Martha W. McCartney and Edward Ayres
Yorktown's "Poor Potter": A Man Wise Beyond Discretion

Ceramics in America 2004

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    View of the Town of York Virginia from the River, 1754–1756. Colored drawing from Logbook #406 Voyage of HMS Success and HMS Norwich to Nova Scotia and Virginia. (Courtesy, The Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, Va.) William Rogers supplied popular taverns in Williamsburg as well as Yorktown

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    View of the Town of Gloucester York River Virginia, 1754–1756. Colored drawing from Logbook #406 Voyage of HMS Success and HMS Norwich to Nova Scotia and Virginia. Gloucestertown is located directly across from Yorktown on the north bank of the York River. (Courtesy, The Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, Va.)

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    Miles Cary, Plat of Gloucester Town, 1707 (Robert Reade Thruston Papers; Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Ky.) Note Lots 7, 8, and 27.

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Fragment of a large bowl, William Rogers, Yorktown, Virginia, 1720–1745. Lead-glazed earthenware. This is the only known example of Rogers’s pottery inscribed with his name. (Courtesy, Virginia Department of Historic Resources; photo, Alain Outlaw.)

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Drawing of the fragment illustrated in fig. 4 showing the “Rogers” inscription. (Drawing, Alain Outlaw.)

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    Pipkin, William Rogers, Yorktown, Virginia, 1720–1745. Lead-glazed earthenware. H. 8 1/4". (Courtesy, Virginia Department of Historic Resouces; photo, David Hazzard.)

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Peter Jefferson and Robert Brook, A Map of the Northern Neck in Virginia, 1713–1746. (Courtesy, The Library of Virginia.) Alexander Wordie transported Rogers’s wares from Yorktown to Wiccocomoco and then to Monokin, Maryland.