Esther Ann Toomer ^{1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10}

  Death Notes:

Died at the residence of son Anthony Toomer Porter.

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Residence: Age: 47 in 1850 in Prince George Winyaw, Georgetown, SC. ⁶

2. Residence: Age: 78 Marital Status: Widowed; Relation to Head of House: Mother in 1880 in Charleston, Charleston, SC. ¹⁰

3. Residence: in 1877 in Charleston, Charleston, SC. ⁹

4. Residence: in 1830 in , Georgetown, SC. ⁷

5. She was educated in Elizabeth, Union, NJ. ¹²

6. Moved: Abt 1830, , , CT. ¹²

7. She has conflicting burial information of Her burial record also appears in the record books at his father's Holy Communion Church in Charleston. See page 81 at http://books.google.com/books?id=6XdIAAAAYAAJ, 31 Jan 1888 and Charleston: Church of the Holy Communion, Charleston, SC. ¹¹

8. Census in 1850 in Charleston, Charleston, SC. ¹³ The 1850 census recorded A. Toomer Porter, 22, living with his mother, Esther Ann Porter, 47. Both were born in South Carolina.

9. Book: Autobiography of son Anthony Toomer Porter, 1898. ¹⁴
IMy mother had been educated in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and retained to her death a great attachment for the North and her Northern friends. Left a widow at the age of twenty-five, with five children, the oldest eight years, and the youngest nine months, with a handsome estate left to her by my father, she determined, four years after my father's death, to take her children to New Haven, Connecticut, where she believed she could educate them to greater advantage.

My mother was considered a strikingly handsome woman, and retained her beauty to over her seventieth year. She was highly educated, and of fascinating manners, with brilliant conversational powers. With these attractions, and the reputation of being a rich Southern widow, of course she had many suitors. But my father's last words to her were, "Train our children as you know I would have done," and she determined to live for them. There were a number of Southern students at Yale College, and her home was their constant resort. Being very young, I remember very little of our sojourn there. But I recollect that several of the students kept riding horses, and would put a pillow in front and ride me about, a curly-headed imp.

There was a young Frenchman who was very fond of me, but he often made use of language not fitted for a Sunday-school. One day I said to him," If you don't stop using those bad words, do you know where you will go when you die?" "Where will I go?" he said. "To a place too bad for me to tell you," was my reply. My childish rebuke had a wonderful effect upon him, for he was never heard to utter an oath afterwards. I had another friend, Mr. Ligon. He was afterwards Governor of Maryland. This gentleman's name will appear later on in my story.

Eventually my mother returned South. I have a dim recollection of our voyage home in a sailing vessel, and our arrival in Georgetown. I remember how much alarmed I was at the appearance of the black people who came around us. I had a white nurse, an Irish woman, who had gone with us to New Haven and returned, and remained until I was nine years old. My father had left his town residence to my mother, with his plantation and some eighty slaves.

At that time the remaining children, save my brother John, were attending the school of a maiden lady, Miss Betsey Taylor, who was very frequently a visitor at our home. My mother was a most sensible woman who did all she could to let her children enjoy their young life. We had a room to play in, and in that room she provided every kind of game that she could procure - cards and puzzles, lotto and backgammon, checkers and chess, picture books, and dancing ropes, dominoes, and games too numerous to mention. Friday afternoon and evening, and Saturday, we had the privilege of having as many children friends as we wished, and a rollicking good time we had, joyous without being boisterous; still it certainly was not a silent crowd.

One evening Miss Taylor was spending the time at our house, and being somewhat annoyed at the romping going on in the children's room, she left the sitting room for ours, and bringing her school-room discipline into exercise, very peremptorily ordered us to bed, saying she did not propose to be annoyed by the noise of children. My mother perceived the sudden cessation of laughter, and the solemn silence which followed, for we all stood in mortal dread of the spinster. She quickly followed Miss Taylor, and heard her giving us her orders. Mother was a woman of considerable positiveness herself, and having the sole control and rearing of her children, it was not safe to intrude upon her prerogatives. I remember the quiet dignity of her manner on that occasion. She was severely polite as she begged pardon of Miss Taylor, and told us to resume our play, and to go to bed when she gave the direction. Then turning to Miss Taylor, she said. "In your school-room my children are under your direction; in my house, they are under mine. Your action is a reflection upon the manners of my children. They are never allowed to disturb my guests, and had it been necessary I would have anticipated you, by stopping their hilarity; but with their innocent enjoyment in my own house, I permit no interference of any kind." It was many years ago, but I recall the rage into which the school mistress worked herself. She turned on mother, who was many years her junior, and seemed to think she was one of her pupils. Mother calmly stood it a little while, when, placing herself between the children and the open door, she pointed to it, and suggested it was about time for both of them to retire. Miss Taylor gathered up her bonnet and shawl, and it was a very long time before she crossed our threshold again.

This incident made a change in our school life. We were all withdrawn the next day, and sent to school to Dr. W. R. T. Prior. I was soon advanced in my studies, and began Latin. Being somewhat quick at my lessons, I was pushed on very rapidly, though very superficially, and found myself in Virgil in an incredibly short time, without the slightest comprehension of the language. To this day, I feel the evil effects of this injudicious method. A study which was not understood became the object of contempt. I long retained possession of my old Virgil, all spotted with tear drops, for many a hearty cry did I have over the book, with no one at home to help me, and when I went to recite, few explanations. So I hobbled along through those school-boy years, really knowing nothing.

10. Newspaper: News & Courier: obituary of Esther Porter, 31 Jan 1888, Charleston, Charleston, SC.

Esther married Colonel John Porter Jr., son of John Porter Sr. and Unknown, on 16 Dec 1819 in , Georgetown, SC.^{1 2} (Colonel John Porter Jr. was born in Nov 1795 in , Georgetown, SC ¹⁵ and died on 25 Oct 1828 in , Georgetown, SC ⁸.)