Horatio Potter

Lack of biographical information

Potter "shrank from public notice, left no literary monument and has, regrettably, no biography. He is scarcely mentioned in the biographies of his older brother Alonzo, Bishop of Pennsylvania, and of his nephew, Henry Codman Potter, his successor in the See of New York."

Early life and education

Horatio Potter, D.D., LL.D., S.T.D. was born on February 9, 1802, the youngest of the nine children to Joseph and Anne Potter. The Potters were Quaker farmers who lived near Beekman (now LaGrange) in Dutchess County, New York. "Their Quaker devotion appears in the names they bestowed on their oldest son, Paraclete, and only daughter, Philadelphia." Potter spent his earliest years at the family homestead.

Paraclete Potter, Horatio’s elder brother, was established in Poughkeepsie, New York, where the Poughkeepsie Academy was located. Therefore, in 1812, he had his ten-year-old brother Horatio move in with him and enroll in the Academy, which offered a better education than did the district schools in Beekman. While living with his brother, Horatio went with him to Christ Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie, and he was impressed by the worship service. During his ten years in Poughkeepsie, Horatio "clerked at various times in his brother’s book store." Horatio remained with his brother through 1822. He wanted a college education, and, with his brother Alonzo’s help. Horatio went to Union College, Schenectady, New York. He graduated in 1826 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

After graduation, Horatio Potter followed his older brother Alonzo into the Episcopal Church. He was confirmed by Bishop John Henry Hobart at St. Thomas' Church in New York and began studying for holy orders. Thus, Potter had no seminary training.

Professor at Washington College: 1828-1833

Potter was ordained deacon on July 15, 1827, and priest on December 14, 1828. He served his several months diaconate at Trinity Church, Saco, Maine.” In 1828, Potter was elected professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Washington College (now Trinity College), Hartford, Connecticut). While there, Potter "took an active part in plans for the enlargement of the college and the erection of its new buildings."

Marriages and Children

Potter was twice married. His first marriage was to Mary Jane Tomlinson on September 22, 1827, with whom he had six children. On June 8, 1847, Mrs. Potter, “who had been the loved helpmeet of her husband in every good work,” died. She left six children, five of them under twelve. In his loss, Potter perceived “the loving purposes of God.” He believed that his loss would add “earnestness and tenderness” to his “efforts to edify and console” his parishioners. Their children were as follows:

In 1852, Potter took a holiday in Scotland, during which he met Mary Atchison Pollock, a forty-two-year-old Scottish lady. They corresponded after his return to Albany, during which Potter proposed marriage. Pollock accepted his proposal in 1853. When she arrived in New York, Potter met her at the dock and escorted her to Trinity Church for their wedding. There were no children by this marriage.

St. Peter's Church, Albany: 1833-1854

On February 27, 1833, Potter accepted the rectorship of St. Peter's Church, Albany, New York. He was instituted as rector on Saturday, May 11, 1833. In his first sermon, preached the next day, Potter said, “My brethren, I present myself before you today as your spiritual pastor–as your servant for Jesus' sake! . . . Give me, then, my brethren, I entreat you, your sympathy, your hearty support, and above all your fervent prayers.”

Potter soon “gained the respect and regard of all his parishioners,” and “a high position” among the men of Albany. In all the “charitable and philanthropic” enterprises, he served not only as a “judicious adviser,” but also as a financial contributor. His ability was also recognized by other clergy. Potter remained as rector of St. Peter’s for twenty-one years until his election as provisional bishop of New York in 1854, During his tenure there, “he modernized the church both spiritually and physically.”

The first act of modernizing the church physically was in 1834 by the purchase of a new organ. This was followed in 1835 by renovating the church building: repairing the floors and pews, painting the interior, a new pulpit, addition of a vestry room, and new lamps. In 1847, a new Rectory was built.

On June 1, 1835, the parish, having noticed Potter’s impaired heath, the Vestry requested Potter to do whatever he thought best to restore his health. Following the Vestry’s request, Potter spent the summer of 1835 abroad, principally in England. "He returned much refreshed."

On November 7, 1837, in Alton, Illinois, a pro-slavery mob killed the abolitionist and newspaper publisher Elijah Parish Lovejoy. In response, on November 26, 1837, Potter preached a sermon in which he defended a free press and opposed slavery. Regarding the latter, he said, “Let us not refuse to think sometimes of the poor slave, whose rights to the products of his own labour, to the care of his own happiness, to the direction of his own physical, intellectual and moral energies are all invaded. . . . Let us not sit down contentedly with the thought, that this train of misery and guilt, this national blot, is to be perpetuated forever.”

In 1837, Potter declined his election as president of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. Also, in 1837, Potter declined his election as president of Washington College in Maryland.

On April 25, 1841, Potter was invited to deliver a Discourse on the Death of William Henry Harrison to the New York State Legislature in St. Peter’s Church, after the death of President William Henry Harrison. His theme was "Uprightness and Religious Character in Rulers." Rather than a conventional eulogy, Potter's address included “a probing analysis of the evils of political life” and an “eloquent characterization” of Harrison.

