Thomas Maxell Potts (Quaker Punishment)

Thomas Maxell Potts, identified in the supplied notes as Thomas Pott of Wales, was born 4 March 1632 and died 23 May 1680. A 1675 record from Llangurig, Montgomeryshire, Wales, lists Thomas Pott and John Pott among people presented for absence from parish church services. The family tradition presented in the notes associates these proceedings with Quaker persecution.

Thomas Maxell Potts was born on 4 March 1632 and died on 23 May 1680. He is identified in the supplied research notes as Thomas Pott of Wales; the spelling in the quoted seventeenth-century records is “Pott.” He is described there as the father of John Pott, who was born in 1658 and died before 1698.

The family notes place Thomas Pott at Llangurig in Montgomeryshire, Wales. In a record dated 5 April 1675, Thomas Pott and John Pott, both described as yeomen of the parish of Llangurig, were presented at the Great Sessions at Poole for having been absent from their parish church “to heare devine Service and Sermon” for half a year or more. Others named in the same proceeding included David Owen, Edward Jarman, Griffith Jarman, David Jenkin and his wife Jane, Sarah Rees, and James Hamer.

The notes characterize these church-absence proceedings as persecution of Quakers and cite Joseph Besse’s 1753 Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers for the Testimony of a Good Conscience. This identification should be treated as the interpretation of the cited Quaker-sufferings collection and family research. A later 1677 account from Llanidloes describes a Friends meeting at John Jarman’s house that was broken up by the mayor and constables. That account specifically names John Potts, whose livestock was seized for a fine, but it does not name Thomas Pott.

The supplied notes further observe that several surnames appearing in the Welsh proceedings—Jarman, Rees, Owen, Hamer, and others—later occur among people associated with the family in Philadelphia after emigration. The notes also refer to a widow, Elizabeth Potts, who settled in the Philadelphia area; however, the supplied material does not explicitly establish her relationship to Thomas Pott in the quoted records.

Historical context

In 1675, the Great Sessions record quoted in the family notes treated prolonged absence from parish worship as an offense. Joseph Besse later included material concerning Thomas and John Pott in his collection of Quaker sufferings. In 1677, according to the cited account, authorities in Llanidloes entered a meeting of Friends, imprisoned seven attendees, imposed fines, and seized livestock from several people to satisfy those fines.

Sources & research

Besse, Joseph. The Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers for the Testimony of a Good Conscience. 1753. Vol. XXIV, pp. 229–230.

Quoted 5 April 1675 Great Sessions record, Poole, concerning people of Llangurig, including John Pott and Thomas Pott.

Quoted July 1677 account concerning a Friends meeting at the house of John Jarman in Llanidloes and the seizure of livestock belonging to John Potts and others.

Sullivan, Claudia. Family research notes on the Potts family of Wales and Pennsylvania and associated families. 13 April 2013.

Sullivan, Claudia. Note regarding Besse’s Sufferings and Thomas and John Potts of Llangurig and Llanidloes. 29 May 2013.