Wedgwood did not intend to be left out or left behind in the “flight” into the benefits and resources of the New World; Pensacola clay was brought to him in 1766; and in 1767, from Ayoree (or Hyoree as he spelt it), other clays were fetched, and the canny potter at once attempted to secure a patent right to the exclusive use of them. A man named Griffiths, who had owned in South Carolina a one-third share in three thousand acres of land, where he had “attempted the manufacture of maple-sugar after the manner of the Indians,” now became Wedgwood’s agent in America, under heavy bonds. Griffiths, the owner of the ill-situated maple grove and sugar factory, went to the Cherokee country and sent home clay to Wedgwood to experiment upon. The growing and free use of the Cornish clays, however, rendered the importation of American clays as superfluous as it was expensive and inconvenient; and the interference of the Revolutionary war destroyed all fear of American competition in the manufacture of pottery. The vicinity near Camden, S. C. (where the Bartlam pottery had been established), was particularly devastated, many fierce battles being fought around it. In 1784, Richard Champion, who was always an enthusiastic lover of America, and who had unsuccessfully experimented in England with the Cherokee clays, left Bristol and came to live on a plantation named Rockybranch, near Camden. Wedgwood must have felt many apprehensions and fears when Champion took this step, for he knew well the energy and determination of the emigrant to America, who had in previous years completely routed him in a long-contested and bitter lawsuit over the use of certain English clays in the manufacture of china. Wedgwood knew, too, Champion’s ability and capacity as a potter, and without doubt dreaded lest the man who had done such good work at Bristol should do more and better still when in the land of the Cherokee clay, at Camden. His fears (if they existed) were destined never to be realized, for Champion became a planter, filled several public offices in the State, died in 1793, on the seventh anniversary of the day he left England, and was buried near Camden.