Porter
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Porter Surname Genealogy
Porter is French in origin and is an occupational name.
The word may come from the old French portier. Here it would describe the gatekeeper of a town or the doorkeeper of a large house. The Milo Portarius who appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 was the gatekeeper or porter of Winchester castle. The office could come with accommodation and even be hereditary.
Alternatively Porter can derive from the Old French porteour, meaning "to carry" or "convey." This usage as a load bearer probably came in later. A porter here reflects the modern sense of one who carries loads for a living.
Porter may as well be an anglicized Jewish name, for example Sir Leslie Porter (from Pasamount) in England and Jack Nusan Porter (from Puchtik) in America..
England. There was a le Porter family recorded in Essex in the late 13th century. Some two hundred years later, Porter as a surname was spread more widely - to Kent and Essex in the southeast, to Nottinghamshire in the Midlands, and to Gloucestershire and Cornwall in the southwest. A Porter family held Hall Place in Seal (near Sevenoaks) in Kent from 1448 to 1648 and the Porter name has continued in that area since that time. Sir William Porter, sergeant-at-arms to Henry VII, came from Gloucestershire. His descendant Endymion Porter was a courtier and diplomat in the service of Charles I.
Later distribution of the Porter name showed two Porter concentrations, one in the southeast around London and another further north in Lancashire. The Porter family of Bury in Lancashire can be traced back to the 1650's. Liverpool trade directories of the early 1800's list a number of Porters, including the alderman Thomas Colley Porter and the shipowner William Field Porter. John Merry Porter from Manchester was one of the developers of Colwyn Bay in north Wales as a seaside resort in the early 1900's.
The Porter name in the 20th century was carried by Sir Leslie and Dame Shirley Porter of Tesco supermarket fame and by the fictional Jimmy Porter, the angry young man of John Osborne's 1956 play Look Back in Anger.
Ireland. Porter in Ireland appears mainly in Ulster and came from English plantation settlers in the 17th century. They did not necessarily take the English side. There were five Porters among the Jacobites outlawed in Ireland following the final defeat of James II in 1691. The Rev. James Porter was a Presbyterian minister who was hanged in 1798 for his involvement in the Irish rebellion.
Alexander Porter of this family escaped to America in 1801. He was an early settler in Louisiana and became its senator in 1833.
There were, however, Porters who took the English line. One such was John Porter, a Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, who came to Ireland in 1795 and became the Anglican bishop of Clogher. His family acquired the Belle Isle estate in county Longford in 1830.
America. Early Porter arrivals in New England included:
Many of the Porters who came to America originated from Ireland, notably among them being:
Canada. Porter immigrants to Canada came from both England and Ireland. William and Margaret Porter came to Manvers township, Ontario from Ireland in the 1840's. David Porter was the son of Irish immigrants in Halton county, Ontario. He started a sawmill there and then ran in local politics.
Australia. The escapades of Jimmy Porter, escaped convict, provided the first account of a Porter in Australia. Today three homes offer insights into the lives of some later Porters:
New Zealand. William Field Porter was a failed shipowner from Liverpool who set off for New Zealand in 1841 to start a new life. He came with his family on his own brig the Porter to Auckland where he was a merchant, local politician, and later farmer. In 1907 his son recorded his remembrance of this voyage in his book Recollections of a Voyage to South Australia and New Zealand.
Select Porter Miscellany
Select Porter Names
Endymion Porter was an English diplomat and royalist at the time of Charles I.
Rufus Porter was an American inventor and, in 1845, the founder of Scientific American.
William Sydney Porter who wrote under the pen name O. Henry is considered as one of the masters of the short story.
Cole Porter was an American composer and songwriter. His works have included musicals such as Kiss Me Kate and Anything Goes and songs such as I Get a Kick out of You and I've Got You under My Skin.
Sir Leslie Porter, born Leslie Pasamount, took over the management of the UK supermarket chain Tesco from his father-in-law Jack Cohen in 1973. His wife was the controversial politician Shirley Porter.
