_Coleridge's "Friend"_ (Vol. v., p. 297.).--The passage quoted by your
correspondent J. M. can refer to one man only, viz. Thomas Wedgewood.
His introduction to that gentleman, and his brother Josiah, is related
by Cottle. (_Recollections of Coleridge_, 1837, vol. i. p. 305.)
Coleridge might well call the former his "munificent co-patron;" for we
learn from Cottle that these brothers, soon after making the poet's
acquaintance, settled upon him 150_l._ per annum, in order to prevent
him sinking the man of letters in the Unitarian minister. Cottle adds:
"Mr. C. was oppressed with grateful emotions to these his liberal
benefactors. He always spoke, in particular, of the late Mr.
Thomas Wedgewood as being one of the best talkers, and as
possessing one of the acutest minds of any man he had known."
The following details, which J. M. will not find in any book, may be
interesting, to him:--Joseph Wedgewood, the illustrious potter, lived at
_Etruria_, in Staffordshire; for such was the appropriate name of the
house he built for himself. He had six children,--three sons, John,
Thomas, and Josiah; and three daughters, Sarah, Catherine, and ****.
John married a Miss Allen (one of four Devonshire lasses), who was
accounted one of the most accomplished and excellent ladies in the
county. Joshua married another of the sisters. Thomas never married. He
was indisposed, both from ill health and taste, towards the pottery
business, and took to philosophy. He was endowed with a rare genius, and
enjoyed the society of the first _literati_ of his day. But he died
while he was still a man of _promise_.
Of his sisters, Sarah was an accomplished lady with a strong intellect,
which captivated Basil Montagu, without reciprocity. Catherine was a
first-rate horse-woman. The third daughter married the celebrated Dr.
Darwin, of Shrewsbury. All of them, I believe, are dead.