Josiah Wedgwood II

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For other persons named Josiah Wedgwood, see Josiah Wedgwood (disambiguation).

Josiah Wedgwood II (1769 – 1843), the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood, continued his father's firm and was Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent from 1832 to 1835.

Josiah and his brother Tomas gave their friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge a life annuity of £150, with the goal of freeing Coleridge from financial worries and the need to support himself by noncreative work, so that he could pursue his literary and philosophical interests.

In 1807, Wedgwood bought Maer Hall in Staffordshire and his family lived there until his death in 1843.

Wedgwood was responsible for the Wedgwood Company’s first bone china wares.

Wedgwood married Elizabeth Allen (1764-1846) and they had four sons and two daughters, two of whom married their first cousins, the offspring of Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood:

Josiah Wedgwood III (1795-1880; married his cousin Caroline Darwin.
Charlotte Wedgwood (1797–1862; married Charles Langton (1801–1886) in 1832. After her death Charles Langton remarried her cousin Emily Catherine Darwin, daughter of Robert Darwin, sister of Charles Darwin.
Henry Allen Wedgwood (1799–1885) married secondly his cousin Jessie Wedgwood, daughter of John Wedgwood (1766–1844).
Francis "Frank" Wedgwood (1800–1880)
Hensleigh Wedgwood (1803-1891)
Emma Wedgwood (1808-1896; married her cousin Charles Darwin, son of Robert Darwin)