Biblioteca heredadaDr. Henry Potter

Newspaper advertisement: "Having undertaken the Administration of the Estate of Dr. Henry Potter, late of Spotsylvania County, deceased; I hereby give Notice, That his whole Estate, consisting of Medicines, Books, Slaves, white Servants, Houshold Goods, a Chariot and Six Horses, &c. will be exposed to Sale, to the highest Bidder, on Thursday the 29th Day of May next, at the Place of his late Residence. .... John Grymes.

N.B. An Account of the Medicines, and Utensils of the Shop, and a Catalogue of the Books, will be printed next Week, and given gratis, by the Printer hereof [William Parks]."

Note: John Grymes (1691-1748), who took over the estate of Dr. Potter on his death, was the father of Potter's widow Hannah.

Potter appears to have arrived in Virginia around 1734 and set up a practice at Williamsburg, supported by Governor William Gooch. See Harold B. Gill, The Apothecary in Colonial Virginia, pp. 54, 60 (1972). In January 1736 Potter is noted as playing Marplot in a theatrical production of "The Busy Body" at Williamsburg. Birth and death dates are based on a grave at Christ Church, Saluda, Middlesex County, VA, which indicates Potter's death as 20 December [year unknown] in his 46th year.