Historical records matching Elizabeth Anne Poteet
view all 26
Immediate Family
-
husband -
-
son -
-
son
-
-
daughter -
daughter
-
-
daughter
-
daughter
About Elizabeth Anne Poteet
I see no source for her date of death, and DAR doesn't show it.
I believe I have found the source of our American Poteets, and the reason why they immigrated when they did to the place they did. Space does not permit a complete presentation here, but anyone interested can email me privately, and I'll share the full argument. (glen_cooper@byu.edu)
First off: I am a descendant of James Poteet and Elizabeth Crabtree, through a branch that migrated first to western Virginia, and then to Utah. I did not know the Poteets were Italian until recently, when I discovered the fact through my own research. Then, to my chagrin, I learned that my older relatives all knew this already, as sort of a family secret, but that it was not discussed because of racism in the all-white community where they lived. I had thought that Poteet was a version of the French surname Petit. In any case, the earliest surviving photograph of a Poteet ancestor from the 1840's is of a woman who was dark and beautiful, unusual characteristics in Anglo society of that time. This suggested Mediterranean blood.
The apparent French name, but Italian origin suggested Waldensian to me, but at the time I knew of no migrations of this persecuted people to the Americas as early as the 17th Century. Now I understand what must have happened. Here is my outline reconstruction.
The Waldensians (Vaudois, Valdese) originated in the 12th C. in Lyons, southern France, as a radical reformist Christian movement that attempted to return to the simple religion of the New Testament. They were brutally persecuted by the established Church for centuries, and the largest concentration of them ended up in the mountains of Piedmont, Italy. In 1655, the Duke of Savoy, who ruled Piedmont, instigated an especially treacherous and bloody genocide against them, which is known, with cruel irony, as the Piedmont Easter. All of Protestant Europe was up in arms against Savoy, with Oliver Cromwell issuing military threats, and several nations opening their doors to the Waldensian refugees, most notably Holland. John Milton wrote his famous sonnet "Avenge O Lord ..." to commemorate the Waldensian martyrs for the faith, which incidentally expresses the then held belief that these people preserved the most ancient forms of Christianity.
Many of the refugees went to Amsterdam, where the generous populace contributed to a fund to enable them to sail to America, to settle in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, and be given farms with exemption from taxes for 10 years. In 1657, three ships carrying many families, several of whom were from these Italian Protestants, to the New World. Some settled in what became New York, but others, including the Poteets (I maintain), settled along the Delaware River, in what was christened New Amstel, on land that had only recently been taken from Sweden. (This was later renamed Newcastle, and is a suburb of modern Wilmington, Delaware).
The first few winters there were terribly harsh, and some families left after a few years, for more hospitable climes in Maryland and Virginia. I believe that the Poteets were among this group. A few years later, the English took New Amsterdam from the Dutch, and some of the remaining people in New Amstel were captured and sold into slavery in Virginia. (Yes, not only blacks and Native Americans were enslaved at that time).
The earliest recorded Poteets in Maryland identified themselves as Italian on records probably to avoid being mistaken for Native Americans or blacks, since the original Poteets were probably of dark Mediterranean complexion. Also, at the time, everyone would have known that Italian refugee families in their midst were from the revered Waldensian stock.
Where in Italy did the Poteets originally come from? Piedmont is only the source of the largest concentration of Waldensians, who mostly came from other places originally. The name Poteet resembles a common Italian name from the south of Italy and Sicily, Petitto, from Sicilian pititu, “small, short.†It turns out that in the 15th Century, the Waldensians sent colonists to southern Italy, to Calabria and Apulia where the farming was better. It is possible that the Poteets originated there, converted to Waldensian Christianity, then fled Italy during the migrations after the Piedmont Easter.
That's the outline. Largely conjectural, none of it can be proven beyond all doubt, but such is the nature of much historical research. I wanted to share it with you, in case anyone would like to look into the matter further. I am a professional historian myself (Middle Eastern history), but my present research and duties prevent me from devoting much time to the Poteet project (at least until I earn tenure).
Best wishes to all,
view all 24
Elizabeth Anne Poteet's Timeline
| 1728 |
November 5, 1728
|
Baltimore County, Maryland
|
|
| 1750 |
1750
|
VA, United States
|
|
|
1750
|
Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Virginia, United States
|
||
|
1750
|
St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States
|
||
|
1750
|
Baltimore, Maryland
|
||
| 1752 |
1752
|
Bedford, Bedford County, Virginia, United States
|
|
|
1752
|
|||
| 1755 |
1755
|
Colony of Virginia, British Colonial America
|
|
| 1756 |
1756
|
Augusta County, Virginia, United States
|