Rabick, Susan J.

William Pote, Jr., was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1689, the son of William Pote and Ann Hooper. He worked as a ship captain in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and spent two years in captivity after being imprisoned by French privateers in 1745. On June 2, 1715, he married Dorothy Gatchell, and they had nine children: Ann, William (1718-1755), Gamaliel, Jeremiah, Elisha, Increase, Samuel (1731-1789), Thomas, and Greenfield (1736-1797). Greenfield Pote also went to sea, and owned the schooner Shark . He became acquainted with the Shaker movement through his brother Thomas, and assisted in the group's 1784 pilgrimage to the home of Mother Ann Lee in Watervliet, New York. He married Jane Grant (1742-1786) in 1758.

Greenfield and Jane's son William (1766-1847) worked for his father and made frequent trading voyages to the West Indies, to Europe, and along the Atlantic Coast. Following his father's death, William Pote repaired seagoing vessels, traded in rum and sugar, and worked on his farm. Among his ships were the Leopard and Allegator . He and his wife, Dorcus Merrill (1772-1842), married in 1788 and had 11 children: Jane (1791-1867; m. Charles Rogers), Mary Ann (b. 1793; m. Hugh Nevens), Robert (1795-1814), Joanna (1796-1807), Miriam (b. 1798), Eliza (1801-1875; m. Benjamin Lufkin), William, Jr. (1803-1831), Dorcus (1805-1889), Eleanor (1807-1871; m. Joshua Thompson and Timothy Kennard), Joanna (1809-1884), and Sophia Merrill (1811-1877; m. Horatio Kendall and Samuel Dennison).

During the 1790s, the Pote family suffered two significant financial setbacks related to their shipping interests. The Columbia, owned by Greenfield Pote and captained by William Pote (1766-1847), was delayed in Bordeaux during a trade embargo in 1793, resulting in lost cargo and income. The family later filed a claim for damages, and William Pote was awarded 4,914.94 francs as compensation under an agreement made by the United States and France in 1803. The family's second claim, which proved unsuccessful, was filed after the schooner Freeport was captured by the French Republican cutter Rights of Man and subsequently sold at a prize court in Santiago, Cuba. The family's descendants reactivated the claim in 1883, after Congress reached a new agreement regarding spoliation claims, but their claim did not appear on a published list of successful "unpaid claims of citizens of the United States against France."

William and Dorcus Pote's sons Robert Pote and William Pote, Jr., also had nautical careers. Robert died onboard the Dash during the War of 1812, and William, Jr., served as captain on several mackerel fishing boats, as well as other ships involved in the West Indies trade. He was also a part-owner of the Leopard in 1831. William Pote, Jr., married Eleanor Jane Kendall (b. 1810), daughter of Robert Kendall (1773-1858) and Peggy Rogers (1778-1860), on January 10, 1831, and they had no children. He died in 1831 after being washed overboard while attempting to fix a boat's rigging during a voyage to the West Indies.

Samuel Allen Dennison (1812-1850) was born in Freeport, Maine, to Joseph Dennison (1799-1847) and Dorcas Lufkin (1784-1820), and worked as a seaman. On September 18, 1842, he married Sophia Merrill Pote; the couple had one daughter, Eliza Dennison (m. King), born on December 11, 1846. Eliza worked as a schoolteacher and compiled extensive genealogical information about her families. She lived in Warwick, Rhode Island, and died on April 16, 1928.

From the guide to the William Pote family papers, Pote, William family papers, 1769-1997, 1788-1900, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)