St. Nicholas, Dorset. Apart from their biographical interest they contain interesting information on the state of education at Winchester and Oxford during the seventeenth century. Extracts from the part relating to Oxford are reprinted in Couch's ‘Reminiscences of Oxford,’ p. 53 (Oxf. Hist. Soc. 1892).
[Authorities mentioned in the article.]
POTT, JOSEPH HOLDEN (1759–1847), archdeacon of London, was son of Percivall Pott [q. v.], the surgeon. He was born in 1759, in his father's house near St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was educated at Eton, and thence sent at an early age to St. John's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1780, and proceeded M.A. in 1783. At Eton he had dabbled in verse, and up to 1786 four separate works, in verse and prose, appeared from his pen. Taking holy orders, he was collated by Bishop Thurlow, formerly dean of St. Paul's, to the prebend of Welton-Brinkhall in Lincoln Cathedral, 17 March 1785 (Le Neve, ii. 230). In 1787 he became rector of St. Olave, Old Jewry, and St. Martin, Ironmonger Lane. He was appointed archdeacon of St. Albans on 8 Jan. 1789.
In 1797 he exchanged his London rectory for the living of Little Burstead, Essex, which he left for the vicarage of Northolt or Northall, Middlesex, on 24 Feb. 1806. He next became vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 12 Dec. 1812, and exchanged the archdeaconry of St. Albans for that of London, 31 Dec. 1813. In 1822 (4 Oct.) he received a canonry in St. Paul's Cathedral, and on 13 July 1824 exchanged the vicarage of St. Martin's for that of Kensington. Finally he became canon and chancellor of Exeter, 2 May 1826. Resigning his archdeaconry and his vicarage in 1842, he held both canonries until his death, which took place on 16 Feb. 1847, at his residence in Woburn Place, Bloomsbury, London. He died unmarried, leaving considerable personalty and a valuable library, which was sold by auction in May 1847.
Pott assisted Nichols to some extent in the production of the ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ and he is mentioned with approval by Mathias in the ‘Pursuits of Literature’ in the phrase ‘as Gisborne serious, and as Pott devout.’ He was generally popular and respected. His portrait was painted by William Owen, R.A., and an engraving from it published in 1843.
His principal works, besides sermons, controversial tracts, and archidiaconal charges, of which he delivered twenty-six, were:
- ‘Poems,’ 1779, 8vo.
- ‘Elegies, and Seimane, a Tragedy,’ 1782, 8vo.
- ‘Essay on Landscape-painting, with Remarks on the different Schools,’ 1783, 8vo.
- ‘The Tour of Valentine,’ 1786, 8vo.
- ‘Testimonies of St. Paul concerning Justification,’ 1846, 8vo.
[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vii. p. 425, ix. pp. v, 73; Gent. Mag. 1847 pt. ii. pp. 210–11; Romilly's Grad. Cantabr. p. 306; Le Neve's Fasti; Foster's Index Ecclesiasticus; Life of Percival Pott in Works, ed. Sir J. Earle; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.]
POTT, PERCIVALL (1714–1788), surgeon, only son of Percivall Pott, a native of London, whose profession was that of a scrivener, was born on 6 Jan. 1713–14, in that part of Threadneedle Street which is now covered by the Bank of England. The house was probably pulled down between 1766 and 1788, when the east and west wings were added to the bank buildings. His father was his mother's second husband. Her first husband, named Houblon, a son of Sir James Houblon [see under Houblon, Sir John], was a young officer who was killed in action soon after his marriage. Pott's father died in 1717, leaving his widow with very inadequate means of support. After Pott's own death in 1788 a small box was found among his papers containing a few pieces of money, amounting to less than five pounds, which was the whole sum he received from the wreck of his father's fortune. The mother, with her son and daughter, however, were assisted by a distant relative, Dr. Wilcox, bishop of Rochester; Percivall was sent at the age of seven to a private school at ‘Darne’ (apparently Darenth) in Kent. He showed a liking for surgery, and on 1 Aug. 1729 he was bound for seven years an apprentice to Edward Nourse [q. v.] His mother paid 210l. as premium. Nourse, at this time an assistant-surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, gave, contrary to the practice of most of his colleagues, private lectures in anatomy at London House in Aldersgate Street, and it became Pott's duty to prepare the subjects for these demonstrations. Pott seems to have gained some professional reputation even at this early period in his career. According to his biographer, Earle, during the later years of his apprenticeship, being ‘confident in the fair prospects of industry, he hired a house of considerable rent in Fenchurch Street, and took with him his mother and her daughter by her first husband.’ A court minute-book, now in the possession of the Barbers' Company, records that on ‘7 Sept. 1736 Percivall Pott was admitted into the freedom of the Company by service, upon the testimony of his master, and was sworn.’ Later in the same day he
