Managers of John Stewart Porterfield,
I am contacting you about this profile: John ‘Immigrant’ Porterfield
You have him connected to the wrong family. This John Porterfield (1675-1738), the Trenton Merchant, is often confused with his cousin, John Porterfield (1675-1739), the fore father of the Pennsylvania Porterfields.
Occupation: Merchant in Trenton, New Jersey
Religion: Presbyterian
John Porterfield (1675-1738), who came to America. New Jersey Archives, Vol. 30 P 383: "John Porterfield, merchant of Trenton, New Jersey, by will dated 1735, leaves property to brother and nephews in Scotland." Hall's History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, pp. 72-73: "John Porterfield died in 1738. His will, dated three years before, describes him 'of Trenton, Merchant', and devises a thousand acres on the south branch of the Raritan, and other property in east New Jersey, 'late recovered from John Drummond, Earl of Melfort', one of the noble proprietaries. It mentions his brother, Alexander, of Duchall, in Scotland, and a nephew, William Rallston of the shire of Ayr and 'Boyd Porterfield, grandson to my brother'. He bequeathed to another nephew, William Farquhar, 'chirurgeon of Brunswick, all my interest in one third part of the forge at Trenton.' (This will, as a photostatic copy shows, was written by John Porterfield, the devisor, himself and is very legibly written and properly arranged, in excellent language. The word Duchall is spelled by him who was reared at Duchall as it is written here. Evidently the Porterfields who owned the Duchall estate knew how to spell it. However, many, many other records and authors examined in the course of this reseach use the Duchal spelling, omitting the last letter.)
Sincerely,
Ron Harper
