1821-1902
Justice of the Second Division of the Court of Appeals, 1889-1892
Joseph Potter was born in Easton (Washington County), N.Y., Nov. 17, 1821. Graduated Union College, 1845. Elected district attorney, Washington County, 1849, served two terms. Potter also served as county judge and state supreme court justice. Died Mar. 31, 1902 (New York Times obituary, Mar. 31, 1902, p. 9). In 1874, Judge Potter built what has been known as Skene Manor in Whitehall, N.Y., on Skene Mountain. As a “castle,” it is a National Historic Site. In the 1980s, while on the way back from ski country, your editor dined there when it was operated as a restaurant–a place of history and legend. The site is now run by a nonprofit group, Skene Manor Preservation.
This biography appears in The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History, ed. Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007). It has not been updated since publication.