Porter family

Members of this Porter family trace their ancestry back to Sir William Porter, who fought at Agincourt and Endymion Porter (1587-1649), a courtier and patron of artists. Their maternal ancestry includes John Tweddell (1769-1799), a classical scholar. William Porter (1735-1779), a surgeon with the 6th Inniskilling dragoons, married Jane Blenkinsop (1745-1831), daughter of Robert Blenkinsop of Durham, and they had 5 children: John (1772-1810), a colonel; William Ogilvie (1774-1850), a surgeon; Jane (1776-1850), a writer; Robert Ker (1777-1842), a painter and diplomat; and Anna Maria (1778-1832), a writer. All four of the youngest siblings authored books.

In 1812, Robert Ker Porter married Princess Maria (Mary) Scherbatoff (d. 1826) and their daughter, Maria (Mary), born in 1813, married Pierre Kikine in 1837.

The following is a Porter Family Chronology abstracted from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and other sources.

• 1735: William Porter (father) is born and later spends 23 years as a surgeon to the 6th Inniskilling dragoons.
• 1745: Jane Blenkinsop Porter (mother) is born.
• 1772: John Porter is born.
• 1774: William Ogilvie Porter is born.
• 1776: Jane Porter is born at Durham.
• 1777: Robert Ker Porter is born at Durham.
• 1778: Anna Maria Porter is born at Durham.
• 1779 - 1780 : William Porter (father) dies and the family moves to Edinburgh seeking an inexpensive, good education for the children.
• 1780 - 1790 : Jane and Anna Maria Porter attend George Fulton's school; Walter Scott, whose mother was acquainted with Jane Blenkinsop Porter, may have played with Jane and Anna Maria Porter; Flora MacDonald influences Robert Ker Porter's interest in painting military subjects; the family moves to London.
• 1791: Benjamin West, impressed with Robert Ker Porter's artistic ability, gets him admitted to the Royal Academy School at Somerset-House; Anna Maria Porter begins writing stories which become part of Artless Tales.
• 1792 - 1794 : Robert Ker Porter wins a prize from the Society of the Arts for The Witch of Endor drawing and paints an altarpiece for Shoreditch church and Christ Allaying the Storm for a Catholic chapel in Portsea.
• 1792 - 1832 : Robert Ker Porter exhibits 38 pictures, mostly historical pieces and landscapes.
• 1793: 1795: Anna Maria Porter publishes Artless Tales.
• 1797: Jane, Robert and Anna Maria Porter work on a periodical, The Quiz, with Thomas Dibdin; Anna Maria Porter publishes Walsh Colville.
• 1798: Robert Ker Porter paints St. John Preaching for St John's College, Cambridge; Anna Maria Porter publishes Octavia.
• 1799: Jane Porter authors The Spirit of the Elbe; the Porter family is living at 16 Great Newport Street, Leicester Square.
• 1800: Jane Porter writes "A Defence of the Profession of an Actor"; Robert Ker Porter paints Storming of Seringapatam.
• 1801: Jane Porter authors The Two Princes of Persia: Addressed to Youth.
• 1802: Robert Ker Porter authors An Historical Sketch of the Battle of Alexandria, and of the Campaign in Egypt : illustrative of the great picture, now exhibiting in the Lyceum, Strand, painted by Robert Ker Porter.
• 1803: Jane Porter's book, Thaddeus of Warsaw, is published by Longman and Company in 4 volumes; Robert Ker Porter is appointed captain in the Westminster militia but his family dissuades him from a military career.
• 1804: Jane Porter writes a "Sketch of the Campaign of Count Suwarrow Ryminski"; Robert Ker Porter is appointed court painter to Tsar Alexander I of Russia; the Porter women move to Long Ditton, Kingston and some years later to Esher, Surrey.
• 1805: Anna Maria Porter's book, A Sailor's Friendship, and a Soldier's Love, is published in two volumes.
• some time between 1805 and 1807: Robert Ker Porter becomes engaged to Maria, daughter of Prince Theodor Scherbatoff.
• 1806: Robert Ker Porter is knighted by King Gustavus IV of Sweden.
• 1807: Jane Porter edits The Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney. Anna Maria Porter writes The Hungarian Brothers.
• 1807 - 1809 : Forced to leave Russia, Robert Ker Porter travels to Finland, Sweden and Germany and is made a knight of St Joachim of Wurttemberg.
• 1808 - 1809 : Robert Ker Porter accompanies Sir John Moore to Spain and is with Moore at the Battle of Corunna; Robert Ker Porter's book, Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden 1805-1808, is published in 2 illustrated volumes and his Letters from Portugal and Spain, Written during the March of the Troops under Sir John Moore comes out later in the year.
