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Date(s)
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1765-1860, 1898, predominant 1767-1776 (Creation)
- Creator
- Nehemiah Porter family, 1720-
Physical description area
Physical description
- 10 cm of textual records
- 0.5 cm of graphic material
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Name of creator
Biographical history
Reverend Nehemiah Porter, son of weaver Nehemiah Porter and Hannah (Smith) was born 22 or 27 March 1720 at Ipswich, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1745 and was ordained in 1750. On 14 February 1749 he married Rebecca Chipman at Beverly, Massachusetts; they had the following children: Rebekah, Hannah, Nehemiah (b. 1753), John C., Sarah, Samuel, Ebenezer, Joseph, and Elisabeth. Dismissed from his first church in Ipswich in 1766 and his wife having died a few years earlier, Rev. Porter moved to Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia where he served as minister of the Congregational Church, 1767-1771. He returned to Massachusetts in 1771, leaving his eldest son Nehemiah Porter Jr. to keep his farm at Yarmouth. Rev. Porter settled at Ashfield, Massachusetts in 1774 and was chaplain in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. He married Elizabeth Raymond in 1778 and continued to preach until his death at Ashfield on 29 February 1820, a few days short of his 100th birthday. Nehemiah Porter Jr. bought his father's farm in Yarmouth ca. 1784. He and his wife Mary (Tardy), married 18 July 1776, had fourteen children: Rebecca (b. 1777), Mary (b. 1778), Hannah (b. 1780), Ruth (b. 1782), Sarah (b. 1784), Nehemiah (b. 1786), John Tardy (b. 1788), Ebenezer (b. 1791), Elizabeth (b. 1793), Joseph (b. 1795), Samuel Chipman (b. 1797), Jonathan (b. 1801), George Rowland (b. 1804), and Eunice (b. 1806).
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Scope and content
Consists of original and typed copies of correspondence, 1767-1812 (fragmentary) written and received by Rev. Nehemiah Porter and his son Nehemiah Porter Jr. Includes letters from Rev. Porter to his children in Massachusetts and Yarmouth, and letters written to Nehemiah Porter Jr. in Yarmouth from his father and siblings. Letters include mention of work, travel, family news, and religious reflection. Also contains deeds, indentures, will, and other documents, mostly concerning the estate of Rev. Porter and property in Yarmouth; "Journal from N. England to Capeforsoe in Nova Scotia" kept by Rev. Porter, 1767-1769, which includes mention of his parishioners, sermons and ceremonies performed, travels, family activities, and weather. Also included are photograph portraits, 1898, and prints of Rev. Porter's children and grandchildren, and Porter and Chipman family residences; indenture and photograph of indenture concerning the apprenticeship of David Dire, African-Nova Scotian; and letter and receipt dated 1860 pertaining to Capt. Porter at Yarmouth.
Notes area
Physical condition
Several items with mold stains.
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated by B.S. Robbins, Yarmouth in the 1960s.
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Image: Indenture of David Dize