Written "Poots" in entries A17, A30, O11, and N5; and "Potts" in entries
N26 and D3. Likely the two spellings are intended to refer to the same
person--given Louisa's problems with spelling. If "Poots" is in fact a
spelling error, this would not be the first time she has doubled an "o"
to produce such an error. In S12 she writes "stoop" for "stop"; and in
D31 she writes "loots of yong bowes" for "lots of young beaus. More
Mrs. Potts is very likely Lydia Hancock (Gray) Potts, aged ca. 47.
B. ca.1768, 6th dau. of Joseph and Mary (Gerrish) Gray (dau. of Joseph
Gerrish, of Boston and Halifax). M. 28 July 1793 at Windsor to Edward Potts,
Lieutenant Queen's American Rangers--probably the "E. Potts, Esq." reported
in the Nova Scotia Royal Gazette of 28 March 1809 to have died on 25 March
of that year. Her brother is Benjamin Gerrish Gray, previously rector (1796-1802)
of St. John's parish (serving the townships of Dartmouth, Preston, and
Lawrencetown) and currently rector of another St. John's parish, that established
recently at Sackville, N.S.
According to documents signed in 1802 and 1805, Edward and Lydia Potts
lived in "Preston" (which at this time was often taken, mistakenly, to
include the Old Preston Road area). Their oldest offspring, Edward Hartshorne
Potts, was born ca.1794. (It so happens that in the fall of 1815--in a
document signed by John Allen, Stephen Collins, John Farguharson, John
Wisdom, and John Elliot--an Edward H. Potts would be "made choice of by
the Neighbourhood in the Eastern part of Dartmouth . . . to teach a School
for their Children." The school was very likely on the Old Preston Road.
Lawson--1893, p. 111--speaks of there being a school at that time at Allen's
"Tanyard. Martin--1957, p. 132--speculates it may have been at Brook House,
the estate just south, and a bit west, of the Tanyard. Brook House would
be a logical choice because, as Miss Floyer--for whose story see Lawson,
pp. 130-144--had died in Dec., 1814, it would have become available.
And as Martin points out, "The Rev. Charles Ingles conducted a boarding-school
in the same building a few years later, which suggests that it may have
been used as such after Margaret Floyer's death.")
Where Edward H. Potts and his mother live is not known, but it would
seem likely that they live together and that they live not very far from
Allen's Tanyard. For it is frequently the case that when Louisa visits
Mrs. Potts, she does so in a kind of side-trip of her visit to Mrs. Allen's
(see A30 and O11, and also the present entry). The proximity of Mrs. Potts's
to Mrs. Allen's is suggested as well by the fact that on the two occasions
when Mrs. Potts is visiting, she is either at Mrs. Allen's or with Mrs.
Allen at Colin Grove (N26 and D3). (D. 29 March 1853.) |