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Sir William Portman (died 1557) was an English judge, politician and Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He was MP for Taunton in 1529 and 1536, and an associate of Thomas Cromwell. [1] [2]
Sir William Portman (died 1557) was an English judge, politician and Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He was MP for Taunton in 1529 and 1536, and an associate of Thomas Cromwell. [1] [2]
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 was long established in Somerset, having given its name to the former manor and present village of Orchard Portman, and he served as Justice of the Peace for that county from time to time. He was a barrister who was successful enough to be personally known to King Henry VIII. In 1532 he acquired 270 acres adjacent to the NW of the City of London, which estate stretching from today's Oxford Street to the Regents Canal, known as the Portman Estate, is still held by his descendants the Viscounts Portman. [3] In 1533 Henry VIII gave him a wardship, and he was one of the administrators of the will of Catherine of Aragon.
He was made a judge in 1547, and knighted by King Edward VI. When Richard Rich, later 1st Baron Rich was ill, Portman was one of those who, by letters patent of 26 October 1551, were commissioned to despatch chancery matters; and in the following January he was commissioned to aid the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely, in similar affairs. He seems to have been reluctant to adopt the new protestant religion, and found no difficulty in keeping office under the catholic Queen Mary. He followed Day, the Bishop of Chichester, in persuading Sir James Hales to abjure Protestantism in 1554. The same year he was made Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He died early in 1556–7, and was buried, with a stately funeral, on 10 February 1556–7 at St Dunstan-in-the-West, London.
He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Gilbert, who was connected by descent with the eminent legal family of Fitzjames. By her he had a son and a daughter:
Viscount Portman, in the County of Somerset, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 28 March 1873, for the former Lord Lieutenant of Somerset and Liberal Member of Parliament Edward Portman, 1st Baron Portman. He had already been created Baron Portman, of Orchard Portman, on 27 January 1837, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. His son, the second Viscount, represented Shaftesbury and Dorset in the House of Commons as a Liberal. As of 2014, the titles have been held by one of the latter's great-great-grandsons, the tenth Viscount, since 1999.
The office of High Sheriff of Somerset is an ancient shrievalty which has been in existence since the 11th century. Originally known as the "Sheriff of Somerset", the role was retitled on 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972.
Nicholas Wadham (1531–1609) of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton, Somerset, and Edge in the parish of Branscombe, Devon, was a posthumous co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford, with his wife Dorothy Wadham who, outliving him, saw the project through to completion in her late old age. He was Sheriff of Somerset in 1585.
Sir Wadham Wyndham, of Ilton, Somerset and St. Edmund’s College, Salisbury, was a Justice of the King's Bench from 1660 to 1668.
Sir John Wyndham, JP, of Orchard Wyndham in the parish of Watchet in Somerset, was an English landowner who played an important role in the establishment of defence organisation in the West Country against the threat of Spanish invasion.
Sir Hugh Wyndham SL, of Silton, near Gillingham, Dorset, was an English Judge of the Common Pleas and a Baron of the Exchequer.
Sir William Wyndham, 1st Baronet of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset, was Member of Parliament for Somerset in 1656 and twice for Taunton in 1659 and 1660. He was Sheriff of Somerset in 1679–80.
William Rosewell was the Solicitor-General to Queen Elizabeth between 1559 and 1566.
Henry William Portman was an 18th-century housing developer, the ancestor of the Viscounts Portman.
The Portman baronetcy, of Orchard Portman in the County of Somerset, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 25 November 1611 for John Portman, son of Sir Henry Portman, knight, of Orchard Portman, Somerset, by Jane Mitchell. Orchard Portman is two miles southeast of Taunton. Sir Henry was the son of Sir William Portman, Lord Chief Justice of England between 1555 and 1557.
Sir William Portman, 6th Baronet FRS was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1661 and 1690.
Sir William Courtenay of Powderham in Devon was a prominent member of the Devonshire gentry. He was Sheriff of Devon in 1579–80 and received the rare honour of having been three times elected MP for the prestigious county seat (Devon) in 1584, 1589 and 1601.
Sir John Acland of Columb John in the parish of Broadclyst, Devon, was an English knight, landowner, philanthropist, Member of Parliament and Sheriff of Devon. He was one of John Prince's Worthies of Devon.
Sir Ralph Hopton, of Witham, Somerset, was an English courtier and politician. He was the son of a member of the Hopton family and Agnes Haines.
Merryfield is a historic estate in the parish of Ilton, near Ilminster in Somerset, England. It was the principal seat of the Wadham family, and was called by Prince their "noble moated seat of Meryfeild" (sic). The mansion house was demolished in 1618 by Sir John Wyndham (1558–1645), of Orchard Wyndham, a nephew and co-heir of Nicholas II Wadham (1531–1609), co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford, the last in the senior male line of the Wadham family. It bears no relation to the present large 19th-century grade II listed mansion known as Merryfield House, formerly the vicarage, immediately south of St Peter's Church, Ilton.
Sir William Cary (1437–1471) of Cockington and Clovelly in Devon was a member of the Devonshire gentry. He was beheaded after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.
Henry Seymour later Portman, of Orchard Portman, Somerset, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England and then Great Britain almost continually between 1679 and 1715.
Sir Francis Warre, 1st Baronet, of Hestercombe House, Kingston, Somerset, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between.1685 and 1715.
Thomas Wyndham MP JP DL, of Witham Friary, Somerset, was MP for Wells, Somerset in 1685 and re-elected in 1689.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Portman, William (d.1557)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.