Somerset Pottery Company

Pottery making in Somerset began in 1705 and continued for over 200 years. Tradition has long given credit to the Chase family for having brought the craft of pottery making with them from England. Their descendants were founders of the Somerset Pottery Company a century later. During the 1770's a Somerset potter named Clark Purington was in a partnership with George Shove and William Boyce, potters from Berkley. Their sloop, which the men used for selling their wares up and down the Taunton River, was the first Somerset vessel to be captured by the British during the American Revolution.

After the war, Clark Purington Jr. went into business with Asa Chace. The deed to their site, dated 1815, is the first official record of a pottery located in a neighborhood soon to be called Pottersville. In 1847, the grandsons of Asa Chace constructed the Somerset Potters Works. This plant played an important role in the town's economy and eventually supplied New England with bowls, preserve jars, clocks and bean pots. In later years, the Potters Works specialized in firebrick and tile.