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This page is part of a website based
on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric
Alexander with any comments or queries. |
The Amherst-Porter network
There appears to be a network
of navy officers with links to Thomas Smith and the Gosport area.
Smith protégés John Amherst (who uses Cort as agent) 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.)
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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 |
Clearly you need to qualify
that “everything” in the ODNB account as relating to land and buildings only,
not “goods, chattels” etc.
Richard
Porter is a Gosport trustee. Porter's daughter Elizabeth is married to
another navy officer, Archibald (later Sir Archibald) Dickson. Dickson, for a while, 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.
Porter's son Moses later accompanies Hackman's son on his way to the gallows. In a codicil to the will of Hackman’s
brother-in-law Hyde Mathis, Cort is named as executor.
Amherst, in an early letter
to Thomas Smith, professes a fondness for another protégé, George Hamilton; who in
turn is 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 her 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
gr