Thomas Potts () was an English law clerk, and the author of the ''Discoverie of Witches''.

Life

Thomas Potts was brought up under the care of Sir Thomas Knyvet, Lord Knyvet of Escrick. He adopted the legal profession, and resided from 1609 in Clifford’s Inn, an

Inn of Chancery The Inns of Chancery or ''Hospida Cancellarie'' were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from a ...

situated between

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street that forms part of the City of London#Boundary, western boundary of the City of London. The east side of the street is entirely within the City,Fetter Lane Fetter Lane is a street in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London, England. It forms part of the A4 road (England), A4 road and runs between Fleet Street at its southern end and Holborn. History The street was originally called F ...

. In 1612 he went as clerk on circuit with Sir

James Altham Sir James Altham (about 1554 - 1617), of Oxhey, Hertfordshire, was an English judge, briefly a member of the Parliament of England, and (from 1607) a Baron of the Exchequer.'Altham, James. B.E. 1607', in E. Foss, ''The Judges of England'', Vol. VI ...

and Sir

Edward Bromley Sir Edward Bromley (1563–2 June 1626) was an English lawyer, judge, landowner and politician of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. A member of a Shropshire legal and landed gentry dynasty, he was prominent at the Inner Temple and became a ...

barons of the exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was a ...

, and officiated at the trial of the famous

Lancashire witches The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged w ...

at Lancaster on 12 August.Pollard 1896, p. 228. He died in 1616.

Work

During the trial of the witches, at the judges' request he compiled an account of the proceedings, which Bromley corrected before publication. It appeared in the following year under the title ''The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster'', London, 1613, 4to. In the dedication to Sir Thomas Knyvet, Potts speaks of it as the first fruit of his learning. The work was reprinted by Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

in ''

Somers Tracts Somers may refer to: Places In Australia *Somers, Victoria In the United States *Somers, Connecticut, a town **Somers (CDP), Connecticut, the central village in the town **Somers Historic District, in the center of the village *Somers, Iowa *So ...

'', 1810, and again by the

Chetham Society The Chetham Society "for the publication of remains historic and literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester" is a text publication society and registered charity (No. 700047) established on 23 March 1843. History The ...

in 1845, with an introduction by James Crossley. Scott refers to it in his ''

Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft ''Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq.'' (1830) was a study of witchcraft and the supernatural by Sir Walter Scott. A lifelong student of folklore, Scott was able to draw on a wide-ranging collection of primar ...

'',Scott 1830, pp. 249–250. and it furnished the groundwork of

Harrison Ainsworth William Harrison Ainsworth (4 February 18053 January 1882) was an English historical novelist born at King Street in Manchester. He trained as a lawyer, but the legal profession held no attraction for him. While completing his legal studies in ...

's ''

Lancashire Witches The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged w ...

'', in which Potts is a prominent character.

References

Sources

* Ainsworth, William Harrison (1854)
''The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest''
London: George Routledge & Co. * Crossley, James, ed. (1845).

'. (Chetham Society). Manchester: Charles Simms and Co. pp. iii–lxxix. * * Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed. (1858).
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of James I, 1611–1618
'. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts. p. 535. * Hazlitt, William Carew (1867).
Hand-book to the Popular, Poetical and Dramatic Literature of Great Britain
'. London: John Russell Smith. p. 325. * Scott, Walter (1830).
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
'. London: John Murray. pp. 249–250. * Scott, Walter, ed. (1810). ''Somers Tracts: A Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts''
Vol. 3
London: T. Cadell and W. Davies. pp. 95–160. Attribution: * {{Authority control 17th-century English writers