Richard Potter

Samuel William Reynolds Jnr 1794 - 1872

Summary

Richard Potter (1778-1842) was a wealthy cotton merchant and Liberal politician. He was a partner in the family firm William, Thomas and Richard Potter from 1803 at their warehouse at 5 Cannon Street, the largest of its type in Manchester. The Potter family were Unitarians who attended Cross Street Chapel, Manchester. In 1815, Potter was a founder member of the first Little Circle, set up to address the unfair representation of people in Parliament in the rapidly expanding industrial towns in the north of England. The Little Circle group met in a back room at Potter's business premises on Cannon Street, referred to as the 'plotting parlour'. Whilst his brother Thomas managed the family business, Richard became a radical non-conformist Liberal Party MP for Wigan in 1832 until 1839.