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on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric
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The Amherst-Porter network
There appears to be a network
of navy officers with links to Thomas Smith and the Gosport area.
Amherst-Linzee
links
Smith protégés John Amherst and Samuel Hood (Alexander’s brother) both marry daughters of Portsmouth
mayor Edward Linzee. Hood's marriage
prospers, but Amherst's fades quickly.
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In February 1750 Amherst, known for his bad temper, informed Thomas Smith that “we are parted by article, and I never will see her more”. From Oxford DNB entry for
Admiral John Amherst |
He soon separates from his
wife, but there is no divorce. (Thomas Monday,
whom she marries after her husband’s death, turns up in other records as a
relative of the Missing family.) Amherst has settled in Gosport, where he
comes into contact with the Porter family.
Richard Porter’s
career
A document in the National
Archives catalogue (Adm354/155/57, actually held at the Caird Library in the
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), dated 17 February 1757, describes Richard
as “in the 66th year of his life”.
He must therefore have been born around 1691.
The document also charts his
career as a naval surgeon, serving on nine ships between 1726 and 1740. No record has yet been discovered of his
marriage to Rachel or the baptism of his son Peter. The first baptism so far spotted for any of their children is of
son Richard at St Stephen Walbrook, London, on 10 December 1728.
Some time between the baptisms of his son Moses (London, St
Andrew Undershaft, 21 July 1735) and Gilbert (Titchfield, 9 February 1741/2) he has moved to Hampshire. The next child, Elizabeth, is baptised at
Gosport Holy Trinity on 29 December 1745.
In the early 1750s he is
recalled by the Navy to help in the preparation of the new naval hospital at
Haslar, just south of Gosport.
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We have received your letter of the
8th instant, signifying the directions of the Rt honoble
the Lords Commissrs of the Admiralty, that We inform them, whether
Mr Porter Surgeon of His Majesty’s Hospital at Gosport, and Mr
Kirk Surgeon of that at Plymouth, do continue to receive their Half Pay; and
if not, how long it hath been discontinued to them: And in return thereto We
desire you will acquaint their Lordships, that understanding from the Sick
and Hurt Office, that Mr Porter has had an Allowance from them of
£50 a Year from 3rd May 1754 in Consideration of the loss of his
Private Practice on his removal from Gosport to the Royal Hospital at Haslar,
his Half Pay has been discontinued to him from 30th June last.
Letter of 12 May 1755, National Archives Adm354/150/142 |
Another document,
ADM354/148/76 tells how he has surveyed the proposed officers’ apartments in
company with “Portsmouth officers”.
He serves for a while on the
board of the hospital: the last meeting he attends is on 20 July 1756. He must have been gone some two years before
James Lind arrives at the hospital.
In 1763 he is named as one of
the original Gosport trustees: the only character
identified so far with strong links to both the hospital and the town.
His will, made in 1767, is
witnessed by James Collins, but he still has eleven
years to live. He is buried at Alverstoke St Mary on 10 February 1778.
Richard Porter’s
family
Anyone in the eighteenth
century who lives to the age of 86 can be expected to outlive some of his
children. Richard’s will (made at the
age of about 76) names only three: Ann, Moses and Elizabeth (married to navy
officer Archibald Dickson). The same
three are named as siblings in the will of Peter Porter, probably the eldest,
who entered the navy and reached the rank of lieutenant before being killed in
action on board HMS Norfolk in 1762.
Three other Porters – Richard, John and Gilbert – are also likely to
have been Richard’s children.
Nothing further is known
about Gilbert (baptised 1741). But
Richard (1728) and John (1730) turn up as captain’s servants on the Captain. From 1st January 1756 they serve under
Charles Catford, but John dies on 13 June.
Catford also dies, on 9th September, and John Amherst becomes
captain: Richard remains on board as his servant until 21 November 1759. Nothing further is known about the younger
Richard’s career, but it is surely no coincidence that Rachel Porter and her
daughters Ann and Elizabeth figure in Amherst’s will. Indeed, he and Ann appear to be very close: in her will, made in
1802, she will leave much of her estate to his niece.
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Amherst died suddenly at Gosport on 14 February 1778, just two weeks after his promotion to admiral of the blue. He was buried in the parish church at Sevenoaks. In his will Amherst left everything to his brother; his widow then married Thomas Monday. From Oxford DNB entry for
Admiral John Amherst |
I give and bequeath unto Ann Porter
Spinster Daughter of the above named Rachel Porter and her Executors
Administrators and Assigns to and for her and their line and Benefit all the
residue and remainder of my Goods Chattels Monies and Securities for Money
household ffurniture and all other my personal Estate and Effects whatsoever
either at Gosport or elsewhere and of what nature or price or quality soever
the same may be payment of my Debts Legacies and ffuneral Expenses and I do
hereby nominate constitute and appoint the said Ann Porter sole Executrix of
this my last Will and Testament. From will of Admiral John
Amherst |
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Clearly you need to qualify
that “everything” in the ODNB account as relating to land and buildings only,
not “goods, chattels” etc. |
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Moses’s career takes him into the church.
His will names three sons and two daughters. Second son William Warren Porter follows his father into the
priesthood; becomes a fellow of his father’s college, St John’s Oxford; but
dies in 1804. Eldest son John Fitzroy
Porter goes into the Navy, reaching the rank of lieutenant. Youngest son Richard Cornewall also enters
the Navy, but the only record found so far is as servant to his uncle Archibald
Dickson, captain of the Captain (again!!), from 28 June to 22 September
1790.
Further navy
links: Dickson etc
More links evolve from
Archibald Dickson. For a while he seems
to have been a shipmate of Jeremiah Attwick on
board the Isis. Later he serves
on the Guernsey with Samuel Marshall’s brother-in-law David Maitland, who
has begun his naval career as servant to William
Hackman. Both Maitland and Hackman
are from Gosport families: Moses Porter (Dickson’s brother-in-law) accompanies
Hackman's son on his way to the gallows.
Dickson’s brother William also
pursues a naval career: both rise to the rank of admiral. Archibald is created a baronet: his only
recorded child being a daughter, his title and the estate he (presumably)
purchases at Hardingham, Norfolk, will pass on his death to one of William’s sons,
also named Archibald.
William has married a niece
of Cuthbert Collingwood, of Trafalgar fame.
Their son Archibald becomes a captain’s servant when his uncle Archibald
takes command of the Greyhound in October 1775; remains at post when his
father becomes captain On 24 September 1779; and resumes as servant to his
uncle on board the Dublin in 1781.
Other Dicksons who serve as captains’ servants during this period may be
William’s sons.
Links to Henry
Cort?
The only direct link to Henry
Cort so far established, for any of the characters mentioned above, is that
John Amherst is one (indeed the most senior) of Cort’s clients during the
period as navy agent. Is it mere coincidence that Cort’s business later takes him to Gosport,
where Amherst has settled? Indirect
links include the will of William Hackman’s brother-in-law Hyde Mathis, in whose codicil Cort
is named as executor.
There are also links via the Attwick
family. Amherst, in an early letter to
Thomas Smith, professes a fondness for another of Smith’s protégés, George Hamilton (also
associated with protégés Alexander Hood and Michael Becher). Hamilton marries John
Attwick's daughter Susanna, while Becher's brother marries Attwick's
granddaughter Ann Haysham, whom he may have met at a commemoration for Hamilton
in Gosport. Cort later marries Ann’s sister.
How many of the
Amherst-Porter network may have attended this commemoration? Do any become intimates of the Corts when
they arrive in Gosport?
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Related files |
henrycort.net
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