John Potter (c. 1713 – 1770) was an 18th-century

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

clergyman who was

Dean of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The current office of Dean originated after the English Reformation, although Deans had also existed before this time; its immediate precur ...

from 1766 to 1770. He was the eldest son of John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury (1673/4–1747). Following a private education, he studied at Christ Church, Oxford (1727), taking an MA in 1734. His first ecclesiastical appointment was as vicar of St Mary,

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

(1738, resigned 1742), followed by rector of

Elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

, with

Emneth Emneth ("even meadow" in Old English) is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.Ordnance Survey (2006). ''OS Explorer Map 228 – March & Ely''. The village is west of Norwich, south-west of King's Lynn and north of Lon ...

Chapel (Norfolk, 1738–1755). In 1741 his father installed him as Archdeacon of Oxford. He obtained the degree of BD the same year. In 1742 he was collated by his father to the vicarage of

Lydd Lydd is a town and electoral ward in Kent, England, lying on Romney Marsh. It is one of the larger settlements on the marsh, and the most southerly town in Kent. Lydd reached the height of its prosperity during the 13th century, when it was a c ...

(Kent), together with the Rectory of

Chiddingstone Chiddingstone is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the River Eden between Tonbridge and Edenbridge. The village of Chiddingstone Causeway and the hamlet Chiddingstone Hoath are al ...

. He was installed as a prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral in 1745 (Stall XII). He obtained the degree of DD in 1746, and the following year exchanged Chiddingstone for the rectory of

Wrotham Wrotham ( ) is a village on the Pilgrims' Way in Kent, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is north of Borough Green and approximately east of Sevenoaks. It is between the M20 and M26 motorways. History The name first occurs as ''U ...

(Kent). In 1766 he succeeded Dr William Freind as

. He died in 1770 at Wrotham where he is buried.H.J. Todd, ''Some account of the deans of Canterbury'', Canterbury, 1793, pp. 225-228. Potter was disinherited by his father as a result of a marriage of which the archbishop disapproved but he nevertheless enjoyed considerable preferment within the church as a result of his father's patronage. Hasted noted 'He had married very imprudently in his early part of life, and consequently highly to the disapprobation of his father, who though he presented him as is mentioned before to several valuable preferments in the church, yet disinherited him, by leaving the whole of his fortune to his youngest son, Thomas Potter, esq.'Edward Hasted, 'Canterbury cathedral: The deans (from 1672 to 1800)'. In: ''The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent'', Volume 12 (1801), pp. 27-55

Date accessed: 25 October 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, John 1713 births 1770 deaths Deans of Canterbury Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford People from Wrotham