Michael Potter (minister)
{{short description|17th c. parish minister}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = minister
| name = Michael Potter
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| ordination = St. Ninians 1673{{cite book |title=Miscellany of the Scottish History Society |date=1893 |publisher=University Press |location=Edinburgh |pages=[https://archive.org/details/miscellanyofscot01edin/page/353 353]-355 |url=https://archive.org/details/miscellanyofscot01edin |accessdate=15 February 2019}}
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| birth_date = {{circa}} 1642
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| death_date = 1718 (aged {{circa}} 76)
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| children = Michael
| religion = Christian
| alma_mater = University of Edinburgh
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File:Jamesfraserlaird00whyt orig 0207c.png
Michael Potter ({{Circa}} 1642 - 1718) was a covenanter. He graduated from Edinburgh on 27 July 1663.{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Hew |title=Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation |date=1923 |publisher=Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd |page=[https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc04scot/page/343 343] |volume=4 |url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc04scot |accessdate=24 February 2019}}{{PD-notice}} He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1673. He was a tutor to the family of George, the Laird of Dunglass of that ilk. He was ordained by presbytery for the adherents in the parish of St. Ninians in 1673. He was elected a schoolmaster to Culross by the magistrates. This led to them being summoned before the Privy Council in 1677.
Retreat to Holland
After this, the fury of the persecution drove him to Holland for shelter at two different times.{{cite book |last1=Hewison |first1=James King |title=The Covenanters, a history of the church in Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution |date=1908 |publisher=J. Smith |location=Glasgow |page=[https://archive.org/details/covenantershisto02hewi/page/388 388] |url=https://archive.org/details/covenantershisto02hewi |accessdate=15 February 2019}}
Arrest
He returned from his second retreat to that country in 1680, and was apprehended about November 1681 in his own house at Borrowstounness, whence he was carried to Blackness Castle the first night, and the next day to the tolbooth of Edinburgh. There he continued a close prisoner till early in the year 1683, when by the orders of the Council he was carried to the Bass Rock for keeping conventicles, for disorderly ordination, and for refusing to engage to live orderly in future.{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Alexander |editor1-last=Prentice |editor1-first=Archibald |title=Life of Alexander Reid, a Scotish covenanter |date=1822 |publisher=printed by J. Garnett |location=Manchester |page=46 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderr00reid/page/46/mode/2up |accessdate=29 June 2020}} He entered this dungeon in February, 1683; preaching at conventicles was his only crime. Potter was imprisoned in Edinburgh and on the Bass Rock and was only released on 17 March 1685 under Act of Banishment thereby leaving the kingdom. However, after remaining quiet at home he gained the liberty granted by King James VII which relieved him from the necessity of obeying the sentence.
On release
After the Glorious Revolution, he was first minister of Bo'ness from 7 December 1687, and then of Dunblane Cathedral 1692; he was also a member of the assembly that year.{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Hew |title=Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae |date=1915 |publisher=Oliver and Boyd |location=Edinburgh |volume=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc01scot/page/196 |accessdate=15 February 2019}}{{PD-notice}}{{cite book |last1=Dickson |first1=John |title=Emeralds chased in Gold; or, the Islands of the Forth: their story, ancient and modern. [With illustrations.] |date=1899 |publisher=Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier |location=Edinburgh and London |pages=225–226 |url=http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000058DB2#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=254&xywh=-478%2C-1%2C3793%2C2303&r=0 |accessdate=3 March 2019}} He died in 1718 sometime between 28 October and 25 November aged 76. The New Statistical Account lists him as being called to Ecclesmachan in 1693 before he was called to Dunblane.{{cite book |first1=Kenneth|last1=Mackenzie |title=The new statistical account of Scotland |date=1845 |publisher=William Blackwood and Sons |location=Edinburgh and London |page=[https://archive.org/details/b21365805_0002/page/133 133] |volume=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/b21365805_0002 |accessdate=16 February 2019}}
He had a son, Michael Potter (1670-1743), who was first minister at Kippen, and afterwards in 1740 filled the long empty chair vacated by Mr John Simson in 1729 as Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow, but did not long fill that chair, having died in November 1743.
{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Hew |title=Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation |date=1928 |publisher=Oliver and Boyd |location=Edinburgh |page=[https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc07scot/page/400/mode/2up 400] |volume=7 |url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc07scot |author-link=Hew Scott}}{{PD-notice}}{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Henry Martin Beckwith |title=The divinity professors in the University of Glasgow, 1640-1903 |date=1923 |publisher=Maclehose, Jackson and Co.|location=Glasgow |pages=[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b463083&view=2up&seq=260&skin=2021 241]–242 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001594295}}{{cite book |last1=M'Crie |first1=Thomas, D.D. the younger |title=The Bass rock: Its civil and ecclesiastic history |date=1847 |publisher=J. Greig & Son |location=Edinburgh |page=[https://archive.org/details/bassrockitscivil00mcri/page/n534 373] |url=https://archive.org/details/bassrockitscivil00mcri |accessdate=22 December 2018}}{{PD-notice}} His granddaughter married James Baine, of the Relief Church.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Baine, James|volume=2|last=Grosart|first=Alexander Balloch|noicon=1}}
Bibliography
- Wodrow's History
- New Statistical Account of Scotland, ii.
- Crichton's Memoirs of Blackadder
- Dickson's Emeralds Chased in Gold.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Bass Rock Prisoners of Conscience}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Michael}}
Category:17th-century Presbyterian ministers
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:Scottish prisoners and detainees
Category:Covenanting Prisoners of the Bass Rock