Josiah Spode I - Birthday or Baptism?

Josiah Spode I (1733-1797)

Usually on March 23rd I tweet and/or blog about of Josiah Spode I's birthday. He was the founder of the famous Spode pottery manufacturing company.

Spode I's signature

But recently I have been having doubts about this date. Looking back at my research notes and various books on Spode I realised that rarely does the precise date of his birth arise. The date of his baptism does... and to make thing doubly confusing that is often written as either 23rd or 25th March 1733. Was I missing something obvious?

This prompted me to have an email chat with Peter Roden - a direct descendant of Samuel Spode (1757-1817), who was the younger son of Josiah Spode I.

Roden is responsible for most of the detailed and up-to-date research into the Spode family history, conducted over many, many years. He has kindly shared it with me over the years for which I am eternally grateful. His careful, detailed work has brought new insight not just into the wider Spode family but also into the history of the Spode company and its associated pottery factories. Go to my booklist and look under Roden for details of his publications.*

Peter's response to my initial email made me feel better as he wrote 'This is an interesting and challenging question!'

Not all the books on Spode are reliable but both of us it seems had, with some justification, trusted some of the standard works on Spode for the birthday of its founder and then concentrated on other areas of the Spode family and business which needed new research.

Both Peter and I have now moved onto other things but he kindly looked for some confirmation in resources he had to hand.

The document below, which Peter believes is probably a copy of the Bishop's Transcript, rather than the original register, details the baptism record of Spode I. You can see the entry at the end of the Baptisms and just above the Funerals. 

Baptisms & Funerals 1733

Baptism details Josiah Spode I

In the details of the register you can see why 23 has been mistaken for 25 but from detailed inspection both Peter and I believe it is definitely 23. Compare the 3 to other 3's in the list an also look at the date order.

So we are no further on with a birth date, although it is possible he could have been born and baptised on the same day I believe.

If anyone has any further information please contact me via Twitter @PamWoolliscroft and, after the end of the current crisis in 2020 of COVID-19, I hope to be able to follow this up further... and make any updates throughout this blog.

*Review/details of one of his books 'Copyhold Potworks & Housing in the Staffordshire Potteries 1700-1832' can be found HERE>