Re: John Potter of Cranston Rhode Island
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In reply to:
Re: John Potter of Cranston Rhode Island
Lori Borys 3/21/04
Hi Lori Borys,
If you look beyond the explanation and narrative found in Charles Edward Potter's book, The Genealogies of the Potter Families in America, I believe that you will find that Robert Potter's legal difficulties were a little more complicated and a lot more interesting.The following is my research on the subject, which I posted on the Potter Family Message Board on December 2, 2001.
Very truly yours,
Leslie B. Potter
Attorney at Law
Glen Mills, PA
Dear Fellow Descendant of Robert Potter (c. 1600-c.1656) of Warwick, RI:
When I first read Charles Edward Potter's biographical sketch of my immigrant ancestor, Robert Potter, I chuckled at the irony. I was a criminal defense lawyer and had an ancestor who had been convicted and had served hard time. Neither my father nor his first cousin found my wry comments about my "jail bird" ancestor at all humorous. Later as I corresponded with other descendants of Robert Potter, I began to suspect that many of them seemed either to have negative feelings about Robert or to carry a vague sense of shame regarding his legal difficulties with the Massachusetts theocracy.
So I decided to investigate Robert's situation. I have created a detailed time line that lists the sequence of events surrounding Robert Potter's legal difficulties and incarceration. My research lead to conclude that Robert Potter was clearly a man of principal and great integrity who was unjustly persecuted for his beliefs. He, his two wives, and his three children paid a very high price for his convictions. With that the defense rests.
The sources of my data are as follows:
a) Charles Edward Potter, Genealogies of the Potter Families and their Descendants in America to the Present Generation with Historical and Biographical Sketches, Boston, 1888.
b) Samuel Greene Arnold, History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, 1636-1700, New York 1859.
c) Emery Battis, Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony; 1636-1650, published by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1662.
On page 306 Battis lists Robert Potter, farmer of Roxbury, as being a member of Anne Hutchinson's "core group" of followers. Battis further states that Robert Potter was excommunicated and banished; therefore, he removed to Portsmouth. Battis also indicates that Robert later changed his religion to "Gortonist".
The sequence of events surrounding Robert Potter's departure from Massachusetts as a follower of Anne Marbury Hutchinson and his later incarceration as a follower of Samuel Gorton.
Copyright © Leslie B. Potter October 22, 1995
February 5, 1630/31 - Roger Williams arrived in Massachusetts and was appointed assistant minister in Salem. The Boston theocracy did not approve of Salem's action partly because it had not consulted on the appointment, and partly because it did not approve of Williams' theology and other opinions.
August, 1631- Roger Williams removed to Plymouth and became assistant minister to Ralph Smith in order to avoid persecution by the Boston Theocracy.
August, 1633- Roger Williams returned to Salem. The Boston theocracy renewed its persecution of him.
April, 1634- Robert Potter and the Reverend Nathaniel Ward sailed from England to Boston.
September 3, 1634- Anne Marbury Hutchinson and her husband, William, arrived in Boston with their children.
April, 1636- Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts and fled south. He took refuge with the Indians whom he had met while he was in Plymouth.
June, 1636- Roger William learned that he was still within the jurisdiction of the Plymouth Plantation and therefore not safe. He moved further south and founded Providence, Rhode Island.
1636 - Samuel Gorton arrived in Boston. After a short time, Gorton apparently decided that his values were too liberal for him to be able to live comfortably in Boston. He removed to Plymouth.
July 12, 1637- Robert Potter was required to appear before the General Court of Newtown, Massachusetts to answer charges brought by his church in Roxbury. He was released and ordered to appear before the next session of Court, "unless hee bee with is family removed out of the Plantation before."
Fall 1637- The followers of Anne Hutchinson, or "Antinomians" as they had been labeled by the Boston theocracy, decided to leave Massachusetts and establish a colony of their own. To that end their leaders traveled overland to Providence and sought the advice of Roger Williams. Williams suggested two locations. One was on the mainland and the other was the island of Acquidneck. Acquidneck was chose. Williams then helped Anne Hutchinson's followers negotiate the purchase of the island from the Indians and draft their first frame of government for their new colony.
November 7-8, 1637- The General court tried Anne Hutchinson for "traducing ministers and their ministry." She was placed under house arrest in Roxbury where she remained until the Church examined her the following March.
1737 - Samuel Gorton had a landlord-tenant dispute with Ralph Smith from whom he had obtained a four-year lease for a portion of Smith's house in Plymouth. Gorton refused to vacate the premises.
March 7, 1637/38-Nineteen followers of Anne Hutchinson signed a Compact that established a government for their new colony
March 15, 1637/38-Anne Hutchinson was examined by the church.
March 22, 1637/38-Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated and a sentence of banishment was imposed.
March 24, 1637/38-The Indians executed a deed transferring ownership of Aquedneck to William Hutchinson and his companions.
1637 - Samuel Gorton's maidservant was taken to court in Plymouth and charged with having smiled in church. The girl fled to the woods at Gorton's instruction. Gorton went to court to defend her flight and her behavior in church. He was deemed to have been obnoxious, disrespectful, seditious and heretical.
May 3, 1638 -Robert Potter appeared in court and state that he had been admitted as an inhabitant of Acquidneck. He then returned to Acquidneck.
June 20, 1638- Samuel Gorton is admitted as an inhabitant of Acquidnick.
December 4, 1638-Samuel Gorton was banished from Massachusetts
Plantation by court action.
March 12, 1638/39-William Coddington and nine other removed to the southwest end of Aquedneck and founded Newport.
April 28, 1639- Robert Potter, William Hutchinson, Nathanyell Potter, George Potter, Samuel Gorton and twenty-six other signed the Pocasset Compact establishing the town of Portsmouth on the island of Aquedneck.
