MORRIS, Francis (1764-1850) — Shelton, Staffordshire
Potter, engraver and printer of earthenware to the ceramics trade, gilder and enameller. Engraved a map of the United States, based on a map by John Wallis 1 (see BME 2011) within an elaborate border used to decorate a transfer-printed creamware jug 1804.
Born in Staffordshire and baptised at St. Giles, Cheadle, 19 Nov 1764, the son of Francis Morris, a peruke-maker, and his wife Ann Heath, a widow whom he had married at Cheadle in 1760. Then described as a potter of Stoke-on-Trent, Morris married Hannah Holt (1772-1839), with whom he had a number of children, at Middlewich, Cheshire, 28 Nov 1790. He appears to have specialised in producing ceramics for the American market, but was adjudged bankrupt and jailed in Stafford for debt in August 1812, probably as a result of an embargo on American trade. He had retired by 1841, when resident in Shelton with a younger brother and a daughter employed as a pottery painter. Died at the end of December 1850 and was buried at Stoke-on-Trent 3 Jan 1851, aged eighty-six.
Vale Pleasant, Shelton — 1800
Union Street, Shelton — 1841
BBTI. LG.