4. A Chronological Summary of the Billingsley Family and Their Contribution to Porcelain Manufacture and Decoration

This chapter covers the birth and apprenticeship of William Billingsley at the Derby china works at the age of 16 to his reaching the epitome of porcelain decoration there in the 1790s and the accolade of the best painter of roses and flowers on china in England, to his departure in 1796 for a succession of other places, including Pinxton and Worcester, where he strove to develop and manufacture the finest porcelain body to demonstrate and set off his exquisite painting on china. Swansea and Nantgarw were the final two places, where he did achieve his ambition but with consequent appalling financial losses. The role of his immediate family, wife Sarah, daughters Sarah and Lavinia, and now his son-in-law Samuel Walker is reviewed and their support given to the William Billingsley’s china manufacturing and decorating enterprise is delineated.