The Fearless Fifty-Nine, Robert Potter

Robert Potter was the 36 year old Nacogdoches representative. Potter was in the United States Navy, a lawyer in North Carolina, in the North Carolina House of Commons and a Jacksonian Democrat in the US House of Representatives before coming to Texas. He served six months in prison in 1831 for maiming his wife’s cousin and another man. After prison, he was reelected to the North Carolina House of commons but expelled for “cheating at cards.” Upon coming to Texas in 1835, he offered his services to the Texas Navy. During the Convention, he assisted President Ellis with parliamentary procedure and served on the committee that drafted the Constitution. He participated in the battle of San Jacinto but refused to sign the treaty with Santa Anna and argued for his execution. In 1836, he was appointed the secretary of the Texas Navy and commander of the port of Galveston. From 1840 to 1842, he served as a representative in the Texas Congress. He was murdered in 1842 by a Regulator band after becoming involved in the Regulator-Moderator War in Harrison County.