Series 9 - Potter family letters

5pp

Kerby A. Miller created these abstracts from the original letters held in the Lewis Neale Whittle Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill [accession number 777].

Kerby A. Miller's abstracts of five letters written by members of the Potter family. Per Miller: 'The Potter family appear to have been friends, if not relations, of the Griffin family [see P155/32/8]. Though the details are not clear from the letters, the family seems to have lived for a time in Binghamton, New York. At the time the letters were written, however, they had returned to Ireland, except for a son, Richard, who remained in Georgia, near the family of Daniel Griffin of Columbus. The letters are addressed to Richard and bear the name of the family home, Farm Lodge, near Adare, Co. Limerick. The Potters were clearly in financial difficulty. The family were Catholic, and like the Griffins, had too many children to support comfortably. Besides Richard, who was employed by a railroad as a ticket agent, there were James, in religion in Paris; Anna, in religion in Rathkeale; Harry, in the British army, first in Dublin, then in Tasmania; Thomas, who emigrated to work on a sheep station in Australia; Robert, studying medicine in Dublin; and Nell and Elly, schoolgirls. The father, James Potter, was a defendant in a suit involving debt and was obliged to keep to his house for fear of being set upon by process servers. The family were unable to afford a horse and car and depended on the kindness of others to furnish them transportation to town and to church. To augment their slender income Mrs. Potter took relations as boarders for £3 a month. They also applied to their son in America for assistance. Despite these difficulties, they were able to lead a life of at least modest gentility and to educate and prepare their children for the world.'