-maker in Exeter, lived
creditably, and acquired what in those days was considered a fortune.
He left many children. My father, William, was his second son, to whom
he gave a good school education, but not inheriting the prudence of his
predecessor, he soon dissipated his little fortune.”
[Illustration: _Mr. Jackson._
_The celebrated Composer late Organist of the Exeter Cathedral._
_Enchanting harmonist the art is thine,
Unmatch’d to pour the soul dissolving air
That seems poor weeping Virtues hymn divine,
Soothing the wounded bosom of Despair._
_Published as the Act directs April 25, 1819 by Messrs. Hurst Robinson
& Co. 90 Cheapside._]
William Jackson of Exeter was born on 28 May, 1730 and began his
education at seven, which was continued till he was sixteen. He did
not begin his musical studies till twelve years old, when he became a
chorister in Exeter Cathedral. He displayed a decided taste for music.
“From a subordinate member of the choir at Exeter I learnt two or three
common airs, such as are given to beginners. This was the whole of my
instruction for three years which I received from others; by my own
assiduous practice I could perform Handel’s organ concertos and some
of Corelli’s sonatas--in a wild, irregular manner, no doubt. As yet I
was a stranger to any but my own poor performance, when I was carried
to hear a young lady, who, among other pieces, played the overture of
_Otho_.”
In 1748 he removed to London, where he passed two years under the
tuition of John Travers, organist to the King’s Chapel and to St.
Paul’s, Covent Garden, and an eminent song composer. He then returned
to his native place, where he settled for life as a teacher, professor,
and composer of music. He soon attained reputation and employment; but
it was not till 1777 that he succeeded to the places of sub-chanter,
organist, lay vicar, and master of the choristers in the cathedral. His
talents in musical composition were first made known in 1775, when he
printed a collection of twelve songs that speedily became popular.