There are a couple of mentions in the local newspapers for Richard John Porter, the proverbial servant who married his late boss’s widow.
I came across a case before the bench in the Hastings and St Leonards News, 22 July 1864, titled THE ANTAGONIST OF CONNUBIAL FELICITY. The following is a summary of the case.
A complaint had been made against Richard John Porter, baker, of London Road, by his wife, saying that he threatened her life, and was violent. Her lawyer, Mr Langham, said that he was formerly a servant to Mr Beck, and as such conducted himself properly, ‘but the widow very foolishly married him, and however good a servant he might be, he had turned out a very bad master.’ He had suggested to his client that she apply to the Court of Divorce for a judicial separation.
Mary Ann Porter, complainant, said she was the widow of Henry Beck, baker and confectioner, of 9 London Road, who had died on the 2 July 1860. She married Porter, in her late husband’s employ, in November 1862. She continued with what became an horrific account:
He has been very unkind to me. He soon began drinking to excess; but was not unkind till three months after our marriage. He first commenced by swearing at me, whilst he had too much drink. It became worse and worse down to Thursday last. He came into dinner on that day about half-past one o’clock, very much the worse for drink. He began by giving the baby green peas, and I quietly asked him not to do so, as it had been suffering from diarrhoea. He swore at me very much; and after dinner he struck me in the eye with his fist, almost without hesitation. The mark still remains. When he struck me I said “Is that what you mean ?” and I slapped his face. He took hold of both my hands, threw me upon the ottoman, and held a jug over me; and he said, “I will give you what you deserve: I will dash your brains out.” My right arm and hip is bruised. My life is repeatedly in danger, and I am afraid of his threats. The summons was served on Saturday, before I went home. About three o’clock he came in and threatened twice that he would kill me.
The defendant when asked simply said that he ‘had no recollection about it.’ A young man named Saunders, employed by Porter, corroborated events on the Thursday. Langham did not ask that Porter be proceeded against for the assault but wanted sureties to keep the peace. Mrs Porter did not wish to have him punished. ‘In defence, Porter said that he believed he had had a little too much drink, and that he had acted wrong.’ The sole magistrate hearing the case, Mr Ross, saying that drink is our great curse, required Porter’s personal recognizance for £50, and two sureties for £25 each, to keep the peace for six months.
The 30 March 1851 census has, at 5 London Road, Harriet Beck, 51, widow, baker, with three children, including Henry, 22, baker, all born at Hastings. A few months later, on the 9 June 1851, St Leonards church, Henry married Mary Ann Sinden. Both were of St Mary Magdalen parish, he a baker, both their fathers also bakers. Beck left a will, with his widow the executrix for his modest £450 estate. I can find little on him, except for a court case reported in the Sussex Advertiser, 26 October 1858, where:
Mary Ann Betts, 13, was charged with stealing a sovereign belonging to Mr Henry Beck, confectioner, of 9, London Road, and likewise a pair of sleeves, two collars, and other articles, belonging to Miss Tree.
Mary Ann Beck stated that the prisoner had been a general servant of hers from about the 8 August. Money from his children’s money boxes was placed in a cigar box which her husband had intended to put in a safe place but was distracted, and he later missed the sovereign. Mrs and Miss Tree were lodgers. Despite her youth, Betts had previously worked for Mr Selman, who provided a written character, and Henry Beck pleaded for leniency on the grounds of her youth, as did the prisoner’s mother. The sentence was deferred and I did not trace what happened.
In the 7 April 1861 census at 9 London Road we find the following household:
Mary A. Beck, head, W[idow], 34, Baker Mistress employing 2 Men & Boy, born Sussex Hastings
Samuel W. Beck, son, 8, born Sussex St Leonards
Henry P. Beck, son, 6, scholar, born Sussex St Leonards
Annie H. Beck, dau, 5, scholar, born Sussex St Leonards
Brooke C. Barnes, lodger, U[nmarried], 28, Curate of St Mary Magdalen St Leonards, born Middlesex Chelsea
Richard J. Porter, serv, U, 33, baker, born Newport Isle of Wight
William H. Fuggle, serv, U, 19, baker, born Tenterden Kent
Kezia J. Wood, servt, U, 16, general servant, born Sussex Hastings
William Offen, serv, U, 16, baker, born Sussex Ore Hastings
They married on the 16 November 1862, at St Mary Magdalen, he a baker, son of John Porter, music master, she daughter of Samuel Sinden, farmer. Both were of the parish.
Not mentioned in the newspaper account are her children by Beck, and her child by Porter is only mentioned in passing. Albert Edward was baptised on the 6 September 1863 at St Mary Magdalen church.
The only other newspaper mention of Porter that I can find is about eight months after the court case. It was in the Sussex Advertiser, 8 April 1865, before the Hastings County Court. The case of Richard John Porter v William Woodhams was an action to recover debt of 6s 8d for goods sold. However, the plaintiff – Porter — had left Hastings. Mr Savery appeared on behalf of the plaintiff’s wife, suing with the authority of the trustees. The case was non-suited (stopped) as the defendant claimed he had never owned the plaintiff a farthing. I have not discovered what later happened to Porter, although he was stated to be dead when Albert, the son, married in 1884, at St Mary Magdalen, St Leonards, as a clerk from Bristol, Esther Newman of the parish.
What of Porter’s origins ? In the 1851 census Richard John Porter had been a pastry cook at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, servant to the absent brother of Maria Woodford. I had hoped to trace him from the 1871 census and so looked for the son.
In Mile End, Middlesex, son Albert, 7, born St Leonards, was nephew to Henry Sinden, vicar of St Mary’s, Commercial Road, born Hastings, and his wife Ruth, born at Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight. They had an adopted daughter, Lydia Porter, 18, born Ryde, Isle of Wight. When the uncle died in 1888 his executor was the same nephew. Why was the adopted daughter a Porter ? Because the same Henry Sinden had married Ruth Porter in 1849, at Newchurch, Isle of Wight.
Henry Beck’s wife Mary Ann née Sinden had a brother, Henry Sinden, who had married a Porter in 1849, while she as a widow married a Porter in 1862, both Porters having Isle of Wight roots. It looks like Richard John Porter had taken up a job at a St Leonards bakery that was run by a relative by marriage.
As for Mary Ann Porter, his wife, she died in late 1866, Hastings, aged 39. I have not tried to trace her children by her first husband.