It has been said, and there is indeed a traditional belief in the fact, that the mainspring of Dr. Wall’s experiments was a political one, and that he was induced to turn his attention to the subject in the hope of introducing into Worcester a new branch of manufacture, by which “the low party of the county” might be enabled, by the votes it would command, “to stand a competition for members of parliament with the ministerial or popular party.”[73] I cannot, however, for a moment, and, despite all that has been brought forward on the matter, believe that this was the motive power by which Dr. Wall, a man of high intellect and attainments, and of noble character, was impelled to the prosecution of his inquiries; but that for the good of science and of commerce alone, and with a knowledge that a branch of manufacture of the kind, if once well established, must be lucrative to its possessors and advantageous to the city, he was induced to work hard and zealously in his laboratory until he had mastered the difficulties which surrounded him, and had produced a material that should successfully rival the foreign examples which he took for his model. However, be this as it may, in the year 1751 success had so far attended his labours that he formed a company for the manufacture of porcelain in Worcester, and thus laid the foundation of that manufacture which has been carried on with uninterrupted success for a century and quarter. The “Worcester Porcelain Company,” founded, then, in 1751 by Dr. Wall, consisted of several gentlemen who joined him in his undertaking, and thus formed a “joint-stock company” for the manufacture of the chinaware on the principle he had discovered. The names of these proprietors from 1751 to 1772 were Dr. Wall, Richard Holdship, Rev. Benjamin Blayney, Samuel Bradley, Rev. Samuel Pritchett, Wm. Oliver, David Henry (in place of Richard Holdship), Wm. Davis, John Salway, Germain Lavie, Rev. Thomas Vernon, Mary Blayney, Richard Cook, Henry Cook, and John Thorneloe. The company thus formed commenced its operations in a fine old mansion, formerly the residence of the Warmstrey family, in Warmstrey Slip and Palace Row, nearly adjoining the bishop’s palace; the grounds at the back, at that time beautifully laid out, running down to the banks of the Severn, and commanding a delightful view of the valley, and of the Malvern and Abberley hills beyond.