1640 - Samuel Gorton's maidservant assaulted a widow who was removing her wayward cow from Gorton's land. The widow filed a complaint with the governor. The governor ordered the maidservant to court. Gorton objected strenuously. After the jur had rendered its verdict in the assault trial of Gorton's maidservant, Gorton was indicted on 14 points of being a nuisance.
April, 1640 - Samuel Gorton arrived in Providence.
October 1, 1640- Roger Williams wrote a letter in which he complained about Samuel Gorton "bewitching and bemadding Poor Providence." He also said that Gorton's behavior may force him to flee Providence for "Patience, a little island next to your Prudence." (Winslow's Hypocrisie Unmasked, at page 55 & 56)
May 25, 1641 -William Arnold wrote a letter stating his adamant opposition to granting Samuel Gorton's application for admission into "town fellowship" and offered his house for sale to the town should Gorton be admitted. (This was Gorton's second application for admission. His first application having been turned down.)
November 17, 1641- A riot ensued over the issue of Gorton's admission. Soon after Gorton and his followers moved to Pawtuxet.
March 16, 1641/42- Samuel Gorton was banished from Portsmouth.
March 17, 1641/42- Robert Potter and three other freemen were disenfranchised and denied the privilege of carrying firearms on the island of Aquedneck.
1641 - Robert Potter sold his house and land in Portsmouth to his brother-in-law, John Anthony.
January 12, 1642/43 - Samuel Gorton, Robert Potter and ten others bought land from Miantinomi, Chief Sachem of the Narragansets. Pomham, the local Sachem and other witnessed the deed and receipt of payment for the land of the Shawomet purchase, a/k/a Warwick, RI.
May 10, 1643- William Arnold of Pawtuxet, who had recently submitted to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, went to the Sachems of Warwick and Pawtuxet to discuss their submission to Boston's jurisdiction. He did so at Boston's request.
June 22, 1643- Pomham, Sachem of Warwick and Soconoco, Sachem of Pawtuxet, submitted themselves and their land to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. They denied having assented to the sale of Warwick to Gorton, Potter, et al. or to ever having received any payment for the land.
September 1643- Roger Williams sailed for England from New York.
September 7, 1643- The General court discussed the Warwick situation and referred the matter to the Commissioner of the United Colonies.
September 12, 1643 - The Commissioners of the United Colonies took up the case of Gorton and directed Massachusetts to do whatever it deemed necessary.
September, 15, 1643 -Massachusetts directed that an expedition be sent to deliver the warrant ordering Gorton to appear before the court and answer the complaint of the Indians regarding the sale of Warwick.
September 28, 1643 - The men of Providence arranged a parley between the officials from Massachusetts and the men of Warwick. Ultimately the Warwick men refused to submit to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Massachusetts remained steadfast in its position that Gorton was entirely too dangerous not to have Warwick under Massachusetts'
control.
October 3, 1643- The Warwick men sent their women and children into the woods and then barricaded themselves in one structure.
Massachusetts attacked.
October 8, 1643- Samuel Gorton, Robert Potter and the rest of the Warwick men surrendered and were arrested by the officials from Massachusetts.
November 3, 1643- The Warwick men were tried and convicted. Sentence of imprisonment was imposed. Each of the prisoners was sent to a different town to labor in chains.
March 7, 1643/44- Massachusetts freed the Warwick men, but banished them from Massachusetts, Providence and the lands of subject Indians. If they were found within those jurisdictions, they were to be put to death.
March 24, 1643/44- Roger Williams was granted a charter for the Providence Plantation by the Long Parliament.
March 26, 1643/44- Massachusetts stated that Warwick was within its jurisdiction, so Gorton, Potter, et al. could not return to their homes. They fled to Aquedneck were they remained until they had received a Charter from England recognizing their rightful ownership of the Shawomet Purchase (i.e. Warwick).
April, 1644 -Samuel Gorton became a magistrate on Aquedneck.
September 17, 1644 - Roger Williams returned from England with a duly authorized Charter for Providence Plantation.
December, 1644- Samuel Gorton and Randall Holden went to England to file a complaint against Massachusetts in an effort to recover possession of the Shawomet Purchase (Warwick) for the men of Warwick.
October 1, 1645 -The General Court of Massachusetts granted the Shawomet purchase to thirty -two people, provided they occupied the and within one year.
John Brown, Magistrate of Plymouth and one of the
Commissioners of the United Colonies, prohibited
Settlement of the Shawomet purchase by claiming that the
and land was within Plymouth's jurisdiction and that it
should be restored to the rightful owners, i.e., Gorton,
Potter and the other Warwick men.
May 15, 1646- The government of England issued an order requiring Massachusetts to reinstate the men of Warwick on their land and forbidding Massachusetts from making any further attempt to exercise jurisdiction over Warwick.
September 13, 1746 - Randall Holden returned to Boston and served the Order of May 15, 1746 on the Massachusetts government.
December 4, 1646- Massachusetts sent an agent to England to appeal the Order of May 15, 1646.
1647- George Fox began to preach.
May 1647- The men of Warwick returned to their homes and took possession of the Shawomet Purchase (Warwick).
1649 - Robert Potter filed a petition for a Tavern license. His petition was granted.
1656 - Robert Potter died intestate and his estate was insolvent. His second wife, Sarah, became administrator of his estate.
The first members of the Religious Society of Friends
arrived in Boston.
March, 1656 - Aquedneck accepted the authority of Providence Plantation.
1658- The General Court banished Quakers from Massachusetts.
November 24, 1663- The royal Charter issued by Charles II was delivered to the General Assembly to Rhode Island. In due course all four settlements [Providence, Newport, Portsmouth and Warwick] joined in the government that was organized under this charter.