Person talk:James Porter (37)

Age and ID of Eleanor Porter [1 October 2012]

From User:Delijim

I have no evidence to the contrary, but it appears questionable that James Porter married Eleanor Gillespie, daughter of George (their age difference is problematic). According to a familysearch submission, Eleanor was born in 1712, eliminating her as a daughter of George, but of course there are no sources listed.

http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:James_Porter_%2837%29

Anyway, when I was looking at that family and noticed a 40-50 year gap between the ages of James and Eleanor, that just seemed to be questionable at best....

This appears to be a family worth further research....--Q 14:00, 8 February 2011 (EST)

There are two Ellenor Gillespies in my Ewing lines.

One born in the 1740s to Patrick Gillespie and Isabelle Richie married Samuel Ewing in Prince Edward county VA about 1777. They had no issue.

The other is given various birth dates between 1705 and 1710 and died before 1787. She is supposed to have been born in Ireland to George Gillespie and unknown. She married James Porter and had many children, some of which appear to me to be spurious, but among them were Jane and Elizabeth who both married Patrick Ewing in turn. I have to admit this Eleanor is something of a brick wall, but I accept that instead of a patent absurdity (many of the children ascribed to Eleanor and James Porter are born before the other Eleanor.)

There is some doubt about James Porter's exact age as he is supposed baptized in Ireland in 1699 but is described in a deposition take 1736 as about 30 years old. I take 1699 and don't find the discrepancy disturbing.--LarsEighner 11:38, 25 September 2012 (EDT)

Lars, thank you for the input. The Gillespie lineage is one that much more work is needed on. The line wraps itself around a number of lineages in the Tapestry project, but has not been attacked as yet. Ditto the Ewings. I appreciate your input. Can you provide any source documentation for the Ellenor and James? For example, the specific documentation that places his baptism in 1699?. And the specific documentation that gives his age in 1736 as "about 30".Q 10:12, 26 September 2012 (EDT)

From Margaret Ewing Fife's "Ewing in Early America" Chapter XXIV, p 186:

"Book I Land Commissions of Cecil Co., MD 1724-1751 pp265-270, page 265 Cecil Co., Md June Court 1736 Held for sd County: The Justices of Cecil Co. aforesaid in court judicially setting To Mr. Randall Death, Mr. William Husbands, Mr. Joshua Ewing of Cecil Co., Gentlemen, Whereas William Teague of sd County, Planter, by the humble petition to us".[This is to determine boundaries of land, TEAGUES CHOICE, depositions were taken from several persons]. On page 270: "October 28, 1736 the deposition of James Porter aged about thirty (30) years [E.W.R. Ewing in CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND page 119 quotes J.W. Kernohan, Secy. of Presby. Hist. Soc. of Ireland as saying that James Porter was born 1699, brother to Rachel who married Nathaniel Ewing] and Joshua Ewing aged about 32, and James Ewing aged about 24 and Samuel Ewing aged about 31 and Andrew Madow aged about 24..."

http://www.ewingfamilyassociation.org/books/Document_Fife.html

The expanded and corrected Fife which is being indexed is only available the the Ewing Family Association website but is free to read. Clan Ewing of Scotland is widely available in various electronic formats (e.g. archive.org)--LarsEighner 15:09, 26 September 2012 (EDT)

Lars, I've added your note on the documentation for James DOB. A c1706 DOB would seem to be better supported in terms of original source documentation, but like you the discrepancy between 1706 and 1699 doesn't really bother me, as the later could be easily constured as encompassing 1699. Please feel free to add any further documentation on this family. Q 16:27, 1 October 2012 (EDT)