Notebook. Pote Family and Cowan Connection in Bedford County PA

Michael Pote is being explored here because Person:Edward Cowan (1) married Elizabeth Pote according to family tradition, and this couple lived in the Roaring Springs area near Michael Pote. Elizabeth is not listed as one of Michael Pote's children in the settlement of his estate. It seems likely then, that Elizabeth Pote is a sister, and presumably came to America with him. Crockett [below] identifies Michael Pote as an immigrant Michael Poth who appears on the passenger list of the ship Brittania from Rotterdam, which arrived at Philadelphia on September 18, 1773. Michael is said to have lived initially in Fredericks County Maryland, before moving to Bedford. If Edward did indeed marry Michael's sister it seems likely that either a) he came to America on the same ship (perhaps being picked up in England or Ireland) as the Pote's, or perhaps met the family in Frederick County, and moved with them to Bedford just after the Revolution. Since Edward appears in Bedford County simultaneously with the Cowan's Gap Cowans, he is presumed to be their kinsman. If so, then the traditional story of this line that they descend from a British army officer who was billeted before the Revolution in Boston, and after the war married the daughter of a Boston merchant, seems less likely.

[edit]

Notes

POTE/POTH by Lelah Crockett

There is a story that the name Pote originated in England and that in very early times the family split, with one faction moving to Germany. This may or may not be true. I do know that when I was in London in 1954 I examined the telephone book and found several pages of Potes. (I didn't think to check the telephone books in Germany.) I also have found English Potes who resided in Maine in the early days of our colonization. One was a sea captain who spent time in captivity during the French/Indian Wars.

In any event, from the facts set out below it seems obvious that we do not descend from the English Potes. For one thing, no English family would have had its child baptized in a German religion! I have recently made contact in Germany, and there seem to be a few Pote surnames, more Poth. Here in the United States there are endless garbled spellings, including Potz, Pots, Poat, Poet, Powett, and even Bodt.

In any indication I have so far of the origin of the German Potes is in records of the Hessian soldiers during the Revolution, where there is a Poth (first name not given) who came from Hartmannshausen. I have found two places by that name:

(1) a village in Prussian province of Hanover, just northeast of 
     Meissendorf, which had a population of 43 in 1910, and 
 (2) a settlement in the former Kingdom of Bavaria, just south of 
     Entraching, with a population of 11 in 1910.

Several responses I've had from Germany mention Hartmannshausen, so there will no doubt be more places of that name to add to the list, once I have them translated.

The earliest records I have found which might pertain to our Michael Pote begin with Michael Poth on the passenger list of the ship Brittania from Rotterdam, which arrived at Philadelphia on September 18, 1773. The challenge is to establish that this is indeed our Michael Pote. As unusual as the Pote/Poth name is, it seems likely he's ours. Also of interest is that a fellow passenger was Hans Adam Weiss. (See below.)

Next are records in Frederick County, Maryland, the earliest listing one Michael Pote as a member of Capt. Henry Hardman's Company of the Frederick County Militia in the rcturn of July 19, 1776. (Also listed is one Jno. Dicks, another unusual surname, noteworthy because our Michael's youngest daughters, Margaret and Catharine, marricd John and Daniel Dick, respcctivcly.) Michael Poth is recorded as a sponsor at a baptism of a son of Daniel and Eva Margaret Hoeh in Monocacy, Frederick County, on July 28, 1776. Michacl Poth is also recorded as having taken the Oath of Fidelity before Henry Schnebely in Washington County (formed in 1776 from Frederick County) Maryland in 1778.

Rev. Jacob Weimer performed marriages in Washington County from September 13, 1777 to October 6, 1786, and he recorded a marriage between Michael Powett and Elizabeth Wise on April 12, 1783. (Brumbaugh's book "Maryland Records" says 1793, but Rev. Weimer died in 1790. I have corresponded with Paul Miller Ruff, author and recognized expert on Germanic church records of the area, who agrees that the correct date is 1783. See file.) It must be concluded that this is our "Michael Poth and Elizabeth Weiss" who were just across the line in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1787. The two oldest children, Barbara and Elizabeth born March 12, 1786, could have been born either place, baptismal records not yet located. There are both Weiss and Wise families of record in Washington County, and it now remains to establish which one is Elizabeth's.

The earliest Bedford County, Pennsylvania, record is the birth/baptismal certificate (in German) of Michael & Elizabeth (Weiss) Poth's son Michael in Woodbury Township on March 30, 1787, in the Evangelical Lutheran Religion. Michael and Elizabeth had ten children, the rest born in Bedford County. The probate records identify the children and prove that Michael died in Bedford County on February 2, 1818. As late as 1972 there was a small community of Potes in Bedford County, known at Potetown, and it still may exist. Potetown is said to have been settled by one of Michael's sons, who built homes for each of his own sons. I have written to all the Bedford County Potes I can identify, but I've had no response from any of them.

Retrieved from "https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Notebook._Pote_Family_and_Cowan_Connection_in_Bedford_County_PA"

Categories: Cowan Tapestry | Old Chester Cowan Tapestry