William Pote

William Pote (15 December 1718 – c. 1755) was a British surveyor and ship captain who wrote one of the few captivity narratives from Acadia/Nova Scotia when he was captured by the Wabanaki Confederacy during King George's War.^[1]​

Early life and career[]

Pote was born in Massachusetts and eventually resettled in Falmouth (Portland, Maine).^[2] William Pote Jr. was the oldest son of William Pote and Dorothy Gatchell and was born on December 15, 1718 in Marblehead, Massachusetts.^[3]

Captivity[]

By 1745, Pote was in command of the merchant vessel Montague. He was engaged to take supplies to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. During the Siege of Annapolis Royal, the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet took prisoner William Pote and some of Gorham's Rangers. During his captivity, Pote wrote one of the most important captivity narratives from Acadia and Nova Scotia. While at Cobequid, Pote reported that an Acadian said that the French soldiers should have "left their [the English] carcasses behind and brought their skins."^[4]:34​ He later witnessed the Naval battle off Tatamagouche, for which his journal is one of the primary sources.^[5] The following year, among other places, Pote was taken to the Maliseet village on the Saint John River.^[6] While at the village, Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia arrived and, on 6 July 1745, tortured him and a Mohawk ranger from Gorham's company named Jacob, as retribution for the killing of their family members by Ranger John Gorham.^[7]:42–43​ On 10 July, Pote witnessed another act of revenge when the Mi'kmaq tortured a Mohawk ranger from Gorham's company at Meductic.^[7]:45​ Pote's voyage to Quebec took four months. He was allocated to a group of Hurons from Lorette, near Quebec.^[1]​

See also[]

• Military history of Nova Scotia
• Captivity Narratives - Nova Scotia

References[]

Further reading[]

• Pote, William (1896). The Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr., during his Captivity in the French and Indian War from May, 1745, to August, 1747. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.
• Little, Ann M. (2007). Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812219616.
• American Historical Association (1897). Jameson, Franklin, J. (ed.). "Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr". American Historical Review. New York: Macmillan. 2. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
• "Narratives of Captivity Among the Indians of North America". Publications of the Newberry Library. Chicago: The Newberry Library (3): 75. 1912. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
• Wrong, George, M., ed. (1897). "Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr". Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada. Toronto: William Briggs. 1. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
• Foster, William Henry (2003). The Captors' Narrative: Catholic Women and Their Puritan Men on The Early American Frontier. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801477126. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
• Smethurst, Gamaliel (1905). A narrative of an extraordinary escape: Out of the hands of the Indians, in the Gulph of St. Lawrence. London: New Brunswick Historical Society. Retrieved 14 October 2012.

External links[]

• The Journal of Captain William Pote at the Internet Archive
• The Old Meductic Fort and the Indian Chapel of Saint Jean Baptiste at the Internet Archive