Select Porters Today
Site Map: Select Names
The Origin/Spread of Surnames
Porter is French in origin and is an occupational name.
The word may come from the old French portier. Here it would describe the gatekeeper of a town or the doorkeeper of a large house. The Milo Portarius who appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 was the gatekeeper or porter of Winchester castle. The office could come with accommodation and even be hereditary.
Alternatively Porter can derive from the Old French porteour, meaning "to carry" or "convey." This usage as a load bearer probably came in later. A porter here reflects the modern sense of one who carries loads for a living.
Porter may as well be an anglicized Jewish name, for example Sir Leslie Porter (from Pasamount) in England and Jack Nusan Porter (from Puchtik) in America..
Select
Porter
Resources on
The
Internet
- Porter Family Website. Porter genealogy and Porters in America.
- Porter Ancestry in Seal, Kent. Porters in Kent from Elizabethan times.
- The Porter DNA Project. Porter DNA.
England. There was a le Porter family recorded in Essex in the late 13th century. Some two hundred years later, Porter as a surname was spread more widely - to Kent and Essex in the southeast, to Nottinghamshire in the Midlands, and to Gloucestershire and Cornwall in the southwest. A Porter family held Hall Place in Seal (near Sevenoaks) in Kent from 1448 to 1648 and the Porter name has continued in that area since that time. Sir William Porter, sergeant-at-arms to Henry VII, came from Gloucestershire. His descendant Endymion Porter was a courtier and diplomat in the service of Charles I.
Later distribution of the Porter name showed two Porter concentrations, one in the southeast around London and another further north in Lancashire. The Porter family of Bury in Lancashire can be traced back to the 1650's. Liverpool trade directories of the early 1800's list a number of Porters, including the alderman Thomas Colley Porter and the shipowner William Field Porter. John Merry Porter from Manchester was one of the developers of Colwyn Bay in north Wales as a seaside resort in the early 1900's.
The Porter name in the 20th century was carried by Sir Leslie and Dame Shirley Porter of Tesco supermarket fame and by the fictional Jimmy Porter, the angry young man of John Osborne's 1956 play Look Back in Anger.
Ireland. Porter in Ireland appears mainly in Ulster and came from English plantation settlers in the 17th century. They did not necessarily take the English side. There were five Porters among the Jacobites outlawed in Ireland following the final defeat of James II in 1691. The Rev. James Porter was a Presbyterian minister who was hanged in 1798 for his involvement in the Irish rebellion.
"Porter was a United Irishman who had
published a series of letters under the title of Blind Bluff and Square Firebrand
which had drawn the attention of the Government. He was tried on
the false evidence of an informer and hanged at Greyabbey, county Down,
within sight on his home and church."
Alexander Porter of this family escaped to America in 1801. He was an early settler in Louisiana and became its senator in 1833.
There were, however, Porters who took the English line. One such was John Porter, a Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, who came to Ireland in 1795 and became the Anglican bishop of Clogher. His family acquired the Belle Isle estate in county Longford in 1830.
America. Early Porter arrivals in New England included:
- John Porter from Dorset who arrived in 1635 with his wife Mary on the Susan & Ellen and settled in Salem, Massachusetts. He and his family prospered there, but at the expense of a feud with the Putnam family.
"The interfamily rivalry began in 1672
when a dam and sawmill run by the Porters flooded the Putnam
farms. Seventeen years later, the arrival of the Rev. Samuel
Parris intensified the conflict. It was Parris, backed by the
Putnams, who initiated the witchcraft complaints and accusations."
A later Porter, Benjamin, moved to West
Boxford in 1716 and became the wealthiest man there. His progeny
included many distinguished doctors, lawyers, professors, and
businessmen. Rufus Porter, who grew up in Maine, was the founder
of Scientific American.
- Richard Porter who also arrived in 1635 and settled in Weymouth,
Massachusetts. Terry Porter-Fahey's 2008 book The Richard Porter Family Genealogy
describes this family's line.
