The story of nations is composed of millions of personal family histories and this is the story of one familyÕs journey over four centuries, tracing it from Dorking and Epsom in sylvan Surrey to its eventual settlement in teeming, nineteenth century Southwark and London, likened by Disraeli to a Òmodern Babylon.Ó The family produced a colourful cavalcade of gentlemen-gardeners, builders, blacksmiths, cardmakers, court & bank officials, paupers, clergy, soldiers, sailors and grocers. Straddling the nineteenth century is the remarkable figure of Joseph Potter (1769-1855), mariner, parish beadle and pensioner at Greenwich Hospital, who left a vivid autobiography for the instruction of his Newman descendants.