POTTER, JOHN, D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury, was the son of a linen-draper at Wakefield in Yorkshire, where he was born about the year 1674. He studied at University College, Oxford; and at the age of nineteen he published, Variantes Lectiones et Notæ ad Plutarchi librum ad audiendos poetas; et ad Basilii Magni orationem ad juvenes, quomodo cum fractu legere possint Græcorum libros, 1693, 8vo. In 1697, came out his edition of Lycophron, in folio, which is reckoned the best of that obscure writer; and soon after, he published his antiquities of Greece, in two vols. 8vo. These works established his literary reputation, and engaged him in a correspondence with Grænius and other learned foreigners. In 1706, he was made chaplain to the queen; in 1715, bishop of Oxford; and in 1737, he succeeded Archbishop Wake in the see of Canterbury, which high station he supported with much dignity until his death in 1747. He was a learned and exemplary churchman; but not of an amiable disposition, being too strongly tinctured with the pride of office. Nor is it to his credit that he disinherited his eldest son for marrying below his rank in life. His theological works, containing sermons, charges,
discourses on church government, and divinity lectures, were printed at Oxford in 3 vols. 8vo, 1753.