Elizabeth Porter

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For the Florida politician, see Elizabeth W. Porter.

Portrait of Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, Samuel Johnson's wife. Hyde Collection, Houghton Library, *2003JM-8.

Elizabeth Jervis Porter (1689 – 17 March 1752), familiarly known as "Tetty", was the wife of Samuel Johnson.

Born Elizabeth Jarvis (or Jervis – Boswell lists both), her first marriage was to Henry Porter, a Birmingham merchant, with whom she had three children. The couple became friends of Johnson in 1732 (on first meeting him, she said to her daughter Lucy, "That is the most sensible man I ever met.") and Johnson courted her after Porter's death. His affectionate names for her, "Tetty" or "Tetsey," were regional contractions for the name "Elizabeth."

They married on 9 July 1735 at St. Werburgh's Church, Derby, where the event is reenacted annually. At the time he was 25, she 46, and neither the Johnson nor Porter families were enthusiastic about the marriage.

Her dowry of over £600 was invested in setting up Edial Hall, a private school at Edial near Lichfield. After its failure, in 1737 Johnson moved to London, where she joined him later that year.

In later life she suffered from ill-health, exacerbated by alcohol and opiate medicines. Robert Levet, a poverty-stricken doctor supported by Johnson, ascribed her death to the latter. She died at 63, and is buried in Bromley Parish Church. Her gravestone inscription says Formosae, cultae, ingeniosae, piae (beautiful, elegant, talented, dutiful).

Johnson called the marriage "a love-match on both sides," and always recalled her affectionately and with grief, especially on the anniversary of her death.

The chief descriptions of her, however, come from unsympathetic accounts by Johnson's contemporaries and biographers such as his ex-pupil David Garrick, Hester Thrale and Thomas B. Macaulay: the last described her as "a short, fat, coarse woman, painted half an inch thick, dressed in gaudy colours, and fond of exhibiting provincial airs and graces." The writer and essayist Alice Meynell judged her less harshly, attacking these critics for prejudice.

External links

Boswell's Life of Johnson at Project Gutenberg
Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson by Hester Thrale

The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Volume III, by Lord Macaulay at Project Gutenberg
Mrs Johnson by Alice Meynell
Dandiprat, jobberknowl and fart Christopher Howse, April 10th 2005, Arts Telegraph
The Early Years Graham Nicholls, 13 November 2002, The Johnson Society (Lichfield) lecture
PastWords: Samuel Johnson at his prayers
Elizabeth Johnson (née Jarvis) at the National Portrait Gallery, London

v t e Samuel Johnson

Topics	Early life Health Literary criticism Political views Religious views Samuel Johnson Prize

People	Francis Barber James Boswell David Garrick John Hawkins Arthur Murphy Elizabeth Porter Henry Thrale Hester Thrale Anna Williams Hodge

Essays and periodicals	Birmingham Journal The Gentleman's Magazine The Idler The Rambler

Biography and criticism	Life of Mr Richard Savage Lives of the Poets Miscellaneous Observations or Miscellanious Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth Proposals for an Edition of Shakespeare Preface to Shakespeare The Plays of William Shakespeare

Miscellaneous prose	A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland A Dictionary of the English Language Letter to Chesterfield

Fiction and poetry	Messiah London Irene The Vanity of Human Wishes The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Contemporary accounts	James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell's The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides John Hawkins' Life of Samuel Johnson Arthur Murphy's Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson Hester Thrale's Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson Thraliana Thomas Tyer's A Biographical Sketch of Dr Samuel Johnson

Persondata
Name	Porter, Elizabeth
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1689
Place of birth
Date of death	1752
Place of death

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