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 Two
talented artists, a couple of thriving businesses and three houses in
Staffordshire, Thomas
Chapman Dewsberry (1817-1892) was the head of a prosperous Victorian
family. But life had not always been so easy.
His father Thomas
Dewsberry (1783-1826) had gone to sea as a cabin boy and through
his own endevour risen to be a sea captain, living in a large house
in Liverpool. He was master of the brig Constitution when he drowned
off Demerara leaving his wife and children penniless.
Sent to live in lodgings, young Thomas Chapman worked in the Herculaneum
Pottery in Liverpool. Food was always in short supply and he often faced
near starvation.
It was at a Pottery in Saint Helens that he met Richard
Guest (1803-1862), married his daughter Sarah
(1823-1897) and set out on foot with the Guest family to Burslem
where the families fortunes were to change.
Thomas became the first employee of James MacIntyre, the man who went
on to run the Washington Works which later employed William Moorcroft.
He fired MacIntyre’s ovens as the business grew and the family thrived
on the proceeds.
Thomas and Sarah had twelve children, seven of whom survived. Two of
their sons were talented artists. David
Dewsberry (1851-1929) was world famous for his orchids he painted
for the Doulton factory where he worked between 1889 and 1919. Examples
of his work change hands today for tens of thousands of pounds.
George Henry Dewsberry (1857-1939) started a business decorating
tiles, some of which are in Queen Victoria’s bathroom at Osborne House
on the Isle of Wight.
 Richard
Dewsberry (1841-1906) moved to South Wales to run the Llanelly Pottery
with his uncle David
Guest (1825-1892), Margaret
Dewsberry (b1848) married another potter William
Walker (1844-1903), Thomas
Dewsberry (1862-1921) lost an arm in a railway accident as a
child but later became stationmaster at Congleton in Cheshire and Sarah
Dewsberry (b1856) stayed at home caring for her sister Elizabeth
(1846-1916) who had learning disabilities.
Thomas had been introduced to the Temperance movement by his father-in
law Richard Guest, described by his son George as “a great drunkard”
before he signed the pledge. Richard
Dewsberry was one of the leading lights in Park Church, the chapel
set up to cater for the growing number of English speaking pottery workers
in Llanelli. George Henry Dewsberry later became involved in the Christian
Science movement. David Dewsberry conducted the Burslem Congregational
Choir for thirty years. His gravestone at Burslem Cemetery bears the
words “gone to join the choir invisible”.
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