Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 3 January 1795
- Josiah Wedgwood founded the first factory for mass production of porcelain in England. Wedgwood today still produces ceramics and is one of the best-known porcelain brands in the entire world.
Josiah Wedgwood was the grandfather of the famous Charles Darwin, and he was the founder of one of the most famous porcelain families in England. Wedgwood today still produces ceramics and is one of the best-known porcelain brands not only in England, but in the entire world.
Wedgwood had a daughter named Susannah, who was the mother of Charles Darwin. It is interesting to note that Charles married his cousin Emma Wedgwood, the granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood. Therefore, Charles Darwin and his wife were first cousins, which was not unusual in Britain at that time (even Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha.
Apart from founding the first factory for the mass production of porcelain in England and being Darwin’s grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood was also known for advocating the abolition of slavery. The movement was known as abolitionism and really did result in the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom. Sadly, slavery persisted much longer in the USA, up to the end of the Civil War. Josiah Wedgwood died on this day in 1795, not living to see the birth of his famous grandson Charles Darwin.
