PART II
THE POTTS FAMILY IN AMERICA
INTRODUCTION
While Potts cannot be said to be a common name in America, yet there are many families bearing this surname scattered through the Middle, Southern and Western States. These are descended from several different emigrant ancestors, who may have, in a more remote past, sprung from a common original stock in Great Britain.
The aim of this work has been to collect and compile all information obtainable relative to the earliest settlers or ancestors of these Potts families in this country, together with some account of their immediate and direct descendants. With how much success this has been done the reader must judge.
In addition to the Potts families in America of English extraction, there are also some of German origin bearing a similar name, but who seem to be in no way connected, notwithstanding the fact that there are traditions to the effect that the English Potts' were originally from Germany. Some account of a few of these German families will be given at the end of this section of this work.
To the late Mr. William John Potts belongs the credit of having developed the first clear statement of the early Potts families of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, about whom so much confusion had before existed.