Santa Claus?

I'm weighing in on a trivial question here, not because I don't have a larger issue to address (I have a lot to say about the Doubloon chapter!) but because this is quick and dirty question. 

In chapter 101, "The Decanter," Melville writes, "Dr. Snodhead, a very learned man, professor of Low Dutch and High German in the college of Santa Claus and St. Potts...". Now, aside from the fact that he seems to be deliberately using really funny names in this chapter (Snodhead! Swackhammer! Ye gods!) I was interested in the mention of Santa Claus--I don't thnk the name became a fixture in the American imagination until Nast wrote The Night Before Christmas some years later. But who is St. Potts? I got nada from a quick and dirty Internet search. 

More to come later...waiting with bated breath, baited with stink bait if need be, to hear from the second generation. :-)