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May 13, 2009 was the Bicentenary of the death of Rt Rev Beilby Porteus, D.D., Bishop of Chester and London (May 8, 1731–May 13, 1809) Beilby Porteus was the son of Robert Porteus, a native of Virginia, US who had returned to England in 1720. Educated at York and Ripon, he was a classics scholar at Christ’s College, Cambridge, becoming a fellow in 1752. In 1759 he won the Seatonian Prize for his poem Death: A Poetical Essay, a work for which he is still remembered. He was ordained as a priest in 1757, and by 1762 had been appointed domestic chaplain to Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury and, from 1769, chaplain to King George III. In 1776 Dr Porteus was appointed Bishop of Chester, taking a keen interest in the affairs of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Porteus played an important role, opposing the trade and formulating a workable policy to draw attention to and improve the conditions of the Afro-Caribbean slaves in Barbados. In 1783 Porteus used the opportunity afforded by preaching the Anniversary Sermon of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) to criticise the Church’s role in ignoring the plight of the slaves on its Codrington Estates, and to recommend means by which the lot of slaves there could be improved. When this sermon, preached before forty members of the society, including eleven bishops and archbishops of the Church of England, largely fell upon deaf ears, Porteus next produced his Plan for the Effectual Conversion of the Slaves of the Codrington Estate, which he presented to the society in 1784 and, when it was turned down, again in 1789. These were the first challenges to the establishment in an eventual twenty-six year campaign to eradicate slavery in the British West Indian colonies. Porteus made a huge contribution and eventually turned to other means of achieving his aims, including writing, aiding political initiatives and supporting the sending of mission workers to Barbados and Bermuda. In 1788 Porteus had supported Sir William Dolben’s Slave Trade Bill from the bench of bishops, and over the next quarter century he became the leading advocate within the Church of England for the abolition of slavery, while lending support to such men as Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and Zachary Macaulay to secure the eventual passage of the Slave Trade Bill in 1807. It is fitting, then, that – four years before the bicentenary of Porteus’ death in 1809 – Bishop Sentamu should be appointed as Archbishop of York – and that this year the Synod should take this landmark step to apologise for its role in the slave trade, and finally recognise the damage done by the SPG’s shameful inolvement in what Porteus called ‘the most execrable and inhuman traffic that ever disgraced the Christian world.’ The above article is partly adapted from a letter to The Daily Telegraph after the announcement in February 2006 that the General Synod of the Church of England had voted to apologise to the descendants of black slaves on the SPG’s Codrington Estates for its involvement in the slave trade. The author of this site is currently writing a biographical paper on the life and work of Bishop Beilby Porteus, and would be grateful to hear from any researchers possessing original source material or later biographies which may be relevant. If you are able to help please contact Bruce Porteous. A tribute to the life of Bishop Beilby Porteus on the occasion of his Bicentenary on May 13, 2009 can be found here. |
WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE OF THE PORTEOUS RESEARCH PROJECT
Welcome to this site, especially if your name is Porteous, or you are a family historian or genealogist researching the Porteous or Porteus families. You are one of many individuals worldwide who are engaged in a similar search!
THE RESEARCH PROJECTThe principal aim of the Porteous Research Project is to examine the emigration of the family from Scotland to Ireland, England and across the world, providing an Analysis of the migrants and seeking an understanding of the historical background and sociological factors which led to that vast movement.It should be stressed that this is a work in progress and it will be many years before our research is complete – if ever! We hope to introduce increased interactivity in the near future, including a searchable database of emigrants, as well as maps illustrating the movement and settlement of Porteous and Porteus families across the world. Please report any dead links or any difficulty in accessing any part of this site to the webmaster at The Porteous Research Project. We would also be grateful to hear of any websites relating to the Porteous/Porteus family history which should be included. Click to enter We hope you will find this site useful, as it contains details of how to contact the Porteous Associates research group and various mailing lists and bulletin boards devoted to researching the family name, as well as a number of other Porteous and Porteus homepages and websites across the world.
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Beilby Porteus bicentenary
