Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/186

 150

NOTES AND QUERIES. [w s. v. FEB. 24, im.

PORTMAN FAMILY. (10 th S. v. 48.)

I HAVE been interested in the Portman family, but before reading the query of K. T. had not met with any suggested derivation of the name, nor evidence of early history beyond that advanced in the 1G23 Visitation of Somersetshire, as printed by the Harleian Society in their eleventh volume, p. 126. On that evidence Collinson probably based his remark that ** the Portmans appear to have been a family of note in Somersetshire in the reign of Edward I." ('Hist. Somerset,' 1791, iii. 274).

The Visitation first records two John Port- mans (1 and 2) mentioned in "a deed sans date "; then follow Thomas (3), 4 Ed. I. (1276) ; Richard (4), 35 Ed. I. (1307) ; John (5), no date; Richard (6), 12 Ed. III. (1338); Wil- liam (7), 43 Ed. Ill, (1369); and the next, William (8), is the first located Portraan ; he had lands at Taunton, and in 1406 or 1407 made a grant to Taunton Priory.

From this point we have the family cer- tainly seated in Somersetshire, and Walter (9) assumes a notable position in the county by his marriage with the landed heiress Christiana Orchard, of Orchard, two miles south of Taunton. The heiress died in 1472 (Inq. p.m. Christiana Portrnan), and her son John Portman (10) inherited her estates. (The space between the date of Walter's death, 1474, and that of his father's grant to the priory, 1406-7, seems of questionable length.) John Portman (11) appears to have had occupation in London, probably in the legal profession, as he was buried in the Middle Temple Church, 5 June, 1521.

Sir William Portman (12), son of John (11) was the most eminent individual of his family and as such he has his place in the * Dictionary of National Biography.' As a lawyer he wai a serjeant-at-law to Henry VIII., became a judge in 1547, and in the reign of Alary, 1554 attained the elevation of Lord Chief Justici of England ; integrity and independence ar attributed to him. He died in 1557, and was buried with pomp in St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street. Thomas Smith, in his ' History of Marylebone' (1833). shows that Sir William was the founder of the Portman estate in that parish ; that in 1533 he obtained re- mainder of a lease of part of Lillestone (now Lisson) manor; and that in Queen Mary's reign about 270 acres of the same were con- veyed to him and his son Henry.

Sir Henry Portman (13) succeeded to the roperty, but of him there is only the record f his death in 1590 ; his heir was his eldest on, Sir Hugh.

Sir Hugh Portman (14) was twice Sheriff f Somersetshire, in 1590-1 and 1600-1. He ecame possessed of two messuages at Kew, lurrey (inq. p.m.), one of these being a nansion called the Dairy House, which had >elonged to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, he favourite of Queen Elizabeth. As this onnexion of the Portmans with Kew has not litherto been recognized, I hope to make it he subject of a note in a future number of N. & Q.' Sir Hugh was knighted by the queen at Kew in December, 1595. From the act of his being a second time elected as heriff of his county in 1600, it appears that ic was resident at Orchard Portman when

died in March, 1604, and in the church .here doubtless he was buried, according to he directions of his will (at Somerset House). 3e was unmarried, and as his legal heir was us brother John the will is merely a matter of legacies to sisters.

Sir John Portman (15), Knight and Baronet, succeeded to the estates on the death of his arother Sir Hugh. He was knighted at Whitehall 3 Feb., 1605, was Sheriff of Somer- setshire 1606-7, and was created first baronet of his family 25 Nov., 1611. He died 4 Dec., 1612, leaving four sons, all of whom succeeded to the baronetcy and Orchard Portman with the other property, but only the fourth lived to maturity and left issue. Sir Henry (16) died February, 1624; Sir John (17) died, aged nineteen, while a student at Oxford, 23 Dec, 1624, and was buried in the chapel of Wadham College; Sir Hugh (18) was M.P. for Taunton, but died in 1630 at the age of twenty- two. There is extant the funeral sermon (dated 1630) preached in Orchard Portman Church by Humphrey Sydenham, late Fellow of Wadham College; the young Sir Hugh is represented as "most hopefull and truly noble, the great loss and sorrow both of his name and country."

Sir William Portman (19), 5th Baronet, was the fourth brother. He was M.P. for Taunton, but as a Royalist died a prisoner in the Tower of London, September, 1645 (G. E. C., * Baronetage '), his age no more than thirty-five (? buried -at Orchard).

Sir William Portman (20), 6th Baronet, was concerned in public affairs, and, acting with Lord Lumley, captured the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth after the rout of Sedge- moor in 1685. He, however, joined the party of William of Orange, and would doubtless have been rewarded with honours but that