Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2016 20:32:16 -0400 From: Christina G I don't have very much about William Potter (1607-?) as my 11th grand-uncle. I do know that his parents were John Potter and Hannah Mead of England (my 11th great-grandparents). John Potter died in England, but Hannah immigrated to New Haven, Connecticut to follow her second husband John Beecher in 1638. Unfortunately, he had died over the winter before she and her son Isaac arrived in the spring. As she was the only midwife in the area, she was granted her husband's land. I descend from John Potter "Jr" (1606-1643) who married Elizabeth Wood in 1630 in England. He immigrated with his family, including his mother Hannah, aboard the Hector in 1638. From a note I made in 1639, "They left Massachusetts due to religious differences and joined a group starting the New Haven Colony, so named because it was a haven for displaced Puritans. John and his brother William signed the Plantation Covenant (New Haven Agreement) in New Haven." Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2016 23:59:00 -0400 From: Christina G A lot of this came from this page, which quotes the text of a publication: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=billjim&id=I1 James Shepard, The New Haven (Conn.) Potters, 1639. in "Genealogies of Connecticut Families from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register" Volume III (Painter--Wyllys), selected and introduced by Gary Boyd Roberts. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1983, pp 150-155: "1. Hannah [Potter] Beecher was the mother of the New Haven Potters, who appeared early in New Haven as a widow with sons: i. John, ii. William and iii. Isaac Beecher, the ancestor of Rev Henry Ward Beecher. Her first husband, Potter, died in England, where she married a Mr. Beecher." Here's my link to John Potter in my Ancestry tree: http://person.ancestry.com/tree/57845723/person/36195758399/facts More information I took more "Samuel Blakesley of New Haven, Conn., and his descendants" which mentions that William Potter received his share of Hannah Mead Potter Beecher's will. It looks like William came to the US aboard the ship Abigail with his wife (and kids?) but I cannot find the source for that right now.