William Cookworthy (12 April, 1705 – 17 October, 1780) was an English Quaker
MinisterA Recorded Minister was originally a male or female Quaker who was acknowledged to have a gift of spoken ministry.The practice of recording, in a Monthly Meeting Minute, the acknowledgement that a Friend had a gift of spoken ministry began in the 1730s in London Yearly Meeting, according to...
, a successful
PharmacistPharmacists are health professionals who practice the science of pharmacy. In their traditional role, pharmacists typically take a request for medicines from a prescribing health care provider in the form of a medical prescription, evaluate the appropriateness of the prescription, dispense the...
and an innovator in several fields of technology.
He was born of Quaker parents in
KingsbridgeKingsbridge is a market town and popular tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of about 5,800. It is situated at the northern end of the Kingsbridge Estuary, which is a textbook example of a ria and extends to the sea 6 miles south of the town.-History:The...
,
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
on 12 April 1705. His father, also called William, was a weaver and his mother was Edith, the daughter of John and Margaret Debell of
St Martin-by-LooeSt Martin-by-Looe is a coastal civil parish in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. The parish is immediately east of the town and parish of Looe, seven miles south of Liskeard...
in east
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
: they had married in 1704.
William Cookworthy (12 April, 1705 – 17 October, 1780) was an English Quaker
MinisterA Recorded Minister was originally a male or female Quaker who was acknowledged to have a gift of spoken ministry.The practice of recording, in a Monthly Meeting Minute, the acknowledgement that a Friend had a gift of spoken ministry began in the 1730s in London Yearly Meeting, according to...
, a successful
PharmacistPharmacists are health professionals who practice the science of pharmacy. In their traditional role, pharmacists typically take a request for medicines from a prescribing health care provider in the form of a medical prescription, evaluate the appropriateness of the prescription, dispense the...
and an innovator in several fields of technology.
Parents, birth, siblings and early life
He was born of Quaker parents in
KingsbridgeKingsbridge is a market town and popular tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of about 5,800. It is situated at the northern end of the Kingsbridge Estuary, which is a textbook example of a ria and extends to the sea 6 miles south of the town.-History:The...
,
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
on 12 April 1705. His father, also called William, was a weaver and his mother was Edith, the daughter of John and Margaret Debell of
St Martin-by-LooeSt Martin-by-Looe is a coastal civil parish in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. The parish is immediately east of the town and parish of Looe, seven miles south of Liskeard...
in east
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
: they had married in 1704. Their children were:
- William - 1704
- Sarah - 1706
- Jacob - 1709
- Susannah - 1711
- Mary - 1714
- Philip - 1716
- Benjamin - 1717
William was a bright child but his education was halted when his father died on 22 October 1718 and the family's investment in the South Sea Company failed in the autumn of 1720.
William had been offered an apprenticeship, at no cost, by the Bevan Brothers, two Quaker
apothecariesApothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist ....
, with a successful business in London. As the family had no spare money, William walked to London to take up the offer and, eventually, successfully completed the apprenticeship.
Plymouth
The Bevans set him up in business in Plymouth, where he was extremely successful. He brought his brothers Philip and Benjamin into the partnership. He bought out the Bevans' interest in 1745.
Marriage
In 1735, he married Sarah Berry, a Quaker from Wellington in Somerset.They had five daughters:
- Lydia - 1736
- Sarah - 1738
- Mary - 1740
- Elizabeth & Susannah (twins) - 1743
Porcelain
He discovered
china clayKaolinite is a clay mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O54. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina octahedra...
in Cornwall and devised a way of making
porcelainPorcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, which previously was imported from
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.
Lighthouse engineering
He was also an associate of
John SmeatonJohn Smeaton,
FRS, was an English civil engineer – often regarded as the "father of civil engineering" – responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a more than capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. He was...
, who lodged at his house when he was engaged in building the third
Eddystone LighthouseEddystone Lighthouse is on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles south west of Rame Head, United Kingdom. While Rame Head is in Cornwall, the rocks are in Devon and composed of Precambrian Gneiss....
(1756-1759). Cookworthy helped Smeaton with the development of
hydraulic limeHydraulic lime is a variety of slaked lime used to make lime mortar. Hydraulicity is the ability of lime to set under water. Hydraulic lime is produced by heating calcining limestone that contains clay and other impurities. Calcium reacts in the kiln with the clay minerals to produce silicates...
, which was essential to the successful building of the lighthouse.
Dietary advice
He advised naval officers that scurvey might be prevented and treated by supplying crews with fresh fruit and vegetables, and in their absence,
sauerkrautSauerkraut is finely shredded cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria, including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. It has a long shelf-life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid that forms when the bacteria ferment the sugars in...
(rich in vitamin c).
Swedenborg
In 1767 Cookworthy, in conjunction with Rev Thomas Hartley, translated
Emanuel Swedenborgwas a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and visions...
's theological works,
The Doctrine of Life,
Treatise on Influx, and
Heaven and Hell, from Latin into English.
His initial reaction to Swedenborg's works was one of disgust, but with persistence, he was convinced of their merits and was a persuasive advocate. Hartley and Cookworthy later visited Swedenborg at his lodgings in Clerkenwell shortly before Swedenborg's death.
Porcelain factory
In 1768 he founded a works at
PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
for the production of
Plymouth PorcelainPlymouth porcelain was a hard paste porcelain made in the English county of Devon in the 18th century .The porcelain factories at Plymouth and Bristol are mainly noteworthy because they were the only English factories in which a true porcelain strictly analogous to the Chinese was ever manufactured...
.
Friends
It is also known that prior to his departure, Captain
James CookCaptain James Cook, FRS RN , was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy...
and Captain
John JervisAdmiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB PC RN was an Admiral in the Royal Navy.-Early career:...
, together with the naturalists
Dr SolanderDaniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander was a Swedish botanist.Solander was born in Piteå, Norrland, Sweden and was the son of a Lutheran principal. He enrolled at Uppsala University in July 1750 and studied languages and the humanities...
and Sir
Joseph BanksSir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was a British naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa, and the genus named after him, Banksia...
, were guests of Cookworthy.