&c., 1746, 8vo. 3. ‘Considerations on the making of Bar Iron with Pitt or Sea Coal Fire, &c. In a Letter to a Member of the House of Commons,’ London, 1747, 8vo. 4. ‘Considerations on the Revival of the Royal-British Assiento, between his Catholic Majesty and the … South-Sea Company. With an … attempt to unite the African-Trade to that of the South-Sea Company, by Act of Parliament,’ London, 1749, 8vo. 5. ‘The Merchant's Public Counting House, or New Mercantile Institution,’ &c., London, 1750, 4to. 6. ‘A Short State of the Progress of the French Trade and Navigation,’ &c., London, 1756, 8vo. 7. ‘Great Britain's True System. … To which is prefixed an Introduction relative to the Forming a New Plan of British Politicks with respect to our Foreign Affairs,’ &c., London, 1757, 8vo. 8. ‘Britain's Commercial Interest explained and improved, in a Series of Dissertations on several important Branches of her Trade and Police. … Also … the Advantages which would accrue … from an Union with Ireland,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1757; 2nd edit., ‘With … a clear View of the State of our Plantations in America,’ &c., London, 1759, 8vo. 9. ‘In Honour to the Administration. The importance of the African Expedition considered,’ &c., London, 1758, 8vo.
[Chalmers's Biogr. Dict. vol. xxv. pp. 219, 220; Gent. Mag. 1767, p. 479; Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, iii. 317; McCulloch's Literature of Political Economy, p. 52; Cossa's Introduction to the Study of Political Economy, transl. by Dyer, p. 252; Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce (Modern Times), pp. 260, 290, 315, 400, 420.]
POTE, JOSEPH (1703?–1787), bookseller, born in 1702 or 1703, long carried on business at Eton, and also kept a boarding house for Eton boys, Lord-chancellor Camden having been one of his boarders. At the same time he was well known as an editor and publisher, and his editions of classical works brought him into close relations with Zachary Grey [q. v.] and other scholars. Works compiled and published by him include: 1. ‘Catalogus alumnorum e collegio regali B. Mariæ de Etona,’ 1730. Much use was made in this work of the names cut by pupils, before leaving Eton, on the oaken pillars that supported the roof of the under-school. 2. ‘History and Antiquities of Windsor Castle and the Royal College and Chapel of St. George, with the Institutions, Laws, and Ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter,’ 1749. The work was subsequently abridged and published under the name of ‘Les Délices de Windesore, or a Pocket-Companion to Windsor Castle,’ which was very popular and went through six editions. An appendix to the original work was compiled and published by Pote in 1762. It contained an alphabetical list of all the knights of the Garter from the institution of the order to 1762. 4. ‘The Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood,’ 1772. 5. ‘Registrum Regale Præpositorum utriusque Collegii regalis Etonensis et Cantabrigiensis,’ 1774. Pote died at Eton on 3 March 1787, aged 84, leaving two sons; the younger, Thomas, who succeeded to his father's business at Eton, was master of the Stationers' Company. A daughter married John Williams, publisher of Wilkes's paper ‘The North Briton.’
[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes; Gent. Mag. 1787, vol. lvii. pt. i. p. 365; British Museum Catalogue; Maxwell-Lyte's Hist. of Eton College.]
POTENGER or POTTINGER, JOHN (1647–1733), master in chancery and author, born 21 July 1647, was the son of John Potenger, D.D., and Anne Withers. His father was headmaster of Winchester School from 1 Aug. 1642 to 1652, and died in 1659 (Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1st ser. p. 1187; Wood, Fasti, ii. 100; Kirby, Annals of Winchester College, pp. 318, 345). Potenger was admitted to Winchester College in 1658, and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 26 May 1664, where he obtained a Hampshire scholarship. He took the degree of B.A. on 1 Feb. 1667–8, and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1675. By the favour of Sir John Ernley, then chancellor of the exchequer, he was allowed to buy at the price of 1,700l. the office of comptroller of the pipe, and was sworn in in Hilary term 1676. On 2 July 1678 he married Philadelphia, second daughter of Sir John Ernley (Memoirs, p. 50; Chester, London Marriage Licenses, p. 1079). Subsequently he obtained the post of master in chancery, but sold it again for 700l. In the reign of James II he was removed from the commission of the peace for Middlesex for refusing to support the king's religious policy, but was restored again by William III. He died in 1733, his wife in 1692, and both were buried in the church of Broad Blunsdon in the parish of Highworth, Wiltshire.
Potenger was the author of ‘A Pastoral Reflection on Death,’ 1691, and of many unpublished poems. Nichols, in his ‘Select Collection of Poems’ (i. 213), prints an ode of Horace translated by Potenger, and adds in a note two letters from Dr. South praising his compositions (viii. 286). Potenger also published a translation of the ‘Life of Agricola’ by Tacitus (8vo, 1698). His memoirs of his own life were edited in 1841 by his descendant, C. W. Bingham, vicar of Sydling
