'At Newtownards on the thirtieth of June The saintly Porter was condemned to his doom;
A beautiful lady pleaded for him sore, But her wicked father cast her to the floor.' - Old ballad.
THE Rev James Porter, Presbyterian minister of Greyabbey, County Down was one of the martyrs of 1798 in the North. James was the third son of James Porter of Tamna Wood, near Ballindrait, Co Donegal. The Porters were a respectable Presbyterian family, originally settled in the parish of Raphoe. In a lease dated 1760, Lord Erne granted to James Porter of Tamna Wood, the 'tuck' (cloth) mill at Ballindrait for a term of twenty one years. This man was the father of the 1798 insurgent minister of Greyabbey.
The next authentic reference to Porter shows that he was tutor to the family of Alexander Knox of Dromore, Co Down and taught a well-known ship owner, George Knox whose sister he married in 1780. George Knox, a prominent West Indian merchant, notes in his memoirs: 'Alas! My poor brother-in-law, Porter, who taught me so well, married my sister Anne and was a very handsome man. He was fired with the spirit of reform and loved his country dear. For blood-stained gold and petty strife, the soul of this honest man was to meet his God.'
After Porter married Miss Knox he opened a school in Drogheda where he taught English, Latin and Mathematics. He then attended Glasgow University where he studied divinity. Licensed to preach by the Bangor Presbytery in 1786, he was ordained minister of Greyabbey on 31st July 1787.
Though a member of the Volunteers, Porter did not aspire to the military art but campaigned for justice for his fellow-countrymen.
Writing to Captain James Robb in 1797, Porter said: 'I declare that I am not the one to uphold the bloody Revolution in France and its grave injury to religion. A Republican Ireland I would not favour for with it the very soul of man might well perish. I do demand with the voice and pen of a reformer the complete overthrow of our government by an artful aristocracy; the complete Emancipation and equal rights for all our Catholic countrymen and a free and independent Ireland.... I call for an Ireland for the Irish, not an Ireland for a few place men.'
This outlines Porter's politics - he was one of the best political writers the United Irishmen had in the North.
When the Rebellion broke out in 1798 he took shelter at Rosemount, the home of the Rev Montgomery. He was arrested and brought before a military court in Newtownards on 30th June 1798.
Colonel Digby in a letter from Newtownards on that date wrote: 'This morning James Porter, Dissenting minister of Greyabbey... was brought to trial before a full-dressed military tribunal on a charge of assisting some other persons unknown to relieve the post-boy of a vital military despatch on the 9th June past... This pamphleteer, who was the penman of the rebels, was duly found guilty and sentenced to death, the execution being fixed for the morning of July 2nd.'
His grave is in Greyabbey churchyard. He was just 45 years old at his execution.
Edited by Eamon Phoenix e.phoenix@irishnews.com