Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Potter, John (1674?-1747)
POTTER, JOHN (1674?–1747), archbishop of Canterbury, son of Thomas Potter, linendraper, was born about 1674 in the house now known as ‘The Black Rock’ in the Market Place, Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was educated at the grammar school of his native town, and matriculated, 18 May 1688, as a servitor of University College, Oxford, being then aged 14. Potter graduated B.A. 1692, M.A. 1694, B.D. 1704, D.D. 1706. He was ordained deacon in 1698, and priest in 1699. In 1694 he was made a fellow of Lincoln College, and in the same year, when barely twenty, he published the first of his learned publications, ‘Variantes Lectiones et Notæ ad Plutarchi librum de Audiendis Poetis; et ad Basilii Magni Orationem ad Juvenes,’ Oxford, 8vo. In 1697 he was presented to the rectory of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire, which he held till 1700; and in the same year to the vicarage of Coleby, Lincolnshire, which he resigned in 1709. He was also rector of Great Mongeham, Kent, 1707; of Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire, 1708; and of Newington, Oxford, from 1708 till 1737.
In 1704 Potter was made domestic chaplain to Archbishop Tenison, an appointment which fixed his residence at Lambeth. But in 1707 he was recalled to Oxford by his nomination to the regius professorship of divinity, with which was connected a stall in Christ Church. The appointment is said to have been due to the urgent suit made by the Duke of Marlborough to the queen. Potter was a whig in politics, though a high churchman in divinity. As Bentley was appointed to the same chair at Cambridge in 1711, the Wakefield grammar school had ‘the singular distinction of having produced two scholars who held the office of regius professor of divinity in their respective universities at the same time’ (Monk, Life of Bentley). From this post he was raised, again by the Marlborough interest, to the see of Oxford, 15 May 1715. There he remained till 28 Feb. 1737, when, on the death of Archbishop Wake, he was translated, at the suggestion of Queen Caroline, to Canterbury.
In his administration of his province Potter was accused by Whiston (Memoirs of Life and Writings, i. 359) and others of ostentation and haughtiness. But as in the case of Tillotson, Secker, and Moore, his humble origin made his critics censorious. He died at Lambeth 10 Oct. 1747, and was buried in the chancel of Croydon church on the 27th of the same month, being then in his seventy-fourth year (Lysons, Environs of London, i. 185; Steinmann, Croydon, p. 155).
By his wife, whom Wood supposes to have been a granddaughter of Thomas Venner, the ‘Fifth-monarchy’ man, Potter had a large family, but only four or five children survived him. His fortune was left to his second son, Thomas [q. v.] The eldest son, John, born in 1713, offended his father by marrying a domestic servant, and was disinherited, though amply provided for in church endowments.
A full-length portrait of Potter, by Hudson, is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and has been engraved by Vertue; another by the same artist is at Lambeth Palace, and a third, which is anonymous belongs to Christ Church, Oxford. Engravings by Vertue, after Dahl and Gibson, are mentioned by Bromley.
Potter was a learned classical scholar. His works, besides the one noticed, were: 1. ‘Lycophronis Chalcidiensis Alexandra, cum Græcis Isaaci Tzetzis commentariis, &c., cura et opera Iohannis Potteri, A.M., et Coll. Lincoln. Soc.,’ Oxford, 1697, fol. A second edition, dedicated to Grævius, appeared in 1702. 2. ‘Archæologia Græca, or the Antiquities of Greece,’ vol. i. 1697, vol. ii. 1698. This work was incorporated, immediately on its appearance, into the ‘Thesaurus’ of Gronovius, ‘whose warm eulogies,’ says Hallam, attest its merits.’ It has been often re-edited, both at home and abroad, has been translated into German, and can hardly be said to have been displaced till the appearance of Dr. William Smith's dictionaries. 3. ‘Clementis Alexandrini Opera quæ extant, recognita … per Ioannem Potterum, Episcopum Oxoniensem,’ 2 vols. fol. Oxford, 1715. Criticisms of these works will be found in Brüggemann's ‘View of the English Editions,’ 1797, pp. 206, 314, 373. Potter's theological treatises were collected and published after his death, in 3 vols. 8vo, 1753. These include his ‘Discourse of Church Government,’ originally published in 1707, his coronation sermon on the accession of George II in 1727, and his controversial writings against Hoadly in the Bangorian controversy.
[Wood's Athenæ; Biogr. Brit.; Life by Anderson, prefixed to later editions of the Archæologia; Peacock's Hist. of the Wakefield Grammar School; Sisson's Historic Sketch of the Parish Church, Wakefield; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Blackwall's Sacred Classics, 1737, i. 126; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. iii. 687, 691, iv. 888, and Literary Anecdotes, i. 178.]