| Notes |
[SAR: burial list] Howe, M. A. De Wolfe Bristol, Rhode Island : Town Biography (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930). Potter was heavily involved with the slave trade both before and after the revolution. Daniel Vaughan, a Lieutenant aboard the Prince Charles of Lorraine testified that Potter took seven Indians and three negroes from the Jesuit missionery, and intimidated over 20 crewmen to leave the ship before collected their share of the profits from privateering, which Potter then pocketed. In 1761 Potter got into a spat with his pastor Rev. John Usher of St. Michael's Church, pushed him down in the street, was convicted of assault and fined £500. According to Charles O. F. Thompson in Sketches of Old Bristol (Providence: Roger Williams Press, 1942) Potter was incensed after the Reverend had admonished the youg woman with who Potter had been having "criminal conversations". In the 1774 census of Bristol, it was noted that Simeon Potter was the household that held the most slaves, eleven. The Providence Gazette 15Dec1764 gave an account of the accidental drowning of one negro man owned by Simeon Potter. A Samuel Sweert, mariner from Newport, in ads taken out through newspapers in Newport, New York and Philadelphia during July 1773 accused Simeon Potter, Joseph Wanton, Jr. and others in RI of causing his false imprisonment in the Philadelphia gaol.. Apparently there was some legal action on this account that was submitted to binding arbitration. Curiously, he did not participate in any formal defense of his native country during the Revolution commensurate with his title as Major-General of Rhode Island Troops to which he had been appointed in 1776.
Simeon Potter was initially buried in Bristol Common but the gravesite was removed to the North Burial Ground as development encroached. Per the Boston Gazette of 21July1806 there was an advertizement of the estate sale of the real estate holdings of the late Simeon Potter including a Mansion House and 80 acres of land, a Dwelling House, stores, wharf, rope-walk, and another 23 acres. His rope-walk bridge had been a source of considerable income to him. The 1770 List of Providence Taxpayers tells us that there was property owned by Simeon Potter located on the East Side of Providence on South Main Street and Powers Lane. So, while Captain Simeon Potter lived and died in Bristol, his business interests caused him to also own land in the dockyard business area of Providence. |
