Author: Potts, Ethelinda Margaretta
Biography:
POTTS, Ethelinda Margaretta, formerly THORPE (1757-1836: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born on 15 Feb. 1757, the second daughter of John Thorpe, a well-known Kent antiquary (1715-92), and his wife Catharina Holker (1728-89). She married Cuthbert Potts (1744-1825), a surgeon and widower, on 27 Jan.1784 at North Cray, Kent. They had three surviving children: Laurence Holker Potts (1789-1850), who became a surgeon and inventor; Cuthberta Ethelinda Potts (1790-1865), who left £6000 when she died which presumably had been passed down through the family; and Michael le Fleming Potts (1791-1861), who died unmarried in Leghorn, Italy. On 9 June 1796 Cuthbert Potts published a broadside announcing his wife's desertion of the family under the protection of "a certain young Attorney" and in the company of Sally Langford, daughter of a racket-stringer. of Leicester Square. He indicated that she might have several places of residence and offered £50 for her whereabouts, but he seems to have failed to find her. He moved to Truro in Cornwall where he died in 1825, leaving everything to the three children with no reference in the will to his wife. From her poems it may be inferred that during the years of their separation she lived mainly in London but paid visits to Wales and various spa towns. She published anonymously Moonshine (1814), a mixture of light verse and gossip which enjoyed greater success in expanded editions (1832-1835), and probably A Visit to Bonaparte (1815). She died on 7 Mar. 1836 and was buried at St. Luke, Chelsea, three days later. (ancestry.co.uk 10 Sept. 2020, 17 Jan. 2026; findmypast.com 17 Jan. 2026; "Thorpe, John," ODNB 10 Sept. 2020; Cuthbert Potts, Fifty Pounds Reward! [9 June 1796]; Newcastle Courant 7 Feb. 1784; GM Dec. 1825, 569-570, 645; information from SR) AA