Potterton people and places, three centuries of an Irish family

By Homan Potterton
Published 2006 by Choice publishing
Mayoralty Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
Selling at Euro 15 and available also from: www.bookwise.ie
This publication is the genealogy of the Potterton family of Co. Meath who came to Ireland from Yorkshire in the late 17th Century. They settled in the Trim/Athboy area of that county and have remained there farming to this very day. Their story, which is carefully and methodically researched, is the history of an English settler family who through hard work and application became an important part of the community.
The book covers all of the connecting branches of the family through the townlands in connecting parishes. In the early chapters there are a series of line drawings of the houses in which many branches of the Potterton lived from the 18th. Century onwards.
Each of the principal townlands in which the family lived within the parishes has a separate section and some helpful genealogical detail emerges as the other neighbouring family occupiers are noted.
The author includes family “who’s who” biographies from the first settler to date.
Description of houses, properties and of in-law families who lived in neighbouring towns and parishes are included. He has also added very helpful maps of all the areas and estates mentioned with the family holdings indicated. They leased initially from Lord Darnley and later bought land of their own.
Another interesting aspect of the book is the inclusion of lots of family photos which the allows the reader to identify the leading personalities of the dynasty.
To add to the understanding of the family lines, Potterton has included a dozen pages of family trees with identifying eadings (first of the line) or by location in the first townland settled. I found the charts a little confusing in the manner of their layout.
In spite of this the book is extremely well researched and it is plain that the author has a deep interest and love of his ancestors and of what they have achieved over the centuries.
This is a well-ordered publication which although of limited interest outside the Potterton diaspora (some went to New Zealand) it makes interesting reading for genealogists.
Reviewed by Eddie Brennan, Hon. librarian IFHS