Potter, Barnabas

Potter, Barnabas an English divine of note, was born in Westmoreland in 1578. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, where he was first chosen a scholar, then a fellow, and afterwards provost. After leaving college, he was for a time lecturer at Abington and at Totness, in Devonshire. In the following year he determined to enter the ministry, and was installed pastor at Devonshire. He was next unanimously elected provost of Queen's College, and also made chaplain in ordinary to prince Charles, and was called at court "the penitential preacher." He held this position for ten years, when he decided to return to his former charge at Devonshire. King Charles, who held him in high esteem, promptly nominated him bishop of Carlisle, in 1628. In the episcopate he was a man of few words, and a very affecting preacher; his custom was to write his sermons in parts and commit them to memory. He was a close student, and possessed a remarkable memory. He became very proficient in the Hebrew language. He preached at Westminster, and so strongly did he attack the corruptions which had sprung into the Church that he was censured as popish; and this accusation, it is said, he took so much to heart that he fell sick and died, in 1642. He published, The Baronet's Burial (Oxford, 1613), a sermon: — Easter Tuesday, another sermon: — Lectures on some Chapters of Genesis. See Wood, Athenae Oxon.; Fuller, Worthies of Westmoreland; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.; Middleton, Evang. Biog. 3, 152 sq. (J. H.W.)