James Brown Potter (1853-1922)
of New York City, Tuxedo Park & Newport, R.I.
He was born in New York City and graduated from Union College. He was a grandson of James Brown and began his career as a coffee broker with Brown Bros. & Co. He later turned to banking and real estate while retaining large tracts of coffee land in Mexico, where he also held the deeds to several mines. At his death, he was a trustee and director of the Mexican Cotton Estates in Tlahualilo - an English business with offices in London and plantations in Mexico. In 1877, he married Cora, daughter of Col. David Urquhart, of New Orleans. Known as the "Brown Potters," they were the leaders of high society around Washington Square and were the first to make Tuxedo Park fashionable. But Cora's love for the theatre and her determination to go on stage caused an irreparable rift in their marriage and they were divorced in 1900, by which time Cora was resident in London and he was living at 52 Park Avenue in New York City. He was then described as, "good-looking and affable, but he dislikes notoriety."
According to legend, it was James Potter who brought the "Tuxedo" (what the British refer to as a "Dinner Jacket") to the States. In 1886, his wife's beauty caught the eye of the Prince of Wales - a known womanizer with a penchant for Americans - and the couple were invited to spend a weekend at Sandringham. Unfamiliar with Royal etiquette, Potter is supposed to have asked his tailor (Henry Poole, of Savile Row) what he should wear. Poole replied confidently, "a short celestial blue evening coat would be appropriate." Potter continued to wear the jacket on his return to New York, notably at Tuxedo Park. However, the archives of Henry Poole reveal no customer named James Potter, but the fathers of the Tuxedo Club - Pierre Lorillard and Robert Goelet - were frequent customers at Henry Poole in the 1860s, the same decade in which the Prince of Wales made the jacket fashionable - twenty years before Potter was supposed to have introduced the "Tuxedo".
According to legend, it was James Potter who brought the "Tuxedo" (what the British refer to as a "Dinner Jacket") to the States. In 1886, his wife's beauty caught the eye of the Prince of Wales - a known womanizer with a penchant for Americans - and the couple were invited to spend a weekend at Sandringham. Unfamiliar with Royal etiquette, Potter is supposed to have asked his tailor (Henry Poole, of Savile Row) what he should wear. Poole replied confidently, "a short celestial blue evening coat would be appropriate." Potter continued to wear the jacket on his return to New York, notably at Tuxedo Park. However, the archives of Henry Poole reveal no customer named James Potter, but the fathers of the Tuxedo Club - Pierre Lorillard and Robert Goelet - were frequent customers at Henry Poole in the 1860s, the same decade in which the Prince of Wales made the jacket fashionable - twenty years before Potter was supposed to have introduced the "Tuxedo".
His only daughter, Fifi, married James A. Stillman, uniting their family with the Rockefellers, but the marriage ended badly and publicly. Potter tried to appeal to Stillman as a gentleman, but to no avail. However, his support for his daughter never wavered throughout it all: "she's been a devoted daughter and a wonderful mother. I am sure that she has been a good wife." After the end of his first marriage, he lived between Tuxedo Park and Newport, and periodically in Paris, before retiring permanently to Newport.
In 1904, he married his second wife, May, daughter of Captain J.A. Handy, U.S.N. In later years, he was described as, "tall, militarily erect, keen-eyed, a great deal of grizzled gray hair and a boyishly pink complexion, the latter a heritage of a life devoted to out-of-doors." When he died he passed a trust fund of an undisclosed sum to his widow which would then pass to his only child, otherwise leaving a taxable estate of just under $95,000.
In 1904, he married his second wife, May, daughter of Captain J.A. Handy, U.S.N. In later years, he was described as, "tall, militarily erect, keen-eyed, a great deal of grizzled gray hair and a boyishly pink complexion, the latter a heritage of a life devoted to out-of-doors." When he died he passed a trust fund of an undisclosed sum to his widow which would then pass to his only child, otherwise leaving a taxable estate of just under $95,000.