- John and Rose Porter who came to America in 1637 and were one of
the early settlers of Windsor, Connecticut. Son Samuel was a
prosperous merchant but daughter Hannah was slain by Indians at her
home in Hadley in 1677. Joshua Porter fought in the Revolutionary
War and son Peter Buell was a successful general in the War of
1812. Later Porters migrated to Illinois, Texas, and Oklahoma.
- Then there were two brothers, Robert and Thomas Porter, who
settled in Farmington, Connecticut in 1640 and possibly a third
brother, Dr.
David Porter, who was the town's physician. The Rev.
Noah Porter was the Congregational Minister of Farmington from 1806 to
1866. His son was Noah Porter, the academic and writer who was
President of Yale University and his daughter Sarah Porter, who founded
Miss Porter's School in Farmington in 1843 (which still flourishes).
Many of the Porters who came to America originated from Ireland, notably among them being:
- Robert Porter who came from Derry in Ireland in 1730 and
eventually settled in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. His son
Andrew distinguished himself during the Revolutionary War and was
credited with helping to found the US Marines. He was the
forebear of a
Porter political dynasty in Pennsylvania in the 19th century.
- Patrick and Margaret Porter who left Ireland for America in the
1780's. Their son Alexander came to Decatur, Indiana in the
1840's and was one of the town's first practicing physicians.
Gene Stratton Porter, who married into this family, became a well-known
writer and nature photographer. She had moved to California at
the turn of the century but was killed in Hollywood in an early
automobile accident in 1924.
Canada. Porter immigrants to Canada came from both England and Ireland. William and Margaret Porter came to Manvers township, Ontario from Ireland in the 1840's. David Porter was the son of Irish immigrants in Halton county, Ontario. He started a sawmill there and then ran in local politics.
Australia. The escapades of Jimmy Porter, escaped convict, provided the first account of a Porter in Australia. Today three homes offer insights into the lives of some later Porters:
- Tim Porter constructed his home Avoca at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains
in 1886. He was the grandson of the convict Thomas Porter who had
been transported to Australia back in 1820.
- Miss Porter's house in Newcastle, NSW had been built by Herbert
Porter in 1909. He died of the flu epidemic in 1921 and it was
his wife and their two daughters who lived in the house. None of
these ladies married or re-married and this distinctive Edwardian
house, which stayed relatively unchanged over the years, was made into
a museum when the last daughter died in 1997.
- Hubert Porter purchased the rural Ramsay homestead in the
Reverina wine district of NSW in 1911. Joel Porter is the fifth
generation of the Porter family to own the property.
New Zealand. William Field Porter was a failed shipowner from Liverpool who set off for New Zealand in 1841 to start a new life. He came with his family on his own brig the Porter to Auckland where he was a merchant, local politician, and later farmer. In 1907 his son recorded his remembrance of this voyage in his book Recollections of a Voyage to South Australia and New Zealand.
"The account, written in old age, gives
a child's memory of the events of his early life, complete with
explorers, pirates, whaling, exotic animals, and the strange indigenous
inhabitants of his new home."
Select Porter Miscellany
If you would like to read more, click on the miscellany page for
further stories and accounts:
Select Porter Names
Endymion Porter was an English diplomat and royalist at the time of Charles I.
Rufus Porter was an American inventor and, in 1845, the founder of Scientific American.
William Sydney Porter who wrote under the pen name O. Henry is considered as one of the masters of the short story.
Cole Porter was an American composer and songwriter. His works have included musicals such as Kiss Me Kate and Anything Goes and songs such as I Get a Kick out of You and I've Got You under My Skin.
Sir Leslie Porter, born Leslie Pasamount, took over the management of the UK supermarket chain Tesco from his father-in-law Jack Cohen in 1973. His wife was the controversial politician Shirley Porter.
Select Porters Today
- 45,000 in the UK (most numerous in Kent)
- 50,000 in America (most numerous in California)
- 36,000 elsewhere (most numerous in Canada).
Site Map: Select Names
The Origin/Spread of Surnames
For other surnames check the companion selectsurname.com site where there are to be found the history and genealogy for more than 500 surnames.