William Adams & Sons Ltd.

Place: Stoke-On-Trent

Born: 1746

Death: 1805

Biography:

William Adams was an English potter, a maker of fine jasperware shortly after its development and introduction to the English market by Wedgwood. Adams was one of three north Staffordshire William Adamses who were potters working at the time: all were cousins in an extended Adams family of potters of very many generations. This Adams founded the Greengates Pottery in 1779, producing fine jasperware table sets, plaques, medallions and other products stamped Adams & Co. He is said to have been a friend and confidant of Josiah Wedgwood during their entire lives, including the time when both were experimenting with jasperware. Adams has often been credited with improving on Josiah's original formula in colour, design, and stability while he worked at the Etruria Factory. This influence is said to have directly contributed to Wedgwood's success, before the period when Adams was working independently at Greengates. Adams was born in 1746 in Stoke-on-Trent, England, and died in 1805.