Elisha Reynolds Potter Papers

University Archives and Special Collections
15 Lippitt Road
Kingston, RI 02881-2011
Tel: 401-874-4632

email: archives@etal.uri.edu

Published in 2009

Collection Overview

Title:	Elisha Reynolds Potter Papers
Date range:	1798-1879
Creator:	Potter, Elisha R. (Elisha Reynolds), 1811-1882
Extent:	2.5 linear feet 5 box(es)
Abstract:	This collection contains some of the papers of Elisha Reynolds Potter, a notable nineteenth century public servant from Kingston, Rhode Island. Potter made his mark as a teacher, a lawyer, an elected official, and an educational reformer.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	University Archives and Special Collections
Collection number:	Mss. Gr. 12

Scope & content

Elisha Reynolds Potter (1811-1882), educator, congressman, judge, historian and author was a man of broad interest, as this collection of his personal papers demonstrates. In this collection are Potter's notebooks and newspaper clippings concerning such subjects as the genealogy of his family, the history of Rhode Island, religion, philosophy and agriculture. Also included are several letters from William Beach Lawrence (1800-1881), a former governor of Rhode Island [1851-1852], as well as correspondence from several other persons of note. In addition to the material included in this register, the University also has in its collections a number of plate maps produced by Potter, the books from his library, and copies of the books Potter wrote. An appendix to this register lists several documents relating to Potter family members Benjamin, Thomas Mawney and William Henry Potter, as well as Elisha Reynolds Potter. The bulk of the personal papers of Elisha Reynolds Potter can be found in the collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society. The University has in its collections a microfilm copy of these materials.

The Elisha Reynolds Potter papers were donated to the University by William Davis Miller and are arranged in two series as follows:

Series I, Subject File, consists of an alphabetical arrangement of materials including newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, notebooks, account books, speeches, correspondence, maps, and genealogy notes.

Series II, Potter Collection Microfilm, consists of 10 reels of microfilm with materials relating to Potter family members Benjamin Potter, Elisha R. Potter, Sr. , Elisha R. Potter, Jr., James B. M. Potter, Mary E. Potter, Thomas Mawney Potter, and William Henry Potter. These reels are a copy of the Potter Family Collection housed at the Rhode Island Historical Society.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in two series:

• 1. Subject File
• 2. Potter Collection Microfilm

Biographical note

Elisha Reynolds Potter was born on June 20, 1811 in the home of his parents, Elisha Reynolds Potter, Sr. (1764-1835) and Mary (Mawney) Potter in Little Rest (now Kingston, a village of South Kingstown), Rhode Island. His father "had been in turn blacksmith, farmer, and practising lawyer, served for some thirty years in the Rhode Island legislature, was four times elected to the federal Congress, and in 1818 was unsuccessful candidate for the governor of this state."

Elisha Reynolds Potter, Jr. began his education at the Kingston Academy (formerly known as the Pettaquamscut Academy) which his father and eight other men had incorporated in 1823. He entered Harvard in 1826 and after his graduation in 1830, he returned to Kingston to teach Classics at the Kingston Academy of which he later became a president and a trustee. After less than a year of teaching at the Academy, he left to study law in the office of Nathaniel Searle of Providence. On October 9, 1832 he was admitted to the bar and began his law career. In the same year he joined the Rhode Island Historical Society, of which he was vice-president from 1850 to 1855.

In 1834 the Committee on Religious Corporations of the Rhode Island General Assembly employed him to write a report on the powers granted by the General Assembly to religious corporations. This was the first of a number of published works by Potter. In 1835 his second work, "Early History of Narragansett" was published by the Rhode Island Historical Society in the third volume of its Collections. In 1835, he became adjutant-general of Rhode Island, an office he held until 1837. In that latter year he published "A Brief Account of Emissions of Paper Money, Made by the Colony of Rhode Island." It was later reprinted in 1863 in Historical Sketches of the Paper Currency of the American Colonies by Henry Phillips, Jr. It was published later still in the series "Rhode Island Historical Tracts" after having been rewritten. In 1839, after election to the Rhode Island House of Representatives, he wrote a report about the Narragansett Indians; "(Jan. Acts & Resolves, RI General Assembly, p.28), covering their land title sand the encroachment of their white neighbors upon their lands. Severe punishments were suggested by Mr. Potter, but never put into execution."

