Middleton-Porter Connections

It appears that several Porter-Middleton marriages already had occurred in South Carolina and in Alabama, before descendants of these two families actually arrived in the Mississippi Territory.  In fact, one of these occurred in Adams County almost twenty years before the marriage of my fourth great-grandparents, Mary Middleton and Samuel Porter, who wed in 1825 in Franklin County, Mississippi. That marriage took place on April 21, 1808, in nearby Adams County, Mississippi, when Mary Middleton, daughter of  John G. Middleton and Elizabeth Middleton, married John Porter. (Since Franklin County had been established from a portion of Adams County, it is entirely possible that both marriages could have occurred in the same location.) The earlier marriage was performed by Shadrack Porter, a justice of the peace and the groom's brother, and both men were sons of Lancelot (Landlot) Porter and his wife Winifred Palmer Porter. According to the U. S. Census of 1810, there were two additional Porter males, William and Joseph, who were enumerated as heads of households in Franklin County, Mississippi.  


At this point, it is unknown how William, Joseph, and my fourth great-grandfather, Samuel Porter, were related to Landlot, John, and Shadrack, or to each other. Nor do I know names of the parents of Samuel Porter and Mary Middleton Porter. One thing is certain, however, the Porter and Middleton families had lived in proximity to each other in at least two states for several decades and continued to do so in southwest Mississippi  until newly formed counties opened up for settlement elsewhere. 


It appears that Samuel and Mary Porter remained in Franklin County for at least five years after their marriage, since Samuel was enumerated on the U. S. Census recorded that year as the head of a household that consisted of one female under thirty and two children, a male and a female, under five years old. The next time that Samuel appeared on a census was in 1837, when he was shown on a state census recorded that year that shows him living in Madison County, Mississippi.


Next:  The Porters of Madison and Attala Counties


Source:
Hunting for Bears, comp., Mississippi Marriages, 1776-1935 [database on-line].  Provo, UT, USA:  Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.  Original data:  Mississippi marriage information taken from county courthouse records.  Many of these records were extracted from copies of the original records in microfilm, or book format, located at the Family History Library.


Ancestry.com.  Mississippi State and Territorial Census Collection, 1792-1866 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:  Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.  Original data:  Mississippi State and Territorial Censuses, 1792-1866.  Microfilm V229.  3 rolls.  Heritage Quest.


Ancestry.com.  1830 United States Federal Census [database on-line].  Provo, UT, USA:  Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2010.  Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Landlot Porter's Presence in Mississippi

According to early state and territorial census records, Landlot Porter and four other Porter males, John, Joseph, William, and Shadrack, were residents of Mississippi before statehood. Most researchers agree that William Porter, who married Gracy Lawson in Franklin County, Mississippi, on January 29, 1826, was the son of Landlot Porter and his wife, Winnie Palmer Porter. Since William Porter, who is buried in the Fortson-Porter Cemetery near Siwell in Hinds County, Mississippi, was already the father of adult children when he died in 1834, it is likely that he was born before the Porter Family migration to the Mississippi Territory ever began.  Porter family researchers also seem to agree that Landlot Porter was the son of Edward Sanders Porter and Mary Jeter of Union County, South Carolina.  In fact, Edward Turner Porter, enumerated on the U. S. Census of 1850, son of William and Gracy Porter, was most certainly named for his Porter great-grandfather.


According to U. S. General Land Office Records, Landlot Porter acquired 80.64 acres of land in Hinds County, Mississippi, described as Section 9, Township 5 North, Range 1 West.  This acquisition of land in Hinds County places Landlot Porter near the location where William and Gracy Porter lived during the same time, and also near the location of Fortson-Porter Cemetery where Landlot was later buried.


Sources:
Ancestry.com. Mississippi Marriages, 1826-50 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 1999. Original data: Dodd, Jordan R, et. al.. Early American Marriages: Mississippi; accessed November 30, 2010.


Ancestry.com. U.S. General Land Office Records, 1796-1907 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: United States. Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records. Automated Records Project; Federal Land Patents, State Volumes.http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/. Springfield, Virginia: Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States, 2007; accessed November 30, 2010.