Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Portal
Portal.[1] — Having already noted the antecedents of this noble Albigensian and Huguenot family, I begin with the refugee’s son, Joseph Portal, Esq., of Freefolk Priors in Hampshire; he was born in 1720, and died on 14th December 1793. His Will was dated 13th June 1792, with a codicil dated 21st July, and proved on 4th January 1794, after viva voce attestations of its genuineness by the witnesses who had signed, and by his second son, William Portal of the Inner Temple, London, Esq. There was pinned to the Will a paper containing a list of “rings to be given,” and the following instructions as to his funeral:—
To be interred under the Great House Seat in Laverstock Church, only a plain marble table over it like that for my father in Whitchurch Church, no hearse, and only my own carriage, and to be carried by nine of my own servants, and they have a guinea apiece; viz., Young Wm. Bennett, Sherrington, Wm. Mills, Ratcliffe, Jim Webb, Tom Montle, Ja. Fisher, Wm. Bray, Wm. Taleridge.
He left three estates in Hampshire to his three sons and their heirs-male, females being excluded, but portions being allotted to them and to younger sons, the destination being as strict as a Scotch Entail. The estate of Laverstoke fell to his eldest son, Harry; the estate of Ash to the second son, William; and Freefolk Priors to the third son, John.
(1). Captain Harry Portal, born in 1752, an officer in the 10th Hussars, died unmarried on 19th March 1801, and Laverstoke passed to the next brother.
(2). William Portal, barrister-at-law, who retained Ash, but thenceforth was styled "of Laverstoke"; he was born 12th February 1755, and died 12th February 1846, aged ninety-one. Of his only child, Sophia, I have spoken in a former chapter. The Will of “William Portal, late of the Inner Temple, now of Laverstoke,” was dated in 1837, the executors being Charles Palmer Dumons and Sophia Portal (the Rev. William Knight was named in 1841). In June 1846 his effects were sworn as being under £160,000. The legacies were trifling, and the residue was the fortune which his admirable daughter dispensed with “unbounded liberality and world-wide charity.” As a female, she also, according to her grandfather’s Will, received a portion in money from her Uncle John, who now, according to the same rigid Will, possessed all that his grandfather had, viz., Laverstoke, Ash, Freefolk Priors, and the Bank of England Paper-Mill; and in addition he received lands from his brother, William, viz., three small properties, named in the Wills both of William and John.
(3.) John Portal did not survive his brother very long; he was born 29th April 1764, and died 7th May 1848, aged eighty-four. He did not change his designation. His Will, dated 27th January 1848, began thus:—
I, John Portal of Freefolk Priors, in the county of Southampton, Esquire, do . . . declare this to be my last Will and Testament. I desire to be buried in the family vault at Laverstock, in the said county, in such manner as my executors shall think proper, but I request that my funeral may be a walking one, and attended with as little expense as decency will admit of.
His effects were sworn as being under £40,000. Mr. Portal was twice married, but suffered sorrow upon sorrow in family bereavements. Three married daughters were left to him of the children of his first marriage, but three sons and two daughters died. He married, secondly, on 1st August 1815, Elizabeth, only daughter of Henry Drummond, Esq. of the Grange, Hampshire, by Anne, his wife, daughter of Henry, Viscount Melville. Their eldest child, Henry-John, died in 1823, aged six. Huguenot names being exhausted, British baptismal names were next selected.
The eldest surviving son is now the head of the family — namely, Melville Portal, Esq. of Laverstoke, Chairman of the Quarter-Sessions of Hampshire, born in 1819, married in 1855 Lady Charlotte Mary Elliot, daughter of the second Earl of Minto, whose eldest son is Lieutenant Melville Raymond Portal. The other brothers of Mr. Portal are Lieut-Colonel Robert Portal; Wyndham Spencer Portal, Esq., the possessor of the far-famed paper-mill, and the Squire of Malshangcr; and Rev. George Raymond Portal, M.A., Oxon., Canon of Winchester, Rector of Burghclere, Rural Dean and Chaplain to the Earl of Carnarvon and Duke of Northumberland.
- ↑ Where there is a peerage or a baronetcy in a family, a chieftain cannot be ignored, even though he have left no male issue. This makes Burke’s “Peerage and Baronetage” a more valuable book of reference than Burke’s “Landed Gentry,” because to the latter, descendants of younger brothers may send memoirs which ignore or curtail an uncle’s honours. In my second edition I had to succumb to a memoir of this kind, which had been rendered unintelligible. But for this edition I have studied the Wills deposited in Somerset House.