PORTEOUS, JACOB [SSNE 6746]
Text source
Jacob Porteous was presumably related to Andrew/Anders Porteous [SSNE 6745]who was based in Abo for some time. Jacob developed integrated wind-powered saw-mills in dedicated shipyards in Narva in the 1680s. Porteous noted that in addition to himself, his wind-driven sawmills provided work for numerous others. He wanted to expand his operations even further by building ships to sail between Narva and England, France and Holland. His supplication to the king included a request that he might build dedicated houses for his workers and storage facilities for his timber. Further he wished that his brother, Reinhold Porteous, be allowed to establish a similar wind-driven sawmill near Narva once he had acquired citizenship. On 12 July 1702 the verdict of the court case between Wilhelm Beaumont and Joseph Fawthrop (probably Englishmen) and Jacob Porteous, noted as a Swedish burgess and merchant, was recorded. In January the following year Jacob wrote to the Swedish crown noting the 8000 riksdaler he had lost and his attempts to assemble the 530 riksdaler he owed Beaumont and Fawthrop.
Sources: Riksarkivet, Livonica II:I, Vol. 210. Jacob Porteous to Karl XI, Narva, n.d. but after April 1683 (plus enclosures); Swedish Riksarkiv, Biographica microcard, EO1711, 7/8; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), p.172.
Service record
- SWEDEN, NARVA
- Arrived 1680-01-01
- Departed 1703-12-31
- Capacity MERCHANT, purpose MERCANTILE, TRADE