AMERICAN STONEWARE COLLECTORS - Key Persons
The Norton Family stoneware history is very well documented. The family's ware is one of the first encounters new collectors and enthusiasts have, when beginning to look into American stoneware. The museum in Bennington, Vermont has an extensive collection of Norton pieces, as do museums in New York State and around the country. If you haven't visited the Bennington Museum it is perhaps the most extraordinary collection of one family's work in one place in the United States.
The vessel pictured above, is a red ware cup shaped vase, donated to the museum by the Pratt family. It is dated to the 1810 to 1820 time period and is attributed to Captain John Norton's original kiln in Bennington. The provenance is strong here, it was willed to, then owned by, Mrs. Luman S. Norton Pratt, and was donated by her, directly to the museum. For those who study stoneware and the makers, this is a characteristically odd piece of ware from the patriarch of the Norton clan. To begin with, we all expect to see stoneware, not red ware, but the facts are that Captain Norton was first a red ware maker in Vermont, and did not have a ready supply of stoneware clay on which to use. So red clay it was.
Perhaps I am getting ahead myself so let's start at the beginning, and the beginning is not in Bennington, Vermont, it's in Goshen, Connecticut. Goshen is about an hour north of the southern coast of Connecticut and New Haven, home of Yale University. Norton was originally from Goshen and was born in 1758. There was a pottery operating in Goshen during this period owned by John Kettle and one school of history supposes Norton learned his trade there. The Kettle family later become legends in their own right in Charlestown, a story for another day, but it's astounding that these two legendary families actually may have shared history. By 1784, Norton, now a Revolutionary War ranked Captain with family, had found his way to Williamstown, Massachusetts, then called Williamson, on his way to Bennington. Yet another historian has Norton making/learning stoneware production there, for a short period. These two entries into the Norton family history are without documentation and are based on information passed on by generations which came after. Both very logical though.
As a side notation, its also quite possible that Norton and Norton's family in Goshen had known the Fenton family of New Haven, given the close proximity of the towns. These Fentons are the same legendary Fenton's we will encounter later in this story.