From Belfast to Peking, 1866-69: A Young Irishman in China

This is a collection of fifty-eight letters, written by Francis Knowles Porter, an interpreter attached to the British legation in Peking, to his family between 7 January 1866 and 27 March 1869. The author was a man in his early twenties, the son of the Revd John Scott Porter, minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Street, Belfast, a non-subscribing Presbyterian or Unitarian congregation. Frank Porter was the fifth of a large family all of whom figure in the letters; his brother Andrew would go on to become Master of the Rolls in Ireland. The letters are at once a revealing insight into an individual personality and an enlightening commentary on a political situation from an unusual standpoint. Written in the very early days of Western intrusion into China, the letters (which also cover Porter’s journey east) comment on many of the events which had significance for the future as well as revealing the daily life and social activities of this first generation of ex-patriots.