William Cookworthy

Porcelain manufacturer, born in Kingsbridge, Devon, SW England, UK. A Plymouth pharmacist and a Quaker, he was the discoverer of kaolin near St Austell (1756), and established a china factory near Plymouth.

William Cookworthy (12 April 1705 – 17 October 1780) was an English chemist and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) from Kingsbridge, Devon. He discovered china clay in Cornwall and devised a way of making porcelain, which previously had needed to be imported from China. Cookworthy helped Smeaton with the development of hydraulic lime, which was essential to the successful building of the lighthouse.In 1768 he founded a works at Plymouth for the production of Plymouth Porcelain.