- John Port (the elder)
:John Port."
Infobox Person
name = Sir John Port
image_size =
caption = The Portcoat of arms [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50706 Magna Brittanica] , Daniel and Samuel Lysons, Volume 5, 1817]
birth_date = 1480Dictionary of National Biography now in the public domain]
birth_place =Chester
death_date = 1541Dictionary of National Biography now in the public domain]
death_place = poss.Etwall , Derbyshire
education =Middle Temple
occupation = Judge
spouse = Margery Trafford and Joan FitzHerbert
parents = Henry Port, Mayor of Chester
children = JohnSir John Port (1480-1541), judge, was born about 1480 at
Chester , where his ancestors had been merchants for some generations : his father, Henry Port, wasmayor of Chester in 1486 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=57341 Mayors and Sheriifs of Chester at BritishHistory] accessed October 2007] , and his mother was a daughter of Robert Barrow, also a mayor of Chester in 1526. Sir John Port was involved in the trials of SirThomas More , later Saint Thomas More,John Fisher , later Saint John Fisher andAnn Boleyn , Queen.Biography
John studied law in the
Middle Temple , where he was reader in 1509, Lent reader and treasurer in 1515, and governor in 1520. In 1504 he was one of the commissioners appointed to raise a subsidy inDerbyshire ; on2 June 1509 he was made king's solicitor, and on26 November signed a proclamation as member of theprivy council ; [(Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, 1509-1514, No. 702) cited in DNB] in the same year he was "keeper of the king's books," and in 1511 clerk of the wardrobe. Before 1512 he was appointed attorney to the earldom of Chester, and in that year he appeared as one of the commissioners selected to inquire into the extortions of the masters of the mint.In 1515 and most succeeding years he served on the commission for the peace in
Derbyshire . In 1517 he was "clerk of exchange in the Tower," and in 1522 was made serjeant-at-law. He acquired an extensive practice as an advocate, and in 1525 he was raised to a judgeship in theking's bench and knighted.He was on the commission for gaol delivery at
York , and in June went on the northern circuit as justice ofassize . He was also a member of Princess Mary's council. In 1535 he was placed on the commission ofoyer and terminer forMiddlesex to tryJohn Fisher andThomas More , and in the following year was similarly employed with regard toAnne Boleyn .He died before November 1541, having been twice married; his two wives were Margery, daughter of Sir Edward Trafford of
Trafford ,Lancashire , and Joan, daughter and coheir of John Fitzherbert, uncle of SirAnthony Fitzherbert , and widow of John Pole ofRadburn . By the latter marriage he acquired the manor ofEtwall , Derbyshire, and had a son, Sir John Port who took a prominent part in the transactions relating to the foundation ofBrasenose College, Oxford ; he gave to it a garden lying on the south side of the college, and completed John Williamson's bequest of £200. "to provide stipends for two sufficient and able persons to read and teach openly in the hall, the one philosophy, the other 'humanity; " The stipend was (then) 4 shillings a year, but the limitation to the descendants of Williamson and Port was abolished byOxford University in 1854. His son was the founder ofRepton School and the personJohn Port School is named after.References
External sources
* [http://www.etwall.org/firstpage.html The John Port tombs] - John's father Henry has a monument too in Etwall.
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