Individual Details

I’m quite sure that Peter B. P. “Port” Allen, brother of my great-grandmother was named for this man. Peter Buell Porter and Peter Buell Allen [grandfather of Peter B. P. Allen] were both at the Niagara River all that summer of 1812 prior to the battle of Queenston Heights. They were third cousins - which they probably did not know, but they surely discussed their given names.

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/sw-sa/PorterPB.htm
PETER BUELL PORTER was born at Salisbury, Connecticut, on 14 August 1773; graduated from Yale College in 1791; studied law at Judge Tapping Reeve’s school at Litchfield, Connecticut; moved to Canandaigua, New York, in 1795; entered into the practice of law; was clerk of Ontario County, 1797–1805; served in the New York legislature, 1801–1802; moved to Black Rock on the Niagara River; was a member of the firm of Porter, Barton & Company which controlled transportation on the Niagara Falls portage; served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1809–1813; served on a commission on inland navigation established in 1810 to survey a Lake Erie–Hudson River canal route; was a leading figure among Congressional "war hawks" and chairman of the committee that recommended preparation for war with Great Britain; was quartermaster general of New York militia, May–October 1812; participated in and criticized General Alexander Smyth’s abortive operations against British Canada, 1812; fought a bloodless duel with Smyth; raised and commanded a brigade of New York militia that incorporated a Six Nations Indian contingent; led his command with distinction in the battles of Chippewa, Lundy’s Lane, and Fort Erie, 1814; again served in the Congress, 1814–1816; served on the U.S.-Canadian boundary commission, 1816–1822; was Secretary of State of New York, 1816–1817; was defeated by De Witt Clinton for the New York governorship; married Letitia Breckinridge, 1818; was a regent of the State University, 1824–1830; served as Secretary of War, 26 May 1828–9 March 1829; advocated removal of Eastern Indians beyond the Mississippi; retired to private life; died at Niagara Falls, New York, on 20 March 1844.


From History of Ontario Co, New York; Everts, Ensign & Everts
Philadelphia; 1876
p.37
25 Dec 1806 Committee to prevent divide of Ontario County. Myron Holley was clerk. Committee to draft remonstrance to the legislature: Nathaniel W. Howell, Peter B. Porter, & Myron Holley.
p. 53
County Clerks
Peter B. Porter, Jan 20, 1797
Myron Holley, Feb 13, 1810


Found in The Lancaster Legend; Newsletter of the Lancaster Historical Society, Vol. 8, No. 2, March/April 2001; "Underground Railway" by Ealnor Bissell.
A law passed in New York in 1818,decreed the gradual abolition of slaves by providing that males under 28 and females under 25 must be freed as they attained those ages, and that no slaves could be brought into the state. A complete end to human slavery was to take place on 4 Jul 1827.
An ironic exception was granted in 1820 in Erie County. It involved Peter Buel Porter "General of the Armies", a genuine War of 1812 hero and US Secretary of War who married a daughter of US Attorney-General John Breckenridge. The bride was allowed to bring five slaves from Kentucky to her new home in Black Rock, NY. Over forty years later, their son Peter A. Porter died in a hail of Southern bullets as he led the 8th NY Heavy Artillery at Cold Harbor, VA, 1864.

Birth	14 Aug 1773	Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut
Marriage	16 Oct 1818	Princeton, New Jersey - Letitia Preston Breckinridge
Death	Mar 1844	Niagara Falls, Niagara County, New York

Spouse	Letitia Preston Breckinridge (1786 - 1831)
Child	Elizabeth Lewis Porter (1823 - 1876)
Child	Peter Augustus Porter (1827 - 1864)

Father	Joshua Porter (1730 - 1825)
Mother	Abigail Buell (1733 - 1797)
Sibling	Joshua Porter (1760 - )
Sibling	Abigail Porter (1763 - )
Sibling	Eunice Porter (1766 - )
Sibling	Augustus Porter (1769 - 1849)
Sibling	Sally Porter ( - )