PORTER, Jane (1776-1850), a novelist whose life and reputation are closely linked with those of her sister Anna Maria Porter (1780-1832) and her brother Sir Robert Ker Porter (1775-1842). Their father, an officer in the English army, having died shortly after the birth in 1776 of the younger sister, the mother removed from Durham, their birthplace, to Edinburgh, where the inherited passion for the romance of war which gave character to the works of each appears to have been stimulated by their association with Flora Macdonald and the young Walter Scott. To develop the artistic ability displayed by the brother, the family moved in 1790 to London, and the sisters subsequently resided at Thames Ditton and at Esher with their mother until her death in 1831. The ability of Anna Maria Porter was the first to manifest itself in the premature publication of her Artless Tales (1793-95), these being followed by a long series of works, of which the more noteworthy are Walsh Colville (1797), Octavia (1798), The Lake of Killamey (1804), A Sailor's Friendship and a Soldier's Love (1805), The Hungarian Brothers (1807), Don Sebastian (1809), Ballads, Romances, and other Poems (1811), The Recluse of Norway (1814), The Knight of St John (1817), The Fast of St Magdalen (1818), The Village of Mariendorpt (1821), Roche Blanche (1822), Honor O'Hara (1826), and Barony (1830). Jane Porter, whose intellectual power, though slower in development and in expression, was of a stronger nature than that of her sister, had in the meantime gained an immediate and wide popularity by her first work, Thaddeus of Warsaw (1803), which was translated into several languages and procured her election as canoness of the Teutonic order of St Joachim. Seven years later her Scottish Chiefs anticipated in some ...measure the works of Sir Walter Scott in the field of national romance, though it is wanting in the higher qualities of the historic novel. Her chief subsequent works were The Pastor's Fireside (1815), Duke Christian of Lüneburg (1824), Coming Out (1828), and The Field of Forty Footsteps (1828). In conjunction with her sister she published in 1826 the Tales round a Winter Hearth, and the intervals between her larger works were filled up with frequent contributions to current periodical literature. Sir Edward Seaward 's Diary (1831)—a work displaying considerable skill in the realistic reproduction of the style and mode of thought of an earlier period— has been persistently, though erroneously, attributed to her. The claim of her eldest brother, Dr William Ogilvie Porter, to its authorship has been fully established, her share in its publication having been solely that of editor. In 1832 Anna Maria died, and for the next ten years Jane became “a wanderer” amongst her relations and friends.
While his sisters had been winning esteem in literature, Robert Ker Porter had in his own way been scarcely less successful. After two years of study at the Royal Academy he had gained reputation as a painter of altar-pieces and battle-scenes of imposing magnitude. He went to Russia as historical painter to the emperor in 1804, accompanied Sir John Moore’s expedition in 1808, married the princess Mary de Sherbatoff in 1811, was created knight commander of the order of Hanover in 1832, and became British consul at Venezuela. Accounts of his wanderings are to be found in his Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden (1808), Letters from Portugal and Spain (1809), Narrative of the late Campaign in Russia (1813), and Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, Ac., during the years 1817-20 (1821-22). After leaving Venezuela he again visited St Petersburg, but died there suddenly on 4th May 1842. Jane Porter, who had joined him in Russia, then returned to England and took up her residence with her eldest brother at Bristol, where she died, 24th May 1850.
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OF THE TEMPLE. The Levites discharged the office of porters of the temple both day and night, and had the care both of the treasure and offerings. The office of porter was in some sort military; properly speaking, they were the soldiers of the Lord, and the guards of his house, to whose charge the several gates of the courts of the sanctuary were appointed by lot, 1 Chronicles xxvi, 1, 13, 19. They waited at every gate; and were not permitted to depart from their service,” 2 Chron. xxxv, 15; and they attended by turns in their courses, as the other Levites did, 2 Chron. viii, 14. Their proper business was to open and shut the gates, and to attend at them by day, as a sort of peace officers, in order to prevent any tumult among the people; to keep strangers and the excommunicated and unclean persons, from entering into the holy court; and, in short, to prevent whatever might be prejudicial to the safety, peace, and purity of the holy place and service. They also kept guard by night about the temple and its courts; and they are said to have been twenty-four, including three priests, who stood sentry at so many different places. There was a superior officer over the whole guard, called by Maimonides, the man of the mountain of the house;” he walked the round as often as he pleased; when he passed a sentinel that was standing, he said, Peace be unto you;” but if he found one asleep, he struck him, and he had liberty to set fire to his garment. This custom may, perhaps, be alluded to in the following passage: Behold, I come as a thief,” that is, unawares; blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments,” Rev. xvi, 15. Psalm cxxxiv, seems to be addressed to these watchmen of the temple, who by night stand in the house of the Lord;” in which they are exhorted ...to employ their waking hours in acts of praise and devotion.
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