Family and Education

bap. 17 May 1607,1 3rd s. of Sir John Portman, 1st bt. (d. 1612), of Orchard Portman and Anne, da. of Sir Henry Gifford† of King’s Somborne, Hants; bro. of Sir Henry, 2nd bt.* and Sir William, 5th bt.†.2 educ. Exeter Coll. Oxf. 1624.3 unm. suc. bro. Sir John, 3rd bt. 12 Dec. 1624.4 d. by 31 Oct. 1629.5

Offices Held

J.p. Som. 1628-d.6

Gent. of privy chamber, extraordinary by d.7

Biography

Portman was aged only 17 when first returned for Taunton, where he had recently inherited 25 messuages.8 He represented the borough again in 1628-9, but left no trace on the records of either Parliament, and he died too young to distinguish himself as either a magistrate or a courtier. ‘Sick of body’ when he made his will on 26 Oct. 1629, five days before his death, Portman requested burial in the chancel at Orchard. He bequeathed £25 to the poor of Orchard and Taunton, and £2,000 each to his two unmarried sisters. John Symes* and Portman’s brother-in-law John Bluett* were named as executors.9 The sermon preached at his funeral described him as ‘a fast friend, and a noble brother, a munificent and open-handed master, ... no firebrand in his country, nor meteor in his church. ... his life a recollected Christianity; his sickness, a penitent humiliation’.10 His brother and heir, the 5th baronet, represented Taunton in the Short and Long Parliaments.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Alan Davidson

Notes

• 1. A.W. Vivian-Neal, ‘Orchard Portman’, Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. lxxxix. 50.
• 2. Vis. Som. (Harl. Soc. xi), 127; Sale of Wards ed. M.J. Hawkins (Som. Rec. Soc. lxvii), 137.
• 3. Al. Ox.
• 4. Sales of Wards, 47.
• 5. C142/469/91 (day of month not recorded).
• 6. C231/4, f. 249.
• 7. LC 3/1 (unfol.).
• 8. Sales of Wards, 137.
• 9. PROB 11/161, f. 412; Vis. Som. 127.
• 10. H. Sydenham, The Royall Passing-Bell (1630), pp. 36-7.