John Potaskie

• General Notes
  • Report from Elena Govor is a professional historian. She graduated from the Institute of Culture in Minsk (USSR, now Republic of Belarus), then worked in the Department of South Ocean Research of the Institute of Oriental Studies (Academy of Science, USSR). She has lived in Canberra in 1990. She became a Doctor of Philosophy in Australia, having written a thesis "The Russian Perceptions of Australia, 1788-1919". She is also the author of books "Australia in the Russian Mirror" and "My Dark Brother".
    You can contact her on the following e-mail address 
    egovor@eisa.net.au
    
    The pre-Australian period of life of John Potocki (1762-1824) – native of Belorussia who could speak Russian and, as he said, was an ex-servicemen of the Russian Army – is still obscured by clouds. He was arrested in England, deported to the colonies and arrived to Tasmania, which then was called Van Diemen’s Land, with the first Tasmanian fleet in 1804. When the Russian ships "Kreiser" and "Ladoga" called in Hobart in May 1823 the seamen were surprised to have found there four people who could speak Russian. One of them was a convict known as John Potaski. The famous Russian navigator captain Andrey Lazarev wrote the following about this encounter in the manuscript of his book:
    
    We saw four people who could speak Russian in Hobart, among them was an aging native of Belorussia Potocki; if we could trust his words he used to be our army officer during the reign of Ekaterina II and had been brought by the vicissitudes of life to England, and in 1804 deported from there to the Van Diemen’s Island amongst criminals; he has enjoyed freedom since 1810, has a house in the town, wife and adult children… Prior to our departure we had sent him a Russian copy of the New Testament…
    
    Potocki presumably was born about 1762-1763. It is known, that after the second division of Poland in 1793 a national-liberation rebellion supported by many members of the noble dynasty of Potockis and led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko broke out. It is quite likely that John Potocki deserted from the Russian Army and joined the rebels, and after their defeat as well as many others, fled abroad. Potocki married an Irish woman in England about 1800 and they had a son Josef. In the winter of 1801 Potocki committed a petty theft in the town of Newhaven (County of Sussex) and in the beginning of 1802 was sentenced for seven years of exile. Three daughters were born in the Potockis family already in Australia. In 1810 Potocki was released and became a free farmer. According to his contemporaries he succesfully supplied the young colony with his products, for example, in 1816 he alone had grown more wheat than the colonial authorities needed for the annual stock. But the Potockis were destined to undergo many misfortunes. In 1821 his son Josef was executed for a robbery. Potocki himself was caught in sheep stealing during the last years of his life. He died in 1824… His surname had several spellings in Australia (for example Potaski, Potasky, Poteskie). It is noteworthy that there are about two thousands of his descendants in modern Australia. These people still hold family reunions nowadays. On their initiative a small steel plaque with inscription "John Potaski. Arrived in Hobart 18-2-1804. Died 31-8-1824" was placed in the center of Hobart in the memorial park next to the tombstones of the first settlers.
    
    

Click here for details of John's family with Catherine Sullivan

Sources/Citations By Degrees, By Degrees Supplement

---

This page is within a frameset. View the entire genealogy report of Potaskie families, or surname index of Potaskie pedigrees or report summary of Potaskie heritage from "Potaski McDonald Family Tree".
Genogram Examples.

---

© 2006 GenoPro Inc. All Rights Reserved.