James Madison Porter

Porter.--Hon. James Madison, Easton, Pa., Nov. 11, 1862, a. 69. He was b. Jan. 6, 1793, at his father's residence named Selma, near Norristown, Montgomery county, Pa. He was the youngest child of Gen. Andrew Porter who was a colonel of the Fourth or Pennsylvania Regiment of Artillery at the close of the Revolutionary war, having served throughout the whole of that struggle. Gen. Porter was b. in Worcester township, then Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, Sept. 24, 1743, and d. at Harrisburg, Nov. 16, 1813, being then surveyor general of the state.

The mother of James Madison Porter was Elizabeth Parker, before her intermarriage, and was b. in Upper Providence township, then Philadelphia, now Montgomery county. She d. in Norriton Township, at the family mansion, May 18, 1821. Robert, eldest brother of James M. Porter, b. Jan. 10, 1768, was president judge of the 3d judicial district of Pennsylvania from 1809 to 1831, and d. June 28, 1842. David Rittenhouse Porter, fifth son of Gen. Andrew Porter, b. in 1788, was elected governor of Pennsylvania, in 1838, and was re-elected in 1841. George Bryan Porter, the sixth son, b. Feb. 9, 1791, studied law and practiced his profession at Lancaster, Pa., until 1830, when he was appointed marshal for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, and was subsequently, in Feb. 1832, appointed by Gen. Jackson, governor of Michigan, succeeding Gen. Cass, which office he held until the time of his decease which took pace in July, 1834.

James Madison Porter, was the seventh son. He has filled the offices of president judge of the 12th judicial district of Pennsylvania; was secretary of war under President Tyler, and president judge of the 22d judicial district of Pennsylvania. He was made a corresponding member of the N.E. Hist. Gen. Society in 1859. The family were originally from Lincolnshire, England. A part of the family emigrated to the north of Ireland in the reign of James I, and settled near the Isle of Burt, in the county Donegal.

Robert Porter, the father of Andrew, was b. in the yr. 1698, at the Isle of Burt. He came to this country and landed at Londonderry, N.H., about the year 1719. He, however, proceeded to Pennsylvania, and settled where his son Andrew was born, and lived there until the time of his death, on the 14th of July 1770. His name will be found as the first elder, signed to the protest against the doings of the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia in 1741, in relation to Messrs. Tennent and Whitefield.

Source: The New England Historical and Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal, Boston: N.E. Historic-Genealogical Society, vol. xvii, no. 2, April 1863, pp. 185-186.

Submitted by Nancy.