_Charles Bagnall_, of Shelton, who had previously been with Joshua Heath, was a potter of considerable experience, in the middle of last century. He was probably a son of the potter of the same name, who was a maker of butter-pots in Burslem in 1710–15. He became one of the partners in the New Hall Works a century ago. The family has been connected with Staffordshire for many generations. The company, being thus formed, purchased the patent right from Richard Champion, who removed into Staffordshire to superintend the establishing of the new works in that county. The first operations of the company were conducted at the works of one of the partners, Anthony Keeling, at Tunstall, the pottery formerly belonging, as just stated, to his father-in-law, Enoch Booth. Tunstall at this period was a mere small street, or rather roadway, with only a few houses--probably not more than a score--scattered about it and the lanes leading to Chatterley and Red Street. To this spot, the forerunner of the present large and important town, Cookworthy’s patent was brought, and here, with the experienced potters who had become its purchasers, and under the management of Champion, who had produced such exquisite specimens of art at Bristol, and who had been induced, as a part of the arrangement, to superintend the manufacture, the first pieces of china made in Staffordshire, with the exception of the trial pieces of Littler, were produced. To accommodate the new branch of manufacture at Keeling’s pot-works some alterations of course became necessary, and thus it was some little time before the partners had the satisfaction of seeing anything produced under the patent-right which they had purchased. Among the partners, too, some disagreements arose, which ended in John Turner and Anthony Keeling withdrawing from the concern, and about 1780 Keeling is said to have removed to London. This withdrawal and disagreement caused the remaining partners to remove their work from Keeling’s premises, and they took a house in Shelton, known as “Shelton Hall,” afterwards the “New Hall,” in contradistinction to the “Old Hall,” celebrated as being the birthplace of Elijah Fenton, the poet. At this time Shelton Hall, which had been purchased in 1773 of Alice Dalton, widow, (who had inherited it from her brother, Edward Burslem Sundell,) by Humphrey Palmer, was occupied by his son, Thomas Palmer, as a pot-works. In 1777, Humphrey Palmer, intending a second marriage with Hannah Ashwin, of Stratford-on-Avon, gave a rent-charge of £30 on the Hall and pot-works, and a life interest in the rest of the estate, as a dower to that lady, reserving the right for his son, Thomas Palmer, the potter, to get clay and marl from any part of the estate for his own use. In 1789, Humphrey Palmer and his wife being both dead, the estate passed to their infant and only child, Mary Palmer, of whose successor’s executors, after some