Joseph Potter's remarkable career

In the early 1820s, both Joseph Potter and John Newman (1772-1824), with their families, lived in Cloister Court - one of many inner courts surrounded by tall buildings and approached by narrow, labyrinthine alleys -and it was here that Samuel and Elizabeth would have met.

Joseph Potter was not only an important link between the older generation of Newmans and their later descendants, but also a remarkable character himself, who had a strong influence on his Newman grandchildren. Born at Stokesley in the North Riding of Yorkshire, he was educated at the same village school and by the same teachers who had taught Captain Cook. In his late teens he too felt the call of the sea and in 1788 went to sea on the Diligence out of Whitby. However, war with France was fast appreoaching and the following year he was press-ganged at Gravesend. During his time as an Able-Bodied seamen, Joseph saw action at the Siege of Toulon and the Battle of St. Vincent, before leaving the Royal Navy and joining a Revenue Cutter at Shoreham.

Moving to London, he served as a Parish Constable at Blackfriars, before becoming Parish Beadle, an office he held well into his seventh decade until a dispute arose over the collection of the poor rate. Retiring to Greenwich he became a Greenwich pensioner, writing his lively and vivid memoirs when he was 83. During his years at sea he had kept a secret journal, noting the injustices and brutality (illustrated by his own sketches, like the one of a quarter-deck flogging) and was anxious to reveal life on a man of war by detailing the secrets of the naval top and forecastle.

Image from the biography of Joseph Potter, special thank you to Monty Newman.