Joseph Hyde Potts (1793 – 1865) was an accountant and in 1817 was the first employee to be engaged by the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac).
On 9 August 1834 he married Emma Bates (d.1901), the marriage conducted by the Rev. William Cowper at fashionable St. Phillip's Church. They had four children: Joseph (b. 1835), Harriet (b. 1837), Francis (b. 1839) and Josephine (b. 1843).
In 1830 Potts acquired 64 acres (260,000 m2) of land from Judge-Advocate John Wylde on what was previously known as Paddys Point and Woolloomooloo Hill and renamed it Potts Point. Potts purchased another 369 acres (1.49 km2) in 1834, 470 acres (1.9 km2) in 1835 and a further 625 acres (2.53 km2) in 1835. Potts Hill reservoir and Potts Point is located on a large portion of Joseph Hyde Potts' original land.
In 1841 the Crown granted a further 256 acres (1.04 km2) to Potts, who was at that time Secretary of the Bank of New South Wales, near where Homebush and Australian Catholic University's Mount Royal College campus is located at Strathfield is today.