Author: Porch, Thomas Porch
Biography:
PORCH, Thomas Porch (1808-77: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born Thomas Porch Reeves on 7 Mar. 1808 at Glastonbury, Somerset, the eldest son of John Fry Reeves, attorney, and Maria Porch, owners of Glastonbury Abbey from 1825 to the mid 1840s. He was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College Cambridge (matric. 1825, BA 1829, MA 1835). On 8 Dec. 1830 he assumed the name of Porch, having inherited the Edgarley estate from his maternal grandmother. He married Jane Barber (1814-83) at her parish of Barston, Warwickshire, on 16 Dec. 1830. They had perhaps as many as thirteen children. They lived at Abbey House and remained on the Edgarley estate at Glastonbury all their lives. He was mayor of Glastonbury four times (1836-7, 1847-8, 1853-4, 1861-2) and served on the Town Council for 33 years. He was also a shareholder in Stuckey’s bank (originally Reeves and Porch, later becoming part of National Westminster). He died on 27 Feb. 1877 at Edgarley, leaving an estate of around £40,000. His wife, Jane, died on 24 July 1883, leaving an estate of under £2000. His only known poem, listed here, The Mysteries of Time; or, Banwell Cave describes the caves at Banwell Hill which overlook the Bristol Channel. He also wrote The Ecclesiastical Architecture of England (1845). (ancestry.co.uk 20 Aug. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 20 Aug. 2023; A List of the Country Banks of England and Wales [1838], 375; GM Feb. 1831, 174; NPC wills; Johnson, item 715) AA