John Potter was born on 12 September 1746 at Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts, the son of Daniel and Abigail (Wheelock) Potter.  John was a lifelong resident of Brookfield, and his property was rechartered, and the Old Town of Brookfield evolved into the Town of North Brookfield, which was incorporated in 1812.¹

During the Revolutionary War,² John served as a First Lieutenant in Captain Ebenezer Newell's 7^th Brookfield Company of Colonel James Converse's 4th Worcester Regiment of Massachusetts Militia from April to June 1777.  From June 1778 to January 1779, John served again as a First Lieutenant and Paymaster attached to Captain Joel Green's Company of Colonel Ezra Wood's Massachusetts Militia Regiment. During the 1778-1779 period, John kept a diary of his war service, which was preserved by a family member, transcribed, and is now stored at the Vermont Historical Society.  The “Diary of Capt. John Potter, Revolutionary War, 1778-1779” shows various New York encampments, including the towns of Peekskill, White Plains, Fredericksburg, and Pawling, in addition to a variety of towns in both Litchfield and Fairfield counties, Connecticut. One entry in John’s diary mentions, “..my Boy left me and Sett out for home… Capt Green & his Compy…”, which can only mean a chaperoned visit during an encampment from his eldest son at the time, who was Daniel Potter (1769–1839).

John rose to the rank of captain after the war, and he and his Brookfield Militia Company of Massachusetts were called up more than twice to suppress the Shays' Rebellion (1786-1787)³.  One of the leaders of the rebellion against taxation and government coercion, Daniel Shays, was also a resident of John’s town of Brookfield, which was at the center of the uprising.  According to Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle, by Leonard Richards, published in 2003, the commander of Captain John Potter’s company of privately funded local militia was Revolutionary War Major General Benjamin Lincoln.

In the History of North Brookfield book,⁴ John is mentioned several times. He is described as a clockmaker and craftsman by trade, adept at handiwork, mechanical work, carpentry, farming, and surveying, and a leading man in public affairs in his town. He is further identified as a universal genius to whom everyone went for all delicate and difficult mechanical makings and mendings. John’s business sign intimated watchmaking and mathematical instruments, and his “John Potter’s Account Book,” which is kept by Storrowton Village Museum, shows that he also manufactured medical and land surveying instruments.

John’s house, now described as the “Potter Mansion,” which he built himself over ten years (before, during, and after the Revolutionary War), stood at the corner of Ward and South Main Streets in North Brookfield. This "Potter Mansion," now described as an epic Colonial American home, was moved 40 miles away in 1929 to the Storrowton Village Museum compound, which is a living history museum located on the Eastern States Exposition fairground at West Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Potter Mansion housed John’s family of two wives and 15 children and several Potter generations thereafter. Ten of his children would live into adulthood. In 1768, John married his first wife, Lydia Cutting (1744–1781), and they were the parents of seven known children:  

• Daniel was born in 1769 and married Lydia Warren⁷
• Abigail was born in 1771 and married John Livermore^{11, 12}
• Betsey was born and died in 1773
• Lydia was born in 1775 and married Elisha Warren^{11, 12}
• John was born in 1777 and married Lydia Holloway
• Benjamin Lincoln was born and died in 1780
• Sally was born in 1781 and married Seth Paine Newell

In 1782, John married his second wife, Rhoda Burnap (1753–1843), and they were the parents of eight known children:  

• Cheney was born in 1783 and married Lucy Hunter
• Rhoda was born in 1785 and married Warner Brown
• Betsey was born in 1787 and married Nicholas Jenks
• George Washington was in 1789 and was unmarried¹²
• Benjamin Franklin was born in 1791 and married Lydia Day¹²
• Jerusha was born in 1793 and died young
• Luther was born in 1795 and married Patia Banister/Bannister Park.^8,9 He married a second time to Mrs. Mercy (Ross) Hayward/Howard.10
• Frederick Augustus was born in 1800 and died young.  

As shown, John named four of his sons after Revolutionary War notables, such as President George Washington, the Honorable Benjamin Franklin, and Generals Benjamin Lincoln and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (whose various names included Frederick Augustus). John’s second wife, Rhoda (Burnap) Potter, received a widow’s pension related to her husband John’s Revolutionary War service, pension number W15260.

According to the History of North Brookfield book,⁵ John’s father, Daniel Potter, served briefly as a Private during the French and Indian War and marched in response to “The Great Alarm about the taking of Fort William Henry” in August 1757. Two of John’s sons would serve during the War of 1812 while pioneers of what was then called the Western expansion of the United States. New York War of 1812 Payroll Abstracts for New York State Militia via Ancestry.com show that his son Daniel was a captain in Colonel Christopher P. Bellinger’s New York Militia Regiment. Daniel was an early pioneer in New York, residing in Herkimer County and Hounsfield in Jefferson County; he would die in Lebanon, St. Claire County, Illinois, where he was an early pioneer.

Son John served as a Private in Captain Elisha Camp's Company of New York 6th Artillery Militia Regiment and was engaged at the First Battle of Sackets Harbor on 19 July 1812, which was the first American victory of the War.⁶ John was a pioneer settler of Hounsfield, Jefferson County, New York.

John died on 20 October 1818 at West Boylston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and is buried at the North Brookfield Cemetery in Massachusetts; this cemetery is also known as the Maple Street Cemetery and the Old Cemetery. 

Sources:

1. Temple, J.H., History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts, 1887, page 10.
2. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers, and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume XX, Massachusetts. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1901, page 999.
3. History of North Brookfield book, pages 245-246
4. Ibid, pages 261, 265, 266
5. Ibid, page 214
6. New York War of 1812 Certificates and Applications of Claim - Ancestry.com
7. Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1700-1850 for Brookfield
8. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.
9. Temple, J.H., History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts, 1887, page 710
10. DAR record for Liet. John Potter shows many DAR applications and shows Lutcher’s wife as Patia.
11. Temple, J.H., History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts, 1887, page 709
12. Genealogies of the Potter families and their descendants in America to the present generation, with historical and biographical sketches by Potter, Charles Edward. Publication date 1888. Section 1, Page 1