Alanus (Porter) De Porter (bef. 1160 - aft. 1174)

Born before 1160 in Scotland

Biography

This profile is part of the Porterfield Name Study.

Alanus de Porter is earliest known ancestor of the Scottish Porterfield family. His name first appears in a charter in 1160. Later, in 1174, he was one of twenty Norman Knights held hostage in Falaise, Normandy by Henry II (1133-1189) as a condition the Treaty of Falaise. The treaty granted William the Lion (abt 1143 - abt 1214) his freedom. ^[1][2]

When William was defeated at the 1174 Battle of Alnwick in the north of England, William was sent to across the English Channel to Falaise in Normandy. Once there, he the signed the Treaty of Falaise that allowed him to return to Scotland. Terms of the treaty required he swear loyalty to English king Henry II and Church of England. It also required the king's brother, David, and twenty of the leading Scottish knights be held as hostages until the certain Scottish castles were placed under the control of English garrisons.

He was probably an ancestor of John de Porter who lived about 100 years later.^[1][2]

Research Notes

Oddly, Alanus is not mentioned Crawfurd's A General Description of the Shire of Renfrew from 1818.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} James Murray, Kilmacolm: a Parish History, 1100-1898 (1898), p. 240; scanned image, Open Library (https://archive.org/stream/kilmacolmparishh00murr#page/240/mode/2up).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Frank Burke Porterfield, The Porterfields (Roanoke, Virginia: Multiprint Inc, 1947), p. 7, digital images, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066246737;view=1up;seq=15. Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://babel.hathitrust.org: accessed 29 April 2019).
3. ↑ George Crawfurd, A General Description of the Shire of Renfrew (1818), p. 62; scanned image, https://books.google.com/books?id=bpnmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA62).