Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Porter, Thomas

PORTER, Thomas, jurist, b. in Farmington, Conn., in May, 1734; d. in Granville, N. Y., in August, 1833. His ancestor, Thomas, emigrated from England in 1640, and was an original proprietor of Farmington. He served in the British army at Lake George in 1755, and was captain of a company of minute-men. About 1757 he removed to Cornwall, Conn., and in 1779 he went to Tinmouth, Vt., in both of which towns he held local offices. For ten years he was judge of the supreme and county courts of Vermont, and he was a member of the legislatures of Connecticut and Vermont for thirty-five years.—His son, Ebenezer, educator, b. in Cornwall. Conn., 5 Oct., 1772; d. in Andover, Mass., 8 April, 1834, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1792, studied theology in Bethlehem, Conn., was pastor of a Congregational church in Washington, Conn., from 1796 until 1812, and from that year until 1832 was professor of sacred rhetoric at Andover theological seminary, of which he was president from 1827 till his death. Yale gave him the degree of A. M. in 1795, and Dartmouth that of D. D. in 1814. He contributed to the “Quarterly Register,” and published sixteen sermons, two fast sermons (1831), and abridgments of Owen on “Spiritual Mindedness” and on the “130th Psalm” (1833); and was the author of “The Young Preacher's Manual” (Boston, 1819); “Lecture on the Analysis of Vocal Inflections” (Andover, 1824); “An Analysis of the Principles of Rhetorical Delivery” (1827); “Syllabus of Lectures” (1829): “Rhetorical Reader” (1831, enlarged by James N. MacElligott, New York, 1855); “Lectures on the Revivals of Religion” (Andover, 1832); “Lectures on the Cultivation of Spiritual Habits and Progress in Study” (1833); “Lectures on Homiletics, Preaching, and Public Prayer, with Sermons and Letters” (Andover and New York, 1834; 2d ed., with notes and appendix by the Rev. J. Jones, of Liverpool, London, 1835); and “Lectures on Eloquence and Style,” revised by Rev. Lyman Matthews (Andover, 1836). See “Memoir of Ebenezer Porter,” D. D., by Rev. Lyman Matthews (Boston, 1837).