Christopher Potter (provost)
Christopher Potter (1591 – 3 March 1646) was an English academic and clergyman, Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford, controversialist and prominent supporter of William Laud.
Life
He was born in Westmoreland, the nephew of Barnaby Potter. He matriculated at Queen's on 11 July 1606, aged 15, having entered the college in the previous Easter term. He was elected taberdar (pauper puer) on 29 October 1609. He graduated B.A. on 30 April 1610 and M.A. on 8 July 1613, became chaplain on 5 July 1613, and fellow on 22 March 1614–15. He was magister puerorum in 1620, and senior bursar in 1622; graduated B.D. and received a preacher's licence on 9 March 1621, and proceeded D.D. on 17 February 1627.
He was in early life a follower of
During Laud's chancellorship of the university, Potter was a frequent correspondent. He was a disciplinarian in his college, and instituted expositions of the creed on Sundays in chapel and English sermons on Thursdays. In 1631, on the death of
He had now attracted notice as a prominent
He became pro-vice-chancellor on 13 July 1639, and was appointed vice-chancellor on 28 July 1640. It was to him that Laud's letter of resignation of his office was addressed. On 4 December 1640 he found it necessary, with the other university officials, to issue a notice denying that they knew or suspected "any member of the university to be a papist, or popishly inclined".
He had been promoted, by Laud's influence, as Dean of Worcester in 1636, and he received the rectory of Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, 1642. On the outbreak of the First English Civil War he contributed £400 to the king in July 1642, in addition to £800 given by the college. He left Oxford, but returned before Christmas 1642; he preached at the Treaty of Uxbridge. In January 1646 the king nominated him to the deanery of Durham, but he died, before his installation, on 3 March.
Personal life
Potter married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Charles Sonnibanke, canon of Windsor. They had a son Charles Potter (1634–1663), courtier, born in the college in 1634. Charles became a Roman Catholic, and at the Restoration was made an usher to Queen Henrietta Maria. In May 1662 he was repaid £2,000 which his father had lent to Charles I. Elizabeth afterwards married Gerard Langbaine, the next Provost of Queen's.
References
- ^ Want of Charity justly charged on all such Romanists as dare affirm that Protestancy destroyeth Salvation (Oxford, 1633).
Additional sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Potter, Christopher (1591-1646)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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