PORTER, Richard (d.1584), of Bayham, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

1st s. of John Porter of Battle and Bayham, and bro. of John. m. Jane, da. of Robert Whitfield of Worth, at least 3s. 4da. suc. fa. 1574.

Offices Held

Biography

Porter was descended from a cadet branch of a Nottinghamshire family which had migrated to Sussex in Henry VI’s reign, and which, for the past three generations had been settled in the Pevensey and Battle areas. Their father was an ironmaster, who at his death owned a forge in Bayham and managed another in Frant for Viscount Montagu. Richard, whose five younger brothers were then all under 21, inherited from his father certain lands, woodlands and watermills in the parishes of Brenchley and Lamberhurst, including Bayham on the Kent-Sussex boundary, as well as the residue of his goods, leases and debts due. He was no doubt returned to Parliament in 1571 through the influence of Viscount Montagu, whose estate of Battle Abbey was close to some of the Porter lands.

Porter died between 22 Aug. 1584, when he made his will, and 5 Sept. He left his wife Jane, each of his four daughters and two of his sons £200 apiece, and to his unborn child the same, or £300 if a boy. His property included the lease of the parsonage at Goudhurst, Kent, and his ironworks which he asked his brother Thomas to manage. He made bequests to his servants and to the poor of Frant and Lamberhurst. As executors he appointed his brother John Porter and his brother-in-law Thomas Aynscombe, and as overseers his ‘Uncle Isted’ and his brother-in-law Thomas Whitfield.

W. Berry, Co. Genealogies, Suss. (Comber’s copy at Chichester), 200; PCC 26 Martin, 24 Watson, 26 Vox; Suss. Arch. Colls. iii. 241; v. 192-3; vii. 130; ix. 36 n; Stowe, 570, f. 104; LP Hen. VIII, xiii(2), p. 98.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.E.M.

Notes