US Congressman. Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Robert Potter was born in June 1799 in Granville County, North Carolina. He enlisted in the Navy at sixteen and served seven years until 1821, when he left to study law; he was admitted to the bar by 1826 and started practicing in Oxford, North Carolina. In 1828 he married Isabel Taylor and the next year was elected to the United States Congress, serving from March 1829 to November 1831. He resigned after a scandal in which he attacked two men in an affair regarding his wife; he was sentenced to six months and by 1834 had divorced Isabel. That same year he was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons but left within a few months due to his previous public disgrace. Having no reason to remain in Carolina, he left for Texas, arriving in Nacogdoches in July of 1835. He quickly became involved in the Texas independence movement, first enrolling in the Nacogdoches Independent Volunteers in October, then by assisting in building up the new Texas Navy. In early 1836 he was named one of four delegates to represent the Nacogdoches Municipality at the Convention of 1836 to discuss the coming secession and war with Mexico; there he assisted the committee on parliamentary procedure, helped draft the Constitution of the Republic and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. He fought in the climactic Battle of San Jacinto and was thereafter appointed the Secretary of the Texas Navy. Potter married Harriet Ann Page in September 1836, retiring from his post in the cabinet in 1837. He and his wife moved to Marion County where he was elected to serve in the Texas Congress in November 1840, serving until his death on March 2, 1842 when he was killed during the Regulator-Moderator dispute. He was first buried near his estate, but on October 1928 he was re-interred in the Texas State Cemetery in recognition of his service to the Republic. Potter County, Texas was named in his honor.