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PART V.

GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1838.

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DAVID RITTENHOUSE PORTER,

GOVERNOR UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1838.

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January 15, 1839, to January 21, 1845.

AVID RITTENHOUSE PORTER was born near Norristown, Montgomery County, Pa., on the 31st of October, 1788. His grandfather, Robert Porter, emigrated, early in the last century, from the north of Ireland. The farm where he lived is situated about nine miles north-west of Londonderry, near the sea-coast. The land, together with several adjoining farms, is yet owned, after the lapse of more than a century and a half, by those of his own name and blood. One of their number, the Rev. J. L. Porter, D. D., LL. D., Professor of Sacred Literature in the College at Belfast, has attained a high position as a preacher, an author, and a man of letters, especially in the Department of Oriental Literature. Andrew Porter, the father of David R., was born at the homestead in Montgomery County, in 1743, and attained distinction as a Revolutionary soldier. In boyhood he manifested much fondness for mathematics, and early attracted the notice of that profound scholar Dr. David Rittenhouse, under whose advice he opened an English and mathematical school in Philadelphia. The Institution had attained a widespread reputation for excellence when the Revolutionary War broke out, and its principal, obedient to the calls of patriotism, laid aside the robes of the master for the garb of the soldier. He was at first commissioned a Captain of Marines, but at his own request was soon afterwards transferred to the artillery. He subsequently became Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of Artillery, and was engaged in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. At Ger

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