PORTAL, Abraham (Grimwade p.629-30, 764)

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13 January 1809 Abraham Portal of Castle Street Holborn in the City of London Gentleman will proved. Bernard Bedwell was identified as the father of Abraham's late wife Elizabeth in the will. Source Citation: London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section, Clerkenwell, London, England; Reference Number: DL/C/441; Will Number: 84.

[dognose]

Mr. Abraham Portal was the son of the Rev. William Portal, rector of South Fambridge, Essex, 1734, vicar of St. Helen, Abingdon, 1757; who died Sept 13,1768. Mr. Abraham Portal, it is believed, was the author of "A Letter to David Garrick, esq. occasioned by the intended representation of The Minor at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, 1760," 8vo; a pamphlet of 48 pages, to which the initials A. P are affixed. He married Miss Bedwell of Abingdon, June 19, 1758; and was sometime a silversmith on Ludgate-hill, in partnership with Mr. H. Gearing, where they failed in 1770.

Source: Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century - John Nichols and Samuel Bentley - 1812

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7 January 1809 Abraham Portal Castle Street burial recorded at Saint Andrew Holborn Camden.

[dognose]

Sir William Portal (President of the Huguenot Society of London, 1908-1911) has presented to the Society a copy of a charming product of his pen, entitled ' Abraham Portal and his Descendants.' The little volume, beautifully printed on beautiful paper, is a most interesting monument to a distinguished Huguenot family. The Portals are traced back to the early seventeenth century, when their home was at Bagnolssur-Ceze in Languedoc. The two branches of the family now in England are both descended from Jean Francois Portal (1642-1705) through his two sons, Pierre Guillaume and Henri, who are said to have escaped from France concealed in wine casks. From the latter are descended the Portals of Laverstoke, including the author of this book ; and its chief subject, Abraham Portal (1726-1805), was the son of the former. Pierre Guillaume became rector of a country parish in England, but his son Abraham chose the trade of goldsmith and silversmith, eventually becoming the senior member of the Goldsmiths' Company. He was, however, as well known as a craftsman in dramatic art as in that of the precious metals, and among his writings are Olindo and Sophronia (tragedy, 1758), The Indiscreet Lover (comedy, 1768), and a comic opera entitled The Cady of Bagdad. He was a close friend of Sheridan, after whom his second son was named Richard Brinsley, and his portrait was painted by Hogarth, whose friendship with the Huguenots is well known ; but it is not so generally known that Hogarth in his early days was apprenticed to Portal's own trade of silversmith. It is sad to read that Abraham Portal, eminent as he was in these two spheres, should have ended his days in rather humble circumstances after having been bankrupt in 1778. By his second wife, Elizabeth Bedwell, he had two sons and four daughters. It is from his second son, already referred to, that the present elder branch of the family is descended. One of his daughters was the mother of the first Lord Hatherton, and two distinguished officers of the War are among her descendants—namely, General the Earl of Cavan and Lieut. General Sir Philip Chetwode. It is interesting to note that the two branches of the family have lately been reunited by the marriage in 1899 of Colonel (now Brig.-General) Bertram Portal, third son of Sir Wyndham Portal, Bart., of Laverstoke, with the Hon. Margaret Littleton, eldest daughter of the third Lord Hatherton. The book contains some excellent reproductions of portraits, including the Hogarth portrait, which forms the frontispiece, and concludes with a pedigree.

Source: Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London - 1924