William Osborne was the first Danvers potter, and his descendants carried on the business in that immediate vicinity for about two centuries. Mr. Joseph Reed then took charge as the successor of the house of Osborne. At the end of the eighteenth century the production of “Danvers ware” was extensive. Morse’s _Gazetteer_ of 1797 says, “Large quantities of brick and coarse earthen ware are manufactured here.” A resident of the town wrote thus in 1848, “Table-ware of Danvers China brought a high price during the late war.” To call the common red pottery “china” is certainly flattering, but may be pardoned on account of the local pride of the writer. At the “time of the late war”—the war of 1812—there were no less than twenty-six of these pottery works where now there is only one. The situation of the residence and pot-works of William Osborne is still known, and the manufacture of earthen ware has gone on in the same place without interruption ever since. Simple forms only have been made—often lead-glazed—bean-pots, jugs, pitchers, milk-pans, jars, etc. We must except, of course, the table-ware of war times. This Osborne kiln is situated in what is called Peabody, but in the town of North Danvers there was discovered a few years ago the foundation of an old forgotten kiln, which had been owned by a potter named Porter. There is no finer quality of clay than is still found in large quantities within a quarter of a mile of this old Porter kiln. This clay is, however, carried to Boston and elsewhere instead of being manufactured where it is dug. Potters make good citizens. Staffordshire men say, “working in earth makes men easy-minded,” and a community of potters is always orderly, law-abiding, thrifty, and industrious. A larger and constantly increasing manufacture of Danvers ware should have been encouraged. An enthusiastic local minstrel sings thus of Danvers pottery and patriots: “Here plastic clay the potter turned To pitcher, dish, jug, pot, or pan, As in his kiln the ware was burned, So burned the patriot in the man, Into persistent shape, which no Turning could change back to dough. It might be broken, ground to dust, But ne’er made ductile as at first.” The Quakers kept up with the Puritans in the attempt to establish home manufactures and home industries. Father Pastorius wrote in 1684, “Of brick kilns and tile ovens, we have the necessary number.” Gabriel Thomas found in Pennsylvania, in 1696, both brick kilns and pot-works. He writes thus to encourage emigration from England, and to show the high wages in the new land. “Brick-makers have twenty shillings per thousand for their bricks at the kilns, and potters have sixteenpence for an earthenware pot that may be bought in England for fourpence.”