Thus, the only thing we know with certainty is that William Rogers was a very successful entrepreneur who carried on more than one kind of business. We also can deduce from what is disclosed in the records that he ascended high in the social scale in Virginia and that the rate of this ascent was, not surprisingly, in proportion to the increase of his wealth. Whether or not he was a trained potter, one thing is certain: he was not a "poor potter." As to the role of his son-in-law and successor, Thomas Reynolds, we know with certainty that Reynolds was not a potter. For at least five years and perhaps longer, however, he evidently ran the pottery, which means that there were trained hands to produce stonewares and earthenwares. Who they were or where they came from are not revealed in the records. If, however, we can prove that the wares about to be discussed were made by them, it becomes clear that they were a remarkably competent lot, often able to equal if not to excel their English peers. The persistence of the pottery for at least 20 and perhaps more than 34 years was owing in part, no doubt, to Governor Gooch's apologetic treatment of it in his reports to the Lords of the Board of Trade and to his leniency toward colonial manufacturers in general. Basically, however, it was a response to public need and to a growing independence and a socio-economic situation distinct from the mother country's. The Virginians had a will and direction which impelled them beyond the restrictions imposed upon them to grow tobacco and do little else. The "poor potter" is significant because he exemplified the impulse to break these restrictions and to move the colony toward a craft-oriented economy. Because his wares were skillfully made and sometimes were scarcely distinguishable from those of his English competitors, he was able to hold his position economically and at the same time to become personally wealthy and influential. The scope of his enterprise--more clearly demonstrated in the archeological section of this presentation--should lead to a reappraisal of Governor Gooch's attitudes toward the endeavors of the colonists. His reports to the Board of Trade are shown to have been dissimulations instead of statements of fact. They evidence a daring and suggest a wisdom and a degree of pragmatism on the part of the Governor that might well have been continued by the Crown and its authorities. This entire episode illustrates a remarkably fluid phase of Virginia's history in which the opportunity for an energetic man to rise from obscurity to wealth and position foretold a pattern that became legendary in American society.