Josiah Wedgwood II

Who was Josiah Wedgwood II?

Josiah Wedgwood II, the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood, continued his father's firm and was Member of Parliament for Stoke-upon-Trent from 1832 to 1835. He was an abolitionist, and detested slavery.

Josiah and his brother Thomas gave their friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge a life annuity of £150, with the goal of freeing Coleridge from financial worries and the need to support himself by noncreative work, so that he could pursue his literary and philosophical interests. This was offered in January 1798, and accepted by Coleridge, who was then a probationary minister in the Unitarian Church, with the condition he discontinued in the ministry.

In 1807, Wedgwood bought Maer Hall in Staffordshire and his family lived there until his death in 1843.

Wedgwood was responsible for the Wedgwood Company’s first bone china wares.

Wedgwood married Elizabeth Allen and they had four sons and four daughters, two of whom married their first cousins, the offspring of Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood:

Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood, died unmarried.

Josiah Wedgwood III; married his cousin Caroline Darwin, sister of Charles Darwin.