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Francis Lister Hawks Pott

Anglican missionary, president of St. John's University, Shanghai

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ5481745 ↗
Source-derived summary

Francis Lister Hawks Pott (Chinese: 卜舫濟; February 22, 1864 – March 7, 1947) was an American Episcopal missionary and educator in China. He served as President of St. John's College (later renamed St. John's University), one of China's oldest and most prestigious universities, from 1888 until 1941. With the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 and the Japanese occupation of the Shanghai International Settlement, he left for the United States. After World War II, he returned to Shanghai.

Pott was married to Soo Ngoo Wong (Chinese: 黃素娥; pinyin: Huáng Sù'é), who died in 1918. Their children were James Hawks Pott, William Sumner Appleton Hawks Pott, Olivia Hawks Pott, and Walter Graham Hawks Pott.

In 1919 in Shanghai, he married Emily Georgiana née Browne, the widow of his St. John’s colleague Frederick Clement Cooper and mother of Gwendolin and Mervyn Cooper.

Editorial summary

“Francis Lister Hawks Pott” enters the record as anglican missionary, president of St. John's University, Shanghai. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Francis, Lister and Hawks can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1864, 1947, 1888, 1941—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1864-02-22. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Francis, Lister and Hawks.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Francis Lister Hawks Pott” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Francis, Lister and Hawks provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5481745. VIAF identifies the subject as 23627960. The Library of Congress control number is n86126205. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1864, 1947, 1888 and 1941.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Francis Lister Hawks Pott”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Francis Lister Hawks Pott primary sources, Francis Lister Hawks Pott archive and Francis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Francis Lister Hawks Pott”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Francis Lister Hawks Pott” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.