• 1809: Anna Maria Porter's novel, Don Sebastian, or the House of Braganza, is published.
• 1810: Jane Porter publishes The Scottish Chiefs in five volumes; William Ogilvie Porter retires as a naval surgeon to be a physician in Bristol for the next 40 years; Colonel John Porter dies on the Isle of Man.
• 1811: Robert Ker Porter returns to Russia at the Tsar's invitation. Anna Maria Porter writes Ballad Romances and Other Poems.
• 1812: Robert Ker Porter marries Maria Scherbatoff in Russia, and subsequently interacts with Russian military and diplomatic circles.
• 1812 - 1813 : Robert Ker Porter comes back to England, his Narrative of the Campaign in Russia during 1812 is printed, and in April 1813, he is knighted by the prince regent.
• 1813: Robert Ker Porter's daughter Maria is born and he returns to Russia.
• 1814: Anna Maria Porter writes The Recluse of Norway and Tales of Pity on Fishing, Shooting and Hunting.
• 1815: Jane Porter's book, The Pastor's Fireside, is published in three volumes.
• 1817: Anna Maria Porter's book, The Knight of St John, is published in three volumes.
• 1817 - 1820 : Robert Ker Porter travels to Persia, Georgia, Armenia, etc., and in 1819 he receives the insignia of the order of the Lion and of the Sun from the Persian monarch, Futteh Ali Shah.
• 1818: Anna Maria Porter's novel, The Fast of St. Magdalen, a romance is published in three volumes.
• 1819: Jane Porter's play, Switzerland, is acted in Drury Lane for one night only.
• 1821: Robert Ker Porter's notes of his travels are published in his Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, 1817-1820, in two volumes; after a brief visit to England, Robert Ker Porter returns to Russia; Anna Maria Porter's work, The Village of Mariendorpt, a Tale in Four Volumes, is published.
• 1822: Jane Porter's play, Owen, Prince of Powys is acted in Drury Lane only three times; Anna Maria Porter's book, Roche Blanche, or, The Hunters of the Pyrenees, is published in three volumes.
• 1824: Jane Porter's book, Duke Christian of Lüneburg, is published in three volumes.
• 1825 - 1841 : Robert Ker Porter is appointed British Consul in Venezuela and for the next fifteen years he resides in Caracas where he also continues to draw and paint.
• 1826: Jane and Anna Maria Porter collaborate on Tales Round a Winter's Hearth, a work in three volumes; Anna Maria Porter's book, Honor O'Hara, a novel, is published in 3 volumes; Maria Scherbatoff Porter dies in St Petersburg.
• 1828: Jane and Anna Maria Porter collaborate on Coming Out, and, The Field of Forty Footsteps, a work in two volumes.
• 1830: Anna Maria Porter's The Barony is published in three volumes.
• 1831: William Ogilvie Porter writes Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck, and Consequent Discovery of Certain Islands in the Caribbean Sea: with Details of his Residence There, and of Various Extraordinary and Highly Interesting Events in his Life, from the Year 1733 to 1749, as Written in his own Diary; Jane Blenkinsop Porter dies at Esher.
• 1832: Robert Ker Porter is made knight commander of the order of Hanover; Jane and Anna Maria settle in London and visit William Ogilvie Porter in Bristol; Anna Maria Porter dies in Bristol.
• 1834: Jane Porter writes a preface to Young Hearts.
• 1837: Maria, Robert Ker Porter's daughter, marries Pierre Kikine.
• 1841: Robert Ker Porter returns to England for a brief visit with his brother, William Ogilvie Porter, in Bristol and then he travels to St Petersburg to visit his daughter, Maria Porter Kikine. Jane Porter either travels with Robert Ker Porter or meets him in St Petersburg.
• 1842: Robert Ker Porter dies on the day of his return trip to England and is buried in St Petersburg.
• 1843: Jane Porter sells Robert Ker Porter's books, engravings and other belongings at Christies and wraps up his estate in 1844.
• 1847: Jane Porter moves to William Ogilvie Porter's home in Bristol.
• 1850: Jane Porter dies in May in Bristol; William Ogilvie Porter dies in August in Bristol.
• 1852: Sir Thomas Phillipps purchases some of the Porter correspondence.

From the guide to the Letters, Literary Manuscripts and Personal Papers of the Porter Family, 1750-1849, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Department of Special Collections)