Thomas Potter, the third son of John Potter, was born in 1774. John
Potter had been a draper in Tadcaster, but sold his shop and used
the capital to invest in a cotton business in Cannon Street, Manchester.
Thomas and his two brothers William and Richard all worked for their
father and eventually became partners in the company.
Although fairly rich, John Potter and his sons were all Unitarians
who had a deep concern for the poor. John Potter held meetings at
his home for other liberals in Manchester. Members of the group included
John Shuttleworth, John
Edward Taylor, Archibald Prentice,
Absalom Watkin, Joseph
Brotherton and William Cowdray. The
group that Prentice called the 'little circle' was strongly influenced
by the ideas of Jeremy Bentham and Joseph
Priestley. The Potters objected to a system that denied such important
industrial cities as Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, representation
in the House of Commons.
After the death of John Potter, Thomas and Richard continued with
the campaign for reform. In December 1830, Thomas Potter and Richard
Potter joined Abasolm Watkin, John
Shuttleworth, Mark Philips, William
Harvey and William Baxter in a group campaigning for moderate parliamentary
reform. They proposed that the seats of rotten
boroughs convicted of gross electoral corruption should be transferred
to industrial towns. Boroughs such as Penryn and East Retford were
targeted but Parliament refused to take action.
In 1831 Absalom Watkin was given the task
of drawing up the petition asking the government to grant Manchester
two Members of Parliament. As a result of the 1832
Reform Act Manchester had its first two Members of Parliament,
Mark Philips and Charles
Poulett Thompson.
Whereas Richard Potter became M.P. for
Wigan but Potter concentrated on local politics. Between 1832 and
1835 Potter led a successful campaign in Manchester against church
rates. After the passing of the Municipal
Corporations Act in 1835 Thomas was elected to the borough council
and in 1838 became Manchester's first mayor. In 1840 Thomas Potter
was granted a knighthood. Thomas Potter died in March, 1845.
(1)
Archibald Prentice, Personal Recollections
of Manchester (1851)
John Shuttleworth and John Edward Taylor could sell their cotton
to men who could not buy it cheaper elsewhere. In like manner, Thomas
and Richard Potter could sell their fustians, Joseph Brotherton and
William Harvey their yarns, Baxter his ginghams and shirtings, and
I my fine Glasgow muslins. And yet our position was uncomfortable.
We were safe ourselves, but every day brought us report of wrong and
outrage done to our humble fellow countrymen - wrong and outrage which
we felt could not fully redress. We thought, in our own cheerful homes,
of the poor men in prison for alleged political offences - the main
offence being that they, like ourselves, were of opinion that our
representative system was susceptible of amendment. The whole aspect
of society was unfavourable. The rich seemed banded together to deny
the possession of political rights; and the poor seemed to be banding
themselves together in an implacable hatred to their employers, who
were regarded as their oppressors.
(2)
In his diary on 12th October, 1831, Absalom
Watkin wrote about a meeting held in Manchester concerning the
demands for parliamentary reform. The meeting ended in a clash between
the radicals and the moderates. Thomas Potter was the leader of the
moderates.
Attended the public meeting on the rejection of the Reform Bill. It
began at eleven o'clock in the Riding School but was immediately adjourned
to Camp Field. There were between 80,000 and 100,000 people present
at the height of the demonstration. Thomas Potter was persuaded to
take the chair. He climbed on to the cart with Archibald Prentice,
John Shuttleworth and Mark Philips. Our leaders battled with the crowd
until four in the afternoon and all that time did we stand on our
wagon, squeezed, elbowed, threatened and in danger, in the midst of
a furious mob. At last, after protesting against it, Thomas Potter
was compelled to put a mangled version of our address praying for
annual Parliaments, universal suffrage and vote by ballot and we left
the ground, tired, baffled and exhausted but congratulating ourselves
upon having escaped personal violence and avoided endangering the
peace of the town.
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