| Record Group: | Stacy Gardiner Potts (1799-1865) |
| Series: | Autobiography, 1859-1864 |
| Accession #: | 1962.005 |
| Series #: | PPOTT001 |
| Guide Date: | 8/1994 (JK) |
| Volume: | 0.1 c.f. [1 vol.] |
Content Note
Biographical
Note
Stacy
Gardiner Potts was a Trenton journalist and lawyer who also held
several public offices, including Clerk of the Chancery Court,
State Assemblyman and finally New Jersey Supreme Court Justice.
Potts was born on 23 November 1799 in Harrisburg, PA, the son
of William Potts and Mary Gardiner. In 1808, he moved to Trenton
and lived with his grandfather Stacy Potts, a prosperous businessmen
who served as mayor of the city from 1806 to 1814. In 1821, Stacy
G. Potts and his friend Joseph Justice founded a new weekly newspaper,
the Emporium. Potts remained an editor and contributor
to the paper until 1838. While continuing his editorial work,
he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1827. Potts
was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1828 and again
in 1829. From 1831 to 1840, he served as Clerk of the Chancery
Court, and then returned to his law practice. In 1852, he was
appointed by Governor Fort as a justice of the New Jersey Supreme
Court. He served in this office until 1859, when he retired from
public service. Potts died at his Trenton home in 1865.
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| Bibliography |
|
| Birkner, Michael J. "Journalism and Politics in Jacksonian New Jersey: The Career of Stacy G. Potts." New Jersey | |
| History, 97 (1979):159-177. | |
| Cushing, Thomas and Sheppard, Charles E. History of the Counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey. | |
| (Philadelphia: Everts and Peck, 1883). p. 126. | |
| Elmer, Lucius Q. C. The Constitution and Government of the Province and State of New Jersey. (Newark, NJ: Martin R. | |
| Dennis and Co., 1872). pp. 353-360. | |
| A History of Trenton. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1929). pp. 611-612. | |
|
Stacy G. Potts began writing his "Auto Biography" (as he titled it) on his sixtieth birthday, 13 November 1859, and finished the main body of the text on 23 January 1860. He made brief entries for subsequent years until 1864, the year before his death. In this work, Potts recounts the details of his life in Trenton, his family and his career. He also provides much genealogical information about his paternal and maternal family lines (Potts and Gardiner), as well as those of his wives (Burrows, Snowden, and Moore). The handwritten manuscript also contains an undated newspaper article which provides some Potts family history, and two cemetery deeds for plots in the Trenton Presbyterian Churchyard. |
| Created
July 2004 |
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