1741 - James Potter emigrated with his father from County Tryone, Ireland. They then settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. According to Wikipedia.com his father became sheriff in 1750. 

Second Battalion.- Colonel, James Potter; lieutenant colonel, Robert Moodie; majors: John Kelly, John Brady.

James Potter is active in the organization of the new goverment in Northumberland Co., PA. He is elected as a representative to the Constitutional Convention on July 1, 1776.

...to the Constitutional Convention of July 1, 1776, William Cooke, James Potter, Robert Martin, Matthew Brown, Walter Clark, John Kelly, James Crawford, and John Weitzel. The latter were elected on the 5th of July at the house of George McCandlish near the mouth of Limestone run; Thomas Hewitt, William Shaw, and Joseph Green served as judges. [Northumberland Hist. p 98]

Philadelphia, June 14, 1777.
Sir: By intelligence this moment received from Generals Sullivan and Arnold we are informed that the enemy are rapidly advancing through the Jerseys and had arrived at Rocky run, within four miles of Princeton. We do therefore entreat you, by all the ties of virtue, honor, and love for your country, to call together immediately all the militia of your county you can possibly spare and hasten their march to this city with the utmost expedition. We are, in the greatest haste, Sir,
Your most humble servants,
Thomas Mifflin,
John Armstrong,
James Potter.
[Northumberland Hist. p 98]
"The next requisition was received by Colonel Hunter on the 10th of September, 1777, and in compliance therewith he at once ordered the first class of the militia to march. A requisition for the second class was issued on the 12th instant and for the third and fourth classes on the 23d of October. The latter reached Colonel Hunter on the 31st instant, but, owing to the difficulty of procuring arms and blankets, the classes designated did not march until November 11th. They were commanded by Colonel James Murray, whose regiment was attached to General James Potter's brigade and suffered some loss at the Guelph mills, near Philadelphia, December 11th." [Northumberland p. 118]

".. on May 20th ... sixteen Persons killed or taken prisoners at Loyalsock on the 24th. On the 17th of May Colonel Potter reported twenty persons killed on the North Branch. "The back inhabitants have all evacuated their habitations and assembled in different places," wrote Colonel Hunter on the 31st of May; "all above Muncy to Lycoming are come to Samuel Wallis's and the people of Muncy have gathered to Captain Brady's; all above Lycoming are at Antes's mill and the month of Bald Eagle creek; all the inhabitants of Penn's valley are gathered to one place in Potter's township; the inhabitants of White Deer township are assembled at three different places, and the back settlers of Buffalo are come down to the river; all from Muncy hill to Chillisquaque." [Northumberland Hist. p 118] HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA Bell's History of Northumberland County, PA - THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD - Part I , page

"Colonel Daniel Brodhead's regiment, then on the march to Pittsburgh, had been directed to take position at Standing Stone (Huntingdon), but when General Lachlan McIntosh, who commanded in that department, heard of the state of affairs on the northern frontier, he ordered it to proceed up the Susquehanna, a movement that received the hearty approval of the Board of War and Supreme Executive Council. On the 24th of July Colonel Brodhead wrote* that, having arrived at Sunbury too late to be of service to the inhabitants there, he had determined to fix upon two principal posts and maintain a line of scouts between them; accordingly, a major, two captains, one subaltern, and eighty men were stationed at Brier creek on the North Branch and one hundred twenty men under his personal command at Muncy, while a captain and twenty-five men were detached to General James Potter's in Penn's valley. General Potter reported that the arrival of this force had done much to restore confidence; the "Runaway" had entailed a loss of forty thousand pounds, but the people were returning to reap their harvests and further waste would thus be prevented. He expressed his intention of directing the movements of the militia; this had been agreed upon by Generals Armstrong and McIntosh with the acquiescence of Colonel Brodhead, as General John Lacey, whom Council had designated for that service, was not regarded as eligible. It appears, however, that the militia which first arrived at Sunbury was commanded by General John P. De Haas, who had offered on the 13th of July to lend a body of volunteers against the Indians; Council accepted his services, and in the organization of defensive measures he rendered valuable assistance." page 123.

General James Potter was at Valley Forge on December 22 of 1777. He was then 49 years old and considered by some to be rather elderly compared with the soldiers. A few days after this he was given permission to leave due to the illness of his wife in Northumberland. [Cummings p. 237-8]

Yet more able to look at the situation with good humor and wit that either of his fellow Pennsylvannians (Armstrogna d the Lancaster County official ) was General james Potter. That Stalwart from Northumberland County was not one to despair easliy. He had been at Kittanning as a subaltern in 1756, and had known other experience in the French and Indian Wars. From Cumberland County he had moved on the eve of the Revolution into the new county up the Susquehanna; and pioneer in spirit, had ventured thirty miles or more up stream on Penn's Creek west of the river to break forest lands for a new habitation. The summer of 1776 had found him a leader in Northumberland County once more a soldier. He had acquitted himself with dignity on Long Island in the long retreat through New York and New Jersey which followed, and led a contingent of Northulmberland militia at Trenton and Princeton. He had been tried and respected Representative of the Scotch-Irishman at his best, he blended intelligence with his drollery. A month before Washington had led his depleted army into Valley Forge, Potter was still keeping himself conversant with all that happend around Chester, and much that happened in British-occupied Philadelphia. So he could write with aplomb on November 12 to President Wharton, then snug with the Supreme Council in Lancaster Town. [Cummings p. 232]

"Two years thereafter an addition to that road was laid out as far as what was to be James Potter's "Old Fort," with a possible extension toward the Indian trail crossing Nittany Mountain by means of McBride's Gap. In the year 1779, when this section became a part of Mifflin county the "Haines Road" was continued as far as Spruce Creek Valley.

"Nittany Valley, including Half Moon Valley, from Stormstown to Zion, began to be dotted with cultivated farms and at least two settlements had been definitely established in lower Nittany Valley. The Indian tribes had practically disappeared. James Potter, the younger son of the great general who at one time had been Vice-president of Pennsylvania under its first constitution, had improved the "Old Fort" house established by his father and had erected at least three houses and a new mill at Potter's Mills."[History of Pleasant Gap. ]

The deaths of heroes at home became events. General James Potter just failed of living into the decade. That hardy old aide of Washington through 1776 and 1777 prospered on broad acres for a decade after the Revolution took to farming with as lively a will as he had taken to command. In September 1789 he joined in a new barn-raising on one of his own properties and was caught and maimed by an accidental crash of timbers, suffering internal injuries. He was borne to a daughter's home in Franklin County for care and rest. Death came to him at the end of November and burial at Brown's Mills, faraway from the Northumberland County compartriots with whom his old doughtiness and his mischance persisted in vivid remembrance. [Cummings p. 342]


1782- As lieutenant-governor he was abliged to serve as an ex-officio member of the trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania.  This institution is now the University of Pennsylvania.


1789- James Potter died in Centre County, Pennsylvania. 


Sources:

Cummings, Hubertis M. Scots Breed and Susquehanna, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964
Hall, Dennis A. records of. Thanks for his assistance and fact filled emails, 1/4/04 email - halld@ttki.com
Northumberland History. History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Bell's History of Northumberland County, PA - The Revolutionary Period - Part I
Roots Web records of Michael Parrott, the Parrott Family and Relative. email -MLPaarr514@aol.com

Cheryl's Family Index | Ancestoral Chart #10 | Regional History index | email to Cheryl Grubb

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