On July 23, 1843, Potter preached a sermon on The Stability of the Church, as Seen in Her History and in Her Principles. In the sermon, he said that “our Church occupies, let it ever be remembered, a middle ground, in regard to its doctrines, discipline and worship, between Romanism on the one side and ultra Protestantism on the other.” In this statement, Potter articulated the via media position.

On January 3, 1845, Potter’s bishop, Benjamin T. Onderdonk was sentenced to suspension from “the exercise of his ministry and of his office as bishop.” This gave Potter the additional task of overseeing the missions in upstate New York. Later in 1845, a voyage to England was offered made to Potter. On May 26, 1845, the Vestry of St. Peter’s "resolved unanimously” that their Rector should take the voyage and expressed “their high estimate of his services and character." Potter was accompanied by his wife. In England, being of the high church persuasion, he met with “several of the leaders of the Oxford Movement,” such as John Keble, Isaac Williams, Edward Bouverie Pusey, George Moberly, and William Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen. Potter returned to Albany in the autumn of 1845 “in greatly improved health and spirits.”

In January 1849, St. Peter’s faced a debt crisis, which, if not solved, would result in the loss of all of St. Peter’s property including the church building and rectory. Previous vestries had paid annual deficits by selling of portions of the income producing real estate owned until all of it had been sold, leaving only the lot on which the church building and rectory were located. The 1849 Vestry took immediate action to relieve the parish’s “great burden of debt.” With the debt crisis resolved, St. Peter's was freed to devote “greater energy and devotion” for work by Potter and his parishioners “for the advancement of the Church in the city, and the engaging in new works of piety and mercy.”

Potter was characterized by Joseph Hooper, who wrote A History of Saint Peter's Church in the City of Albany, as one of "the most honored and distinguished of the rectors of St. Peter's." While at St. Peter’s, Potter was often asked whether he would accept election as a Bishop, but he "discouraged every movement toward his election" until his election as bishop of the Diocese of New York of which St. Peter's was a part.

Ministry as Bishop: New York 1854-1887

In 1854, Bishop Wainwright, the provisional bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York died after two years of strenuous work repairing “the neglect caused by the seven years' vacancy in the episcopate.” At the September 1854 Diocesan Convention, Potter was elected provisional bishop. He accepted the election. In his acceptance speech, Potter pleaded with his fellow Churchmen to "try to love each other, try to banish hard words, and satirical speeches, and uncharitable judgments from the Church of God."

On Wednesday, November 22, 1854, in Trinity Church, New York City, Potter was consecrated bishop. The church was filled to overflowing and "the service was probably the most impressive and elaborate that had ever been held in the American Church. He became bishop of a diocese in "a state of great depression and disquiet, owing to the controversies that resulted from the trial and suspension of the Bishop Onderdonk." Potter's episcopate spanned “years of national division, ecclesiastical tensions between high and low church factions, and momentous economic and social changes in New York.”

Bard College
In 1860, St. Stephen's College at Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, was established under Potter's leadership. It was subsequently renamed Bard College. In Chapter Two (“The Professor, the Bishop, and the Country Squire: Bard College”) of the History of Bard College, Potter is “the Bishop” and he is described as one of the three men “whose efforts brought the College into being.” He “gave the College his unfaltering support,” and he was a member of the College’s original Board of Trustees.

Bard College's "Stone Row" (now used as a dormitory) was built as part of the original St. Stephen's College campus. It consists of four adjacent buildings: North Hoffman, South Hoffman, Potter, and McVickar. The Potter building was named after Bishop Horatio Potter.

Bishop Onderdonk died on April 30, 1861. With this, Potter's position changed from "provisional bishop" to Bishop of the Diocese of New York. He "discharged the duties" of this office until three years and eight months before he died.

On December 12, 1860, Potter issued a pastoral letter addressed To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of New York. The date was a month after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States and a month before the beginning of the American Civil War. He said that the occasion for the letter was the "impending calamity" of the "political fabric" of the United States being torn apart "by the conflict of sectional passions." In the face of this "crisis," Potter called on "every man that loves his country" to the "duty of carrying out those principles of conciliation and compromise, on which this government was founded, and by adhering to which alone it can be maintained." At the same time, he recognized that "such a work calls for kindness, and patience and conciliation in rulers and in people. It demands a magnanimous and patriotic spirit."

Cathedral of St. John the Divine
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City was founded by Potter. About 1828, the general idea of the Cathedral had been formulated. However, nothing was done about it until 1872, when Potter’s Diocesan Convention gave the idea unanimous support. The next year, Potter obtained from the New York state legislature a charter for the Cathedral. Potter was the first president of the Board of Trustees. However, nothing more was done until the Episcopate of his nephew Henry C. Potter.

Community of Saint Mary
Potter instituted the Community of St. Mary on February 2, 1865. The Institution was held in St. Michael's Church, Bloomingdale. The five candidates stood in front of Potter. He addressed and questioned the candidates about “their willingness to live in obedience and persevere in the work of the Lord.” After the questions had been answered satisfactorily, the candidates knelt. Potter and the priests encircled and prayed for them. Then, Potter took each candidate by the right hand, received her into the Community of Saint Mary, gave her his episcopal blessing. This was the first time since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England in the sixteenth century that an Anglican Bishop constituted a religious community.

