Potter was born in Little Rest (now known as Kingston) in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations on November 5, 1764, and he resided there for all of his life Elisha Reynolds House. He was the son of Thomas Potter and Elizabeth (née Reynolds) Potter. His maternal grandparents were Elisha Reynolds and Susannah (née Potter) Reynolds and his paternal grandparents were Ichabod Potter and Margaret (née Helme) Potter.[1]
He received a formal education at Plainfield Academy, and law instruction under Matthew Robinson.[1]
Career
He began his career as a blacksmith's apprentice, but switched to the law in 1793.[2] Potter was said to be a very large man; when he traveled by stagecoach, he had to purchase two seats.[2]
Potter ran against Peleg Arnold in a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1796 caused by Benjamin Bourne's resignation, and Potter won the election. He served as a United States Congressman from 1796 to 1797 and again from 1809 to 1815.[1]
Potter was twice married and his first wife was Mary (née Gardiner) Perkins (1754–1809), daughter of Caleb Gardiner and widow of merchant Joseph Perkins in 1790. After the death of his first wife in 1809, he married her 31-year-old niece, Mary Mawney (1779–1835), in 1810.[1] His second wife was the daughter of Pardon Mawney. Together, Elisha and his second wife were the parents of five surviving children, including:[1]
His second wife died in July, 1835 at the house of her brother-in-law, Jeffery Davis. Potter died on September 26, 1835, and is buried in Colonel Thomas Potter Cemetery near Kingston, Rhode Island.[1]