He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention during the years 1841-1842. "When in the latter year the uprising known as the Dorr War was precipitated, he took his stand with those who were opposed to violent action and military force and was one of the three commissioners sent to consult with president Tyler." At he end of this turmoil, in 1842, Potter wrote a pamphlet entitled Considerations on the Questions of the Adoption of a Constitution and Extension of Suffrage in Rhode Island, which was reprinted in 1879. "In 1842 he was elected as Whig to the twenty-eighth Congress, and served Mach 4, 1843 to March 3, 1845." While he was a member of the U.S. Congress, Potter addressed the House in opposition to a motion "asking the House to inquire to the conduct of the President in relation to the late troubles in Rhode Island."

After his term in the House Potter turned his attention to the matter of public education. "He prepared for popular use remarks on the provisions of the school laws and on the duties of the different officers and bodies under them. These he followed by a set of forms, or precedents for proceedings in the administration of the system, and still further by a specimen of rules and regulations for adoption by the school committees of the several towns."

"Mr. Potter continued these labors in the cause of popular education by the careful selection of books for village libraries, leading the way by establishing, at his own personal cost, such an institution in his native town that was free to the public. He printed catalogues for gratuitous distribution among the people, teaching them how to select good books, and these he followed by little tracts which he called 'Hints on Reading'." He delivered before a lyceum in South Kingstown an essay, "A Brief History of the English Language, and of the Principle Changes it has Undergone," which was later printed in the Massachusetts Common School Journal. Potter became Commissioner of Public Schools in 1849 and continued in this office until October 1854. Between January 1852 and August 1853, Potter was the Editor and chief contributor to the Rhode Island Educational Magazine. In February 1851, Potter delivered an address to the Rhode Island Historical Society, which was later published, on the history of education in Rhode Island, and in May 1854, he delivered an address on the occasion of the opening of the Rhode Island Normal School in Providence.

As a result of his interest in the history of Narragansett, Potter surveyed the boundaries of many of the farms there and did research on the history of their land titles. "The work done by Mr. Potter upon the map of Rhode Island made by H. F. Walling in 1854 and republished in 1855 is one of the most valuable historical works ever done by him. On these maps are indicted the localities of all known purchases of land from the Indians and the Indian names are affixed to all localities which Mr. Potter could discover."

Between 1861 and 1863 Potter was the State Senator from South Kingstown. In August 1862, he reported to the legislature on the "Right of a Legislature to Grant Perpetual Exemption from Taxation." This was in regard to a controversy over that portion of the Brown University Charter which exempted from taxation property belonging to the professors and the President of the University. The Legislature passed an act limiting this exemption to ten thousand dollars.

In 1867, Potter wrote a deposition in the copyright case, Lawrence vs. Dana. In the following year he became an Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, an office he held until his death. The last work he published was a "Memoir concerning the French Settlements and French Settlers in the Colony of Rhode Island," in 1879. Potter died in Kingston on April 10, 1882.

Sidney S. Rider delivered a memorial address to the Rhode Island Historical Society on July 11, 1882, entitled "Historical Research and Educational Labor Illustrated in the Work of Elisha Reynolds Potter, Late Judge of the supreme Court of Rhode Island." This was subsequently published in Pawtucket by the Press of the Chronicle Printing Company, in 1905. This address and the Dictionary of American Biography, Volume XV, were the sources of information for this biographical note.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	Open for research.
Use of the materials:	Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Preferred citation:	Elisha Reynolds Potter Papers, Mss. Gr. 12, University of Rhode Island, University Archives and Special Collections.
Contact information:	University Archives and Special Collections 15 Lippitt Road Kingston, RI 02881-2011 Tel: 401-874-4632 email: archives@etal.uri.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The Elisha Reynolds Potter papers were donated to the University by William Davis Miller.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by David C. Maslyn.
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Hailie D. Posey 2009 July 01,updated by Melinda Golembeske 2012 September 6, updated by Mark Dionne on 2020 April 14
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Inventory

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Inventory