Porter Family Correspondence

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Introduction

	The Porter Family
	Contents
	Arrangement

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Catalogue

• Porter Family Correspondence

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The Porter Family

The Porter family is of some importance in early nineteenth century literary and artistic life, in addition to their connections with Durham. Willian Porter (1735-1779), their father, was descended from the seventeenth century Royalist, Endymion Porter, and served for many years in the Sixth Inniskilling Dragoons, staying latterly at Durham where he died and was buried in St. Oswald's churchyard. He married Jane Blenkinsop (1745-1831), a daughter of Robert Blenkinsop of Durham, and fathered five children, two of whom were born at Durham and all of whom spent some time here. The eldest was John Porter (1772-1810), subsequently a Colonel, and the second William Ogilvie (1774-1850), M.D., a naval surgeon who after retirement practised for over forty years in Bristol and was the author of two small works on typhus and on medical ethics, as well as the novel noticed above. The eldest daughter was Jane (1776-1850), a prolific and popular novelist and less successful dramatist, whose younger brother was Robert Ker (1777-1842), a historical and military painter and traveller who wrote books of travel and was subsequently knighted and awarded other honours by several foreign governments. The youngest, Anna Maria (1780-1832), was born at Durham like her brother Robert and was also, like Jane, a prolific novelist.

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Contents

The material in this collection consists of two classes of document. The first and most important is of correspondence to various members of the Porter family and the second is of papers relating to the authorship and publication of Sir Edward Seaward's narrative.
The correspondence is from 23 individuals but the great preponderance (200/240 letters) is from W.O. Porter. Those addressed are all members of the Porter family as follows: - Anna Maria, Jane, Sir Robert Ker, William Ogilvie, and (the mother of all these) Jane Blenkinsop Porter, with one letter in copy to Charles Porter, W.O. Porter's son. Over half of the letters (142/240) are addressed to Jane Porter with others both to her and to her sister Anna Maria. Not all the letters can be certainly identified, but in almost all cases those addressee can be identified from internal and other evidence.
The collection is valuable for its documentation of the Porter family in the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century and also for the evidence it furnishes, both in the related papers and in the correspondence passim, as to the authorship of Sir Edward Seaward's narrative. This novel has been attributed to Jane Porter by Halkett and Laing, the DNB, the New Cambridge bibliography of English literature, and major published library catalogues, but it is clear that it was in fact written by her brother W.O. Porter, though introduced by her. Other matters of interest include material relating to a presentation in 1844 to Jane Porter from admirers in the United States, and some evidence as to the genesis of W.O. Porter's novel in his personal life and circumstances.

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Accession details

All five bound volumes can be identified as having belonged to J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps who very probably acquired the material from the family estate in the mid-nineteenth century. The first two volumes (A and B) were Phillipps Ms. 14610 (in two parts), the third (C) was Phillipps Ms. 15547, the fourth (D) Phillipps Ms. 15561, and the fifth (E) Phillipps Ms. 21783. The material with the novel, which is now housed in the Library's collection of printed books, was acquired by Durham University Library in 1967 at Sotheby's.

Arrangement

The first category comprises 240 letters (including some copies and invoices) ranging in date from 1796 to 1847, with some undated. These are contained in four volumes lettered A to D and in an envelope lettered F, those in the four volumes being bound and in the envelope unbound.
The second, much smaller, category comprises papers relating to the publication and authorship of the novel Sir Edward Seaward's narrative and to the introduction to it by Jane Porter. These are bound in a volume lettered E and include a memorandum by W.O. Porter respecting such questions as copyright, division of profits and review copies as well as a note in his hand of suggestions for the editor's preface.
Only a few of the items are imperfect, generally in a very minor fashion.

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Catalogue

Porter Family Correspondence