Family and Education

b. ?1768, 1st s. of Henry William Portman of Orchard Portman, Som. and Bryanston, and bro. of Edward Berkeley Portman*. educ. Westminster 1782. m. 2 May 1793, Hon. Lucy Elizabeth Dormer, da. of Charles, 8th Baron Dormer, 1da. suc. fa. 1796.

Offices Held

Cornet, Dorset yeomanry 1795-1800.

Biography

Portman, heir to an ancient estate in Dorset and Somerset and to the Portman Square property in London, worth about £13,000 p.a., was returned for Wells soon after he came of age, with the concurrence of Clement Tudway*. He made no mark in Parliament. Listed among opponents of the repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in 1791, he supported administration silently until 1795, when he appeared in the minority list on Wilberforce’s motion for peace, 27 May, and Sumner’s amendment on the Prince of Wales’s debts, 1 June. Within a month of this, a replacement for him at Wells was unanimously approved. In January 1796 he succeeded to the estate and did not seek re-election in May. He died 22 Mar. 1803, aged 35, leaving an infant daughter, whereupon his younger brother Edward acquired the Portman inheritance.

Hutchins, Dorset, i. 256, 264; Gent. Mag. (1803), i. 294, 321.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes