Joseph Trumperant Potts
(1815-1871)
and the Misses Hill
9 June 1863
Volume 10, page 278, sitting number 13,479.
[The Silvy daybooks identify the sitters in this larger than usual carte de visite as ‘Josh T. Potts Esq. / Group with the Misses Hill.’]
Born on 19 April 1815, Joseph Trumperant Potts was the son of William Potts of Corrine Castle, co. Roscommon, Ireland.
On 22 March 1848 he married Mary Potts (née Hill), only daughter of the Reverend John Beresford Hill and Laetitia McCausland. The bride had previously been married to the Reverend John Henry Potts (died 1835), second son of David Potts of Roscommon.
‘2 March, at Holyrood Church, Southampton, by the Rev. Henry Neville, Joseph Tomperant [sic] Potts, Esq., of Granite Lodge, county Dublin, to Mary, relict of the Rev. John Henry Potts, diocese of Armagh, and only daughter of the late Rev. John Beresford Hill, county Londonderry’ (Armargh Guardian, 13 March 1848).
Joseph Trumperant Potts died, aged 56, in Dublin on 17 October 1871.
Mary Potts died, aged 74, on 13 June 1879.
‘POTTS — June 13, at Silveracre, Rathfarnham, county Dublin, the residence of her son-in-law, Mary, widow of the late Joseph Trumperant Potts, Esq., of Runnymede, county Galway, and Fitzwilliam-square, Dublin, daughter of the late Rev. John Beresford Hill, and sister of the late Sir George Hill, Bart, of St Columba and Brook Hall, Londonderry, aged 74’ (Freeman’s Journal, 17 June 1879).
[Mary Hill was born in 1805 so she was ten years older than her husband and about 58 years old when this portrait was taken. She clearly can’t be one of the three women seen here nor can they be younger sisters as she was an only daughter. I presume therefore that they must be her nieces, possibly the three daughters of Sir George Hill (died 1845): Louisa Jane Hill (1832-1899), Letitia Diana Hill (1839-1909) and Mary Elizabeth Hill (1846-1900). They seem to be dressed as bridesmaids, or possibly for presentation at court.]