Daily AncestorPotter
A potter made pots, jugs, crocks and other wares from clay, shaping them and firing them hard in a kiln.
Pottery is clay shaped into vessels and fired at high temperatures to make it hard and durable; the workshop where a potter made it was itself called a pottery. Country potters made crocks, jugs and dishes for local use.
An old secondary sense of potter is a hawker of crockery or earthenware, so in a few records the word names a seller rather than a maker.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Jacob Hesse, 39, Potter, New York
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Potter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/potter. Last checked 2026-10-10.