Bot: robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.

2022-10-27T09:32:03Z

robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.

New page

{{Short description|Australian mariner (1786–1872)}}
{{Lead too short|date=September 2021}}

'''George Porter''' (1786-1872) was a mariner and early pioneer of [[South Australia]].

== Biography ==
[[File:George Porter c. 1865.jpg|thumb|George Porter, whaler and South Australian pioneer, c. 1865]]

Porter was born in 1786 in [[Queenborough]], England. In 1809, he married Elizabeth Bassett, with whom he had eleven children. She was the daughter of a Kentish [[dredger]], Henry Bassett, operating in the badly silted estuaries of the [[Borough of Swale|Swale]] and [[Medway]].<ref>J. and J. McDonald, ''Three William McDonalds'', Canberra, 2010, pp. 119-121, 127.</ref>

Porter was a senior sea captain in the employ of the British [[East India Company]], working mainly as a [[whaler]].<ref>S.J. Porter-Sampson, ''Porter...They Be Thy People'', Adelaide, 1988, pp. 11-12.</ref> The deteriorating economic conditions in Queenborough and his positive experiences in the western [[Pacific]] seem to have led to the family’s decision to emigrate to Australia with most of their children in October 1839. <ref>J. and J. McDonald, ''Three William McDonalds'', Canberra, 2010, pp. 119-124.</ref> Their youngest child, [[Frederick Charles Porter]], became an explorer and miner in the [[Goldfields region of Victoria|Victorian goldfields]]. The migration may also have been influenced by his cousin, Captain [[William Field Porter]] (born, 1784), who had financed and led what was to be an unsuccessful party of settlers to [[Port Lincoln]] in two ships, nine months earlier.<ref>See the account of the failed venture written by his son: W.F. Porter, ‘How Captain Porter Came to S.A. and New Zealand’, Waikato, 1907; S.J. Porter-Sampson, ''Porter...They Be Thy People'', Adelaide, 1988, pp. 141-145.</ref> He helped his cousin set up one of the first shipping services operating out of Port Lincoln and [[Port Adelaide]] to Australian and New Zealand ports.

Upon arrival, Porter settled in Albert Town (now known as [[Alberton, South Australia|Alberton]]), near Port Adelaide. Captain Porter's home was converted later into the Sirius Hospital, located at 23 Prince Street in June 1914.<ref>Oral history recorded by the City of Port Adelaide and Enfield’s Local History Unit and reported in J. and J. McDonald, ''Three William McDonalds'', Canberra, 2010, pp. 123-124.</ref>

Porter set up a grocery store near the docks and also established a small farm in the hinterland.<ref>Allan’s ''South Australian Directory'', 1844; Murray’s ''South Australian Almanac'', 1847.</ref>

Porter outlived his wife and seven of his children. He died from ‘[[apoplexy]]’ (i.e. stroke) on 19 May 1872, aged 85 years. George and Elizabeth Porter are both buried in the old [[Alberton Cemetery]], which is now a public park.<ref>J. and J. McDonald, ''Three William McDonalds'', Canberra, 2010, pp. 126.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, George}}
[[Category:1786 births]]
[[Category:1872 deaths]]
[[Category:People from the Isle of Sheppey]]
[[Category:Settlers of South Australia]]
[[Category:British East India Company Marine personnel]]
[[Category:English emigrants to Australia]]

George Porter (mariner) - Revision history

Bot: robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.