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Potter family papers

 Collection
Call Number: MS 16

Scope and Contents

The Potter Family Papers, 1795-1887, are mainly the financial records and deeds of Jabez Turner Potter, 1796-1871. A surveyer of Hamden, Connecticut, his ledgers record payments to laborers, accounts as collector of highway taxes, sales of farm produce, oysters, hides and wood, and contracting work such as road repair, quarrying and carting stone, and masonry on houses and stores. Most of the papers and records date from the 1840's through the 1860's. There are also six volumes of accounts, 1825-1882, apparently all kept in the same hand, of a general store in the vicinity of Fair Haven, North Haven, or Hamden, Conn. The proprietors may have been Rowe & Tuttle, since large sums of money were regularly drawn from the business through the Rowe & Tuttle account. The store of John Rowe and Smith Tuttle was the principal store in Fair Haven, now a section of New Haven. However, the connection between Rowe & Tuttle and the Potter Family is uncertain. It is known that Smith Tuttle's sister, Mercy, married in 1810 Isaac Blakeslee, whose twin sons, Lucius Merrick Blakeslee and Julius Merritt Blakeslee, were clerks for, or in business with their uncle, Smith Tuttle. In 1885, Jabez Turner Potter's daughter, Eliza Ann (1826-) married another Isaac Blakeslee, probably a relative of the elder Blakeslee (see Potter Genealogy, Part V, p. 2 and Tuttle Genealogy, p. 284). The parents of the donor of these papers, Georgina Johnson, were George A. and Mary (Blakeslee) Johnson. The day books and ledger record the sale of groceries and general merchandise and goods received.

Box 1 of the papers contains 13 folders of deeds, 1795-1870, for land in New Haven, North Haven, Fair Haven, Hamden, East Haven, and North Branford. Most of the deeds are those of Jabez Potter. Other Potter relatives and prominent area citizens cited in the deeds are: Elmon, Evelyn, and Philemon Blakeslee; Frederick Croswell; Caleb Mix; Hervey and Eliza Treat; Jared Foot; and Lemuel, Timothy (b.1796?), Timothy (1792-1853), Martha (Turner), and Sherman Benjamin (1806-1860) Potter.

The Potter Family Papers include very little correspondence and are primarily a source of information on the economic and agricultural history of Hamden and surrounding towns.

Dates

  • 1823-1888

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection are in the public domain. There are no restrictions on use. Copyright status for other collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Arrangement

I. Legal Records. II. Correspondence. III. Financial Records.

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet (5 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0016

Abstract

Account books (1846-1868) relating to surveying and highway repair in Hamden, Conn.; ledgers, daybooks, and pay books concerning the breeding of cattle, sale of hides and wood, and quarrying of stone; accounts (1825-1882) of the firm Rowe and Tuttle of Fair Haven, Conn., covering the sale of general merchandise; and deeds for land acquired by the Potter family in North Branford, New Haven, North Haven, Fair Haven, and Hamden, Conn.Represented in the collection are Jabez Turner Potter (1796-1871), Evelyn Blakeslee, Philemon Blakeslee, Lemuel Potter, Timothy Potter (b.1769), Martha (Turner) Potter, Sherman Benjamin Potter (1806-1860), Timothy Potter (1792-1853), Merritt Luzerne Potter (b.1831), George Washington Potter (1802-1879), and Timothy Zalmon Potter (b.1832).

Title
Guide to the Potter Family Papers
Status
Under Revision
Author
compiled and edited by Jan Simmons under the supervision of Francis Radvonovsky
Date
September 1969
Description rules
Finding Aid Created In Accordance With Manuscripts And Archives Processing Manual
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
Yale University Library
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven CT 06520-8240 US
(203) 432-1735
(203) 432-7441 (Fax)

Location

Sterling Memorial Library
Room 147
120 High Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours