William Pote
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = William Pote Jr.
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 15 December 1718
| birth_place = Marblehead, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{Circa|1755}}
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| known_for =
| occupation = surveyor
ship captain}}
William Pote (15 December 1718 – {{Circa|1755}}) was a British surveyor and ship captain who wrote one of the few captivity narratives from Acadia/Nova Scotia when he was captured by the Wabanaki Confederacy during King George's War.{{r|dcbo}}
Early life and career
Pote was born in Massachusetts and eventually resettled in Falmouth (Portland, Maine).{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/cihm_12322#page/n49/mode/2up|title = The old Meductic Fort and the Indian chapel of Saint Jean Baptiste [microform] : Paper read before the New Brunswick Historical Society|year = 1897| isbn=9780665123221 }} William Pote Jr. was the oldest son of William Pote and Dorothy Gatchell and was born on 15 December 1718, in Marblehead, Massachusetts.Births Registered in the Town of Marblehead, Massachusetts: Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
Captivity
In 1745, Pote was in command of the merchant vessel Montague.[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uga1.32108001168841&view=page&seq=402&q1=annapolis crew list] He was assigned to take supplies to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. During the Siege of Annapolis Royal, he was taken prisoner by the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet along with some of Gorham's Rangers. During his captivity, Pote wrote one of the most important captivity narratives from Acadia and Nova Scotia. While at Cobequid, Pote reported that an Acadian said that the French soldiers should have "left their [the English] carcasses behind and brought their skins."{{r|pote|page=34}} He later witnessed the Naval battle off Tatamagouche, for which his journal is one of the primary sources.Journal, pp. 40-46 The following year, among other places, Pote was taken to the Maliseet village Aukpaque on the Saint John River.Journal, p. 52 While at the village, Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia arrived and, on 6 July 1745, tortured him and a Mohawk ranger from Gorham's company named Jacob, as retribution for the killing of their family members by Ranger John Gorham.{{r|raymond|page=42–43}} On 10 July, Pote witnessed another act of revenge when the Mi'kmaq tortured a Mohawk ranger from Gorham's company at Meductic.{{r|raymond|page=45}} Pote's voyage to Quebec took four months. He was allocated to a group of Hurons from Lorette, near Quebec.{{r|dcbo}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|2|refs=
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Further reading
- {{cite book|last=Pote|first=William|author-link=William Pote|title=The Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr., during his Captivity in the French and Indian War from May, 1745, to August, 1747|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company|location=New York|date=1896|url=https://archive.org/details/journalofcaptain00pote}}
- {{cite book|last=Little|first=Ann M.|title=Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England|year=2007|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-0812219616|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khPmB7-ElWMC&pg=PA198 }}
- {{cite journal|title=Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr.|journal=American Historical Review|year=1897|volume=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BAg5AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA157 |accessdate=14 October 2012|author=American Historical Association|editor1-first=Franklin J.|editor1-last=Jameson|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York}}
- {{cite journal|journal=Publications of the Newberry Library|title=Narratives of Captivity Among the Indians of North America|year=1912|publisher=The Newberry Library|location=Chicago|url=https://archive.org/details/ofcaptnarratives00edwarich |page=[https://archive.org/details/ofcaptnarratives00edwarich/page/75 75]|accessdate=14 October 2012|issue=3}}
- {{cite journal|title=Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr.|journal=Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada|year=1897|volume=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EPQaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA50 |accessdate=14 October 2012|editor1-first=George M.|editor1-last=Wrong|publisher=William Briggs|location=Toronto}}
- {{cite book|last=Foster|first=William Henry|title=The Captors' Narrative: Catholic Women and Their Puritan Men on The Early American Frontier|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, N.Y.|isbn=978-0801477126|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5zeOHeV_OHkC&pg=PA158 |accessdate=14 October 2012|year=2003}}
- {{cite book|last=Smethurst|first=Gamaliel|title=A narrative of an extraordinary escape: Out of the hands of the Indians, in the Gulph of St. Lawrence|year=1905|publisher=New Brunswick Historical Society|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqoOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA376 |accessdate=14 October 2012}}
External links
- {{Internet Archive|journalcaptainw00hursgoog|The Journal of Captain William Pote}}
- {{Internet Archive|cihm_12322|The Old Meductic Fort and the Indian Chapel of Saint Jean Baptiste}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pote, William}}
Category:Military history of Acadia
Category:Military history of Nova Scotia
Category:Military history of New England
Category:Military history of the Thirteen Colonies
Category:Military history of Canada
Category:British prisoners of war
Category:Captives of First Nations people