POTTE, Edward

Potte ranks among the more obscure men to sit in the Commons in the fifteenth century. His land holdings were apparently too insubstantial to be included in the income tax assessment of 1451, and even a few years after his return to Parliament he was styled a mere yeoman. It thus appears possible that he owed his return to the second Parliament of 1449 to his family’s connexions. His more important putative kinsman William Potter, who was able to call himself a gentleman, lived at Bocconoc and was probably known to Sir Hugh Courtenay*, who resided there, and who in November 1449 represented Cornwall as one of the knights of the shire. At some point before October 1463 Potte stood surety for John Payn of South Bodiniell and two of his relatives, who went on to break the terms of their bond, since Potte and his fellow sureties later had to seek royal pardons.1 C67/45, m. 9.