Strict Interpretation of Canons
Potter, unlike his older brother Alonzo Potter was a “High Church” proponent” This position led to an 1865 pastoral letter to his clergy in which Potter said that he expected a strict interpretation of the Episcopal Church’s “exclusionary canon.” This meant that no person not episcopally ordained in the Episcopal Church would be allowed to officiate or teach in an Episcopal Church and that no Episcopal Church clergyman should officiate or preach in the church of another denomination. Potter’s “Evangelical clergy” were “dumbfounded” by his interpretation of the canon, and a number of them protested it. These included Eli Hawley Canfield and Stephen H. Tyng whose son Stephen H. Tyng, Jr. soon thereafter preached in a Methodist Church. For this action, the younger Tyng was subjected to a Board of Inquiry and "condemned for breach of the canons." When Potter sentenced the younger Tyng to an "admonition," the elder Tyng stepped forward and handed Potter a written protest against "this whole proceeding."

In 1873, after Bishop George David Cummins had left the Protestant Episcopal Church to establish the Reformed Episcopal Church, a New York Herald reporter “cajoled” a “flustered and reluctant” Potter out of his sickroom. The reporter asked how much the “Reformed Episcopal” movement would affect the Protestant Episcopal Church. Potter answered, “No more, Sir, than a mosquito bite would affect the stonewall of the reservoir on Fifth Avenue.”

On November 29, 1879, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Potter's consecration was celebrated at New York's Academy of Music. He was given a testimonial in the form of a casket of gold, silver, and steel, modeled after the ancient Ark of the Covenant."

Failing health
In September 1883, his "failing health" forced Potter to ask for an assistant so that he could "be relieved of the administration of the diocese." The Diocesan Convention elected his brother Bishop Alonzo Potter's son Henry C. Potter, who was at the time rector of Grace Church, New York. Horatio Potter remained “bishop in name” until he died.

Evaluation of Potter’s Ministry

Potter's ministry both "as rector and as bishop was marked by energy and success." During Potter's episcopate, the Diocese of New York grew so much that in 1868 the new dioceses of Albany, Central New York, and Long Island were removed from his Diocese.

Potter worked "to reach the laboring classes and the poor, to popularize the church, draw the plainer sort of people into its fold, and push Episcopal home missions in New York city and in the rural districts." The former controversies in his diocese became "practically unknown." Potter was "known and respected at home and abroad."

Honorary degrees

In 1938, Potter "received the degree of Doctor in Divinity (D.D.) from Washington College (now Trinity College), Hartford, Connecticut." In 1856, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from Hobart College In 1860, the University of Oxford conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology (S.T.D.).

Illness, Death, and Funeral

On May 3, 1883, in the Church of the Incarnation in New York City, Potter held his last service. After that, he became ill, an "illness from which he never recovered." His last days were spent at his home in New York. He died at home on January 2, 1887.

Potter was buried in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery at Poughkeepsie, New York. On January 8, 1887 The New York Times ran article entitled "Bishop Potter’s Funeral" with the subtitle "Trinity Thronged with Sorrowing Friends." The article said,

From the time of the brief services at the Bishop’s home early in the morning, until the interment at Poughkeepsie, when the shadows of the day were lengthening, the ceremonies were marked by a quiet taste akin to the prelate’s habits of life, and through all coursed manifest sorrow for the dead and sympathy for the mourners. The special train bringing the Bishop’s remains to Poughkeepsie arrived at 2:30. When the cortege started from the railway station for Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery it was composed of twenty carriages and two large carryall sleighs. As the cortege made its way through Poughkeepsie city streets the tolling of the bells of the Episcopal churches added to the solemnity of the occasion. Following services at the gravesite, the casket was lowered into the grave with the lid covered with violets and evergreens for what was thought to be at the time Bishop Potter’s final rest. The funeral party departed for the railway station for their return to New York City.

Re-interred in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
In 1921, the remains of Potter were moved to a tomb directly behind the high altar in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Above the tomb was placed a white marble Sarcophagus. This is the place which is traditionally reserved for founders of cathedrals. The tomb was consecrated on December 27, 1921.

Legacy

During the American Civil War, Potter's "patriotism was marked, and at all times his labors for the ignorant, poor, and sick were continuous and efficient."

An 1884 book described Potter in this way:

Bishop Horatio Potter is regarded as one of the ablest scholars in the denomination. . . . In person he is tall and thin, erect in carriage, and of active step. His utterances are calm and dignified, full of earnestness, and ever displaying a gentle Christian spirit. Universally popular in his denomination among both clergy and laity, he has labored in the ministry with very great success.

The National Cyclopedia of American Biography published in 1898 was composed of "the biographical sketches of all persons prominently connected with the history of the nation." A sketch of Potter was included in the book.

Works by or relating to Potter

MC: Potter was marked by developed scholarship and literary skill. His addresses, sermons, and contributions to Church periodicals "exerted a strong and wholesome influence."

Discourses and Writings by Potter

Works relating to Potter