Thomas Bayley Potter

[2] Potter received his early education in George Street, Manchester, then at Lant Carpenter's school in Bristol.

His elder brother John, knighted in 1851, took over most of his father's role; the firm then traded as Potter & Norris.

Potter put his own money into the organisation, which adopted the pamphleteering publicity tactics of the Anti-Corn Law League, and ran frequent meetings.

It was joined by prominent supporters of the Union in the American Civil War, including Edward Dicey, J. S. Mill and Goldwin Smith.

[6] In 1865, Potter entered the British House of Commons and sat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale.

It operated as a publisher, funded education in economics, and held an annual dinner, under a name suggested by Thorold Rogers.

[9] At the end of his life Potter spent his vacations in Cobden's old home, The Hurst, at Midhurst in Sussex.

The author denied any conscious use of Thomas Ashton's story, of which she knew, but the Potter family saw the plot device as referring deliberately to it.

[17] The fourth son, Richard Ellis Potter (1855–1947), was educated at Eton College, and at age 17 took part in the third of Benjamin Leigh Smith's expeditions, in 1873 to Svalbard.