William Portman

Sir William Portman (d. 1557) was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.

Origins and early career

Portman was the son of John Portman, who was buried in the Temple Church on 5 June 1521, by Alice, daughter of William Knoell of Dorset. His family belonged to Somerset, and he was in the commission of the peace for that county from time to time. He was a barrister who was successful enough to be personally known to the king. In 1532 he acquired 270 acres (stretching from Oxford Street to where Regents Canal is now to be found) which his descendents later developed as the Portman Estate. [http://www.portmanestate.co.uk/heritage/restoration.html] In 1533 Henry gave him a wardship, and he was one of the administrators of the will of Catherine of Aragon.

Judicial career

He was made a judge in 1547, and knighted by Edward VI. When Richard (afterwards Lord) Rich was ill, Portman was one of those who, by patent of 26 October 1551, were commissioned to despatch chancery matters; and in the following January he was commissioned to aid the lord-keeper, the bishop of Ely, in similar affairs. He seems to have been of the old way of thinking in religious matters. He found no difficulty in keeping office under Mary ; and he followed Day, the Bishop of Chichester, in persuading Sir James Hales to abjure protestantism in 1554. The same year he was made Chief Justice. He died early in 1556-7, and was buried, with a stately funeral, on 10 Feb. 1556-7 at St Dunstan-in-the-West, London.

Family

He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Gilbert, and connected by descent with the legal family of Fitzjames. By her he had a son Sir Henry, who died in 1590, and a daughter Mary, who married John Stowell.