Person:Thomas Porter (39)

Contents 1 Overview

Return to Old Chester|Explanation The Tapestry Families| Old Chester| Old Augusta| Germanna| New River| SWVP| Cumberland| Carolina Cradle|

Porter Tapestry Register Analysis Notebooks Data Graphics Bibliography Index YDNA

__________________________

Overview

From: Google Books The Lancaster County Colonization Society By William Frederic Worner, Henry Frank Eshleman. Some formating and reparagraphing applied. OCR errors common,and only partially corrected for.

Introduction .... let us look at the life of Col. Porter in some detail. The records concerning him arc few and meagre. So far as I know no direct member of his family lives in this community. His children went West and bore a good part in life cither as prominent members of their local icommunities or in the larger affairs of fhe;r adopted States. So about all we krow of Col. Porter is what the musty records of the Court House tell us or what can be found in the slender accounts given in military achives. Such information as I have been able to obtain I will give you as briefly as possible.

Civil LIfe The father of Colonel Porter was John Porter who came from Ireland to this township of Drumore in the early thirties of the eighteenth century. He brought with him the courage of the pioneer immigrant and that bravery an Irishman has never lacked. He must have brought with him also a certain amount of money, for he took up under the Proprietors a tract of land of some 350 acres, where we now stand and where his son. Col. Thomas Porter, was born about 1738 or '39. John Porter's wife answered to the good old Scriptural name of Rebecca and bore him five children, two sons, Thomas (the subject of this sketch). William, and three daughters, all the latter being married at the time of his death save Violet, who marred two years later. He died on this Drumore farm in 1765. Upon the death of the elder Porter's wife, Thomas Porter, the eldest son. became the owner nf the homestead. He married Janet (sometimes named Jean) Mitchell, daughter of John Mitchell. June 18. 1761. To them were born nine children, viz: John, William, Thomas, Mary, Rebecca. Margaret, George, James and Violet, only one of whom, John, was fourteen years of age upon the death of his father in 1777. Col. Porter died intestate and ^robably poor, as he had spent most of ).is possesstons in enuipning the various companies of mi'itia he raised and drilled and for other expenses incurred in the struggle for independence. But such estate as he left was administered noon by James Porter and Thomas Whiteside. a brother.in.law, who had married his s!stcr. Jean. Patrick Ewing became the guardian of all the minor children. By court proceeding beginning in 1782 and ending in 1784, an inquisition was held on the Porter farm and its 350 acres were appraised at 550 pounds and awarded to the Colonel's son. John, who had then become of age. In the partition proceedings Hugh Long became bondsman for John Porter, purchaser of the estate. In the course of years all of the Porter name moved from this neighborhood and rose to prominence in Kentucky and Indiana, one of the descendants becoming Governor of the latter state. Such is the brief record of the civil or family aide of Colonel Porter's life. Let us now turn to his military career.

Military Career In common with all the leaders of the day he foresaw that a conflict between this country and George III was sure to come and they uttered in their hearts if not in words the sentiments of the fiery Patrick Henry—"The war is inevitable and let it come. I repeat it, sir, let it come." Let me say in passing that it is well we now know that the War of the Revo'ution was not one between this land and the English people but a contest between ourselves and a bigoted sovereign aided and abetted by a subservient court and aristocracy to over- H.rnw constitutional government and make omnipotent the prerogative of Kings and "divine right." Liberty loving Englishmen were on our side, led by such mighty champions as Chatham, Pitt. Burke and Fox. These men were fighting the same battle for freedom at home we were fighting for here, and they rejoiced with us when Yorktown ended the war and made the King subservient to the people through a representative Parliament and sounded the death knell of "rotten boroughs." So Colonel Porter, seeing the Revolution was inevitable, keenly felt the necessity of preparation in time of peace. Young as he was, he had become a man of note in both his home community and throughout the country at large. So in 1774. a vear before "the embattled farmers" at Lexington and Concord, "fired the shot heard round the world." we find Col. Porter elected by ballot, with his neighbor of Drumore Township. John McEntire, as one of "The Committee of Sixty" for Lancaster County, whose duty it was to look after the lovalty of all the inhabitants of the district, to encourage the timid, convince the wavering, keep burning brightly the ardor of the brave and impulsive and to have a watchful eye on slacker, coward or Tory. We can imagine the Inbor and 7enl of Colonel Porter in riding by day or night throughout this bailiwick in discharge of his duties and on the then bridle paths for roads, which, save in mere width, have not improved greatly to this day.

We next find him Colonel of the eight associated Battalions of the county in 1775. At that rank he was retained in the formation of the Revolutionary army and as commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion. In the same year he was member of the assembly from our county and a leader therein, and also a member of the convention to form the Constitution of the state. During the years of 1775 and 1776 he recruited, armed, equipped (much of it at his own expense without hope of reimbursement from a poor and bankrupt government) and drilled, no less than ten companies of militia and prepared them for the line. Impaired health and fast waning strength rendered him unfit and unable to endure the fatigue of the march and rigors of camp life, and so far as we know from records, he was not engaged in any battle with the soldiers he had so strenuously prepared for duty.

As we have noted, he died in 1777, during the initial stages of the Revolutionary conflict. He was a faithful and trusted servant of the people and his country to the full extent of his physical powers and only death stopped his promising great career and being as near to Washington as our own General Hand. What might пате been had he lived, is a matter for mere idle speculation. But we can well conclude that as he gave all he had of strength and means to the cause of Independence, he is as much one of our heroes as if he fell with \Varren at Bunker Hill, or as an early victim of the conflict, a martyr worthy to stand by the side of a Nathan Hale. The tablet we now dedicate is a fitting tribute to a man who was without reproach in civil life, without fear as a soldier and who showed the depth of his patriotism by giving his all to his country.