Manufacturer Notes: Erastus WentworthThe second pottery was located on Clinton Avenue. Built before December 24, 1798 by Andrew Tracy, sold to Captain Joseph Hosmer, then William Cleveland from 1805, to May 2, 1814, when sold to Peleg Armstrong and Erastus Wentworth, of Norwich. The Huntington and Backus Company became the Norwich Manufacturing Company, which in 1829 purchased part of the land of Armstrong and Wentworth. In June, 1834, Armstrong sold out his share in the business to Wentworth, so that pottery marked Armstrong & Wentworth, or A & W, dates from 1814 to 1834. The business was carried on by Joseph Winship, who later went to work in the newly opened pottery of Sidney Risley, at the Landing. In the 1857 Norwich Directory is the advertisement of “Sidney Risley, No. 4 Cove St., Manufacturer of Stone Ware in Every Variety. Alvin T. Davis was one of the old drivers for Risley, and his pottery wagon was led with a beautiful pair of Newfoundland dogs hitched on ahead of the horses.www.norwichbulletin.com _______________________________________________________________________________________ Peleg Armstrong was married to Erastus Wentworth’s sister. The partners purchased the Norwich pottery business of William Cleveland in 1814. Their factory complex was eventually located on both sides of the Yantic River. They continued to make attractive salt-glazed stoneware jars and jugs until the company closed in 1834. A typical example is a yellow stoneware jar decorated with a simple incised flower. The maker’s mark, “ARMSTRONG, & WENTWORTH NORWICH,” is impressed on the side of the jug. Sidney Risley moved to Norwich from Hartford, where his brother Albert had been a potter for many years. In 1835, he leased land in Norwich, where he built a pottery. By the 1840s, he had a thriving business on the banks of the Thames River. Risley’s son, George, joined the business around 1865 and continued working there until December 24, 1881, when he was killed in a boiler explosion. The Risleys made simple utilitarian stoneware and also experimented with more highly elaborate forms incorporating molded decorations and colored glazes. A simple crock decorated with three berries on a stem is dated 1847. A later pitcher features relief decoration representing ears of corn. Both works are signed, “S RISLEY/ NORWICH.” William Cleveland, also a descendant of a Norwich family, came from Salem, Massachusetts, as did his predecessor. Captain Joseph Hosmer. Purchasing the pottery in 1805, he continued the business till May 2, 1814, when he sold out to Peleg Armstrong and Erastus Wentworth, both of Norwich. The previous April, Cleveland had sold part of his land to Ebenezer and Erastus Fluntington, and the Huntington's were improving one of the buildings as a spinning and weaving factory. The part sold to Armstrong and NOTABLE PLACES AND HOMES 549 Wentworth included a stone pottery shop, wood shed, and a stone pottery kiln on the premises, and gave to the Huntingtons the privilege of passing to and from a door about the center of their factory building. The Huntington and Backus Company became the Norwich Manufacturing Company, which in 1829 purchased part of the land of Armstrong and Wentworth. In June, 1834, Armstrong sold out his share in the business to Wentworth, so that pottery marked Armstrong & Wentworth, or A & W, dates from 1814 to 1834. The manufacturing company evidently wanted more room, so the next year Wentworth sold land with "the buildings heretofore occupied by me as a Pottery." This company has been at various times the Huntington & Backus Company, the Norwich Manufacturing Company, Uncas Woolen Mill, Elting Woolen Mill, Clinton Woolen Mills, and now is the Saxton Woolen Company. The lane leading from the Town street to the mill is now Clinton avenue. About twenty-years ago, while excavations were being made for repairs on the dam, many pieces of earthenware were dug up, consisting of broken scraps and imperfect specimens for the greater part. Some of the squat stoneware ink bottles in good condition were preserved as curiosities by the superintendent of the mill. Peleg Armstrong was born April 14, 1785, in Norwich, Connecticut, the son of Jabez and Anne (Roath) Armstrong; he married (first) Lucy Wentworth, sister of Erastus Wentworth, and on her decease he married her sister, Mary Wentworth. Erastus Wentworth was born November 8, 1788, in Norwich, the son of Lemuel and Elizabeth (Sangar) Wentworth, of Norwich; he married, in Stonington, Connecticut, Esther States, daughter of Adam and Esther (Noyes) States of Stonington. This Adam States came from Holland and established a pottery at Stonington before 1800. Miss Wheeler tells of this States family and the pottery, and relates an amusing story of "Uncle Wentworth" in her "The Homes of Our Ancestors in Stonington, Connecticut" (1903; pp. 212, 213). The next pottery was near the second one, and was located on the river, near Yantic bridge, and is still remembered by some who lived in the neighborhood or had occasion to pass over that road. Erastus Wentworth sold his land and shop on October 22, 1835, and on the 31st of the same month he purchased of Joseph H. Strong "the kiln lot so called," bounded northerly by the highway and westerly by the river Yantic. This was around the bend of the river from the other pottery, and had been perhaps used for extra work. Business did not seem to prosper, for in December, 1835, Wentworth assigned to Henry B. Tracy several parcels of land, one of them being the kiln lot, with a pottery and other buildings. Also two one-horse wagons, and one wagon harness, the pottery wheels in the pottery, wheelbarrow, pads and all of the tools and machinery in the pottery and the land on which the pottery stood. The following April, Henry B. Tracy, as trustee, sold to Lewis Hyde, the highest bidder, the land with the pottery and other buildings. Mr. Wentworth moved to Stonington, where he carried on the business at the States place, and nothing further has been learned of the pottery at Bean Hill, though it is said that for a time the business was carried on by Joseph Winship, who had worked with Mr. Wentworth, and a Mr. Spencer from Hartford, Connecticut, who soon returned to Hartford, while Mr. Winship went to work in the newly opened pottery of Sidney Risley, at the Landing. Of the size, shape or general appearance of these earlier potteries there seems to be no record or description, but particulars of the next one are obtained from an old resident of Norwich, who used to live in the vicinity. Marshall, Benjamin Tinkham; A Modern History of New London Connecticut(/u) (New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1922) _______________________________________________________________________________________ New London County Stoneware Potteries, 1750-1850 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 Greenwich: Adam States I ca 1750-1769 Abraham Mead 1770-1790 Norwich: C. Leffingwell with 1765-1792 Successors: C. Lathrop (1792-6) and & T. Williams Peter States C. Potts (1796-1816) A. Tracy & 1786-1798 Successors: 1798-1814 P. Armstrong & 1814-1834 Huntington J. Hosmer (1798-1802) and E. Wentworth Wm. Cleveland (1802-1814) Elijah Bill (1840-1856), then Sidney and George Risley (1856-1881) E. Stonington: Adam States II (and Peter States to 1796) 1776-1803 or 1824 Stonington Village: Wm. States J. Swan & (& A. States II) I. States 1806-1823 1823-1835 New London: Job Taber & M. Omensetter & Stephen Brewer Stephen Tripp Wm. States (AS III) 1800-1803 1800-ca 1828 1828-1830h nec-sia.org/newsletters/2017-1.pdf _______________________________________________________________________________________ Go To North American Soda & Beers Home |