Background
He was born on February 1, 1829 in North Dartmouth, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of William and Anna (Aiken) Potter. He was a descendant of Nathaniel Potter who died in Rhode Island some time before 1644.
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He was born on February 1, 1829 in North Dartmouth, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of William and Anna (Aiken) Potter. He was a descendant of Nathaniel Potter who died in Rhode Island some time before 1644.
William was educated in the public schools of Dartmouth, the Friends' School, Providence, Rhode Island, and the State Normal School, Bridgewater, Massachussets.
Later, he became a student in the Harvard Divinity School, where he remained for a year, going thence to the University of Berlin, Germany (1857 - 58).
After teaching for a short time in the public schools of Kingston and Taunton, Massachussets he was ordained minister of the First Congregational Society of New Bedford, Massachussets, on December 28, 1859. In this capacity he served for almost thirty-four years.
He was drafted into the Union army in 1863 and detailed as inspector of military hospitals, being later appointed chaplain to the convalescent camp at Alexandria, Virginia. When, after seven years of service, he informed his New Bedford parish that he could no longer conscientiously administer the sacrament of holy communion and would henceforth refrain from doing so, he received a unanimous vote of confidence. He was averse to wearing a label of any sort.
When in 1867 the Unitarian National Conference voted to limit its fellowship to "followers of Christ, " Potter, with several others, felt the time had come to organize a religious fellowship as nearly universal in its ideas and plan as was humanly possible. Accordingly, he joined with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Col. T. W. Higginson, Rev. O. B. Frothingham, and other notable persons in calling a meeting which resulted in the organization of the Free Religious Association. Its purpose was "to promote the interests of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology, and to increase fellowship in the spirit".
When the editor of the Index, the official journal of the Association, resigned, Potter assumed its editorship rather than let it pass out of existence. For a few issues it was called the Free Religious Index, but quickly resumed its old name. Even Potter's enthusiasm could not keep the journal alive, however, and it was discontinued in 1886.
Undisillusioned, he died in Boston.
William James Potter was a co-founder of Free Religious Association. He was the life of the Association, it was his hand and mind that guided it for the fifteen years he served as its secretary and for the ten years he served as its president. He was the author of his famous works: Twenty-five Sermons of Twenty-five Years, and Lectures and Sermons, With a Biographical Sketch by F. E. Abbot.
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(This book, "Twenty-five sermons of twenty-five years. 1",...)
In 1870 he refused to call himself a Christian, because to do so, he felt, would deny the universal religious fellowship he cherished as an ideal. For this reason his name was dropped from the list of Unitarian ministers published in the Unitarian Year Book.
His devotion to the Association sprang from his belief that it would bring about the realization of his ideal of an all-inclusive religious fellowship based on "the various ethical principles which constitute the only saving virtue in any religion. " He welcomed the World's Parliament of Religions (1893) as a partial fulfillment of his hopes.
Naturally shy, he preferred the companionship of his own thoughts to the everyday company of men, he was genuinely interested in all human affairs and played an effective and constructive part in the social, religious, and charitable activities of the community. He won and kept the confidence of the people because he was so plainly honest and unselfish.
On November 26, 1863, he married Elizabeth Claghorn Babcock, who bore him two children before her death in 1879.
