The Rise and Legacy of Brantford Stoneware Manufacturing Company
One of Canada’s oldest and most well-known pottery businesses, the Brantford Stoneware Manufacturing Company traces its origins to Justus Morton’s establishment in 1849. The firm, then called Morton & Company, was located on Clarence Street near Dalhousie Street, making hardwearing salt-glazed stoneware, which proved to be essential containers of storage for the homes in the region. The firm had undergone constant leadership changes over the years, beginning with A.B. Bennett becoming a partner in 1856. But their association lasted only a few months, and Morton quickly leased the factory to James Woodyatt. By 1859, Morton had reclaimed the company, but this time with Franklin P Goold, who later joined Charles Waterous as the majority shareholder.
Goold and Waterous’s firm thrived under their leadership, winning first prize at the 1864 Canada West exhibition for its high-quality stoneware. Goold then sold the pottery business to William E. Welding and William W. Belding for $3,200 in 1867, a turning point in the growth of the firm. Yet the company experienced a significant defeat when a fire in 1872 consumed the entire factory, taking large amounts of stock and machinery with it. Despite this, Welding bought the estate back from Belding, rebuilt the site, and resumed business in 1873. With his leadership, the company started creating innovative forms of pottery and started producing moulded objects with Rockingham’s tortoise-shell brown glaze.
The Brantford Stoneware Manufacturing Company remained flexible throughout the 1880s and ’90s, changing its methods of manufacture and introducing Rockingham and yellow-glazed products to the marketplace. Despite a second fire in 1883, the firm recovered, and by 1894 it had been introduced officially as the Brantford Stoneware Manufacturing Company. By this point, the firm’s products ranged from household products to industrial products such as stove linings, firebricks and chemical and sanitary products.
For unknown reasons, the company collapsed in 1906, after decades of success, and the land and assets eventually went to the Brantford Rag and Metal Company. The factory building had since been converted to other uses, but Brantford Stoneware Manufacturing Company’s status as the original manufacturer of Canadian pottery did not. Its heritage is also recorded in publications such as The Brantford Pottery 1849-1907 by D.B. Webster and Robert Deboer, A History of the Brantford Pottery.
References
https://history-api.brantfordlibrary.ca/Document/View/c35a2046-4306-441e-ab2f-3fade46ce2f3
Warner, Beers, & Co. (1883). The history of the County of Brant, Ontario (p. 152) [PDF]. Warner, Beers, & Co.