PORTER, John II

Probably a native of New Romney,7 He is not to be confused with John Porter of Teston, Kent, who received a pardon in the aftermath of Cade’s rebellion in 1450; nor was he the John Porter, master of Le Trinite Warrewyk and a servant of the earl of Warwick, who impressed mariners for his lord in Kent in the early 1460s and who was still active during the Readeption: HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 694. Porter made a good first marriage to the widowed daughter and heir of a prominent local Portsman. His earliest known employment in the affairs of the town was in 1445-6, when he rode to Dover on official business.8 NR/FAc 2, f. 143. Later in the same decade, he entered its governing elite as a jurat, in which capacity he was named keeper of the municipal mill.9 NR/FAc 3, ff. 3-3v. In December 1451 Porter and Thomas Howlot* negotiated with Richard Wydeville, Lord Rivers, over the billeting at Romney of his soldiers prior to embarkation for Calais.10 Ibid. f. 16v. One of the deputies chosen to represent his Port at meetings of the Brodhull in July and September 1456 and July 1457,11 White and Black Bks. 35, 36, 38. Porter also rode to Canterbury in the same period, probably to meet Humphrey Stafford, duke of Buckingham and warden of the Cinque Ports, to discuss a crisis that had arisen over the payment of wages to Guy Ellis* for the Reading Parliament of 1453.12 NR/FAc 3, f. 33.

In October 1459 Porter was elected to his only Parliament, the notorious anti-Yorkist assembly which met at Coventry the following month. He and his fellow MP, Thomas Howlot, each received a generous allowance of 20d. per day for 41 days, indicating that were at Coventry for the duration of the Parliament (which sat for 31) and received ten days’ allowance for travelling to and from the Midlands. Porter also received a further 20d. for his attendance at the recording of the parliamentary elections for the Ports at Dover.13 Ibid. f. 39v. He continued to serve as a jurat of Romney after his election, certainly until March 1461 and probably beyond as he attended a meeting of the Brodhull in the following month. He was also one of the Cinque Ports’ bailiffs at Yarmouth in the latter part of 1460.14 White and Black Bks. 42-43.

Some of the evidence relating to Porter might suggest that he had received some legal training. He frequently acted as an arbiter and attorney for his fellow townsmen or others possessing connexions with Romney (like John Greenford*) in the bailiff’s court; he was often in demand as a feoffee in the town and elsewhere in Kent; and he served as an executor and administrator of the estates of the deceased.15 New Romney bk. of pleas 1454-82, NR/JB 2, ff. 1v, 2, 3v, 8, 12, 92, 97v; CP25(1)/116/326/805; Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Canterbury consist. ct. wills, PRC 32/2, ff. 7, 7v. In the late 1450s, moreover, the local hospital of St. John appointed him its steward, and on one occasion, apparently in the same period, he acted as the bailiff’s deputy.16 NR/JB 2, loose folio. But there is no mention of Porter as dep. bailiff in the engrossed proceedings of the bailiff’s ct. Whether or not he was a man of law, Porter certainly had an interest in trade, and during his career he paid maltolts in three of Romney’s wards, Olberd, Hamersnod and Holynbroke.17 Olberd from Mar. 1439 until Mar. 1450 and again from 1461 until his d.; Hamersnod from Mar. 1450; and Holynbroke from Mar. 1453 until 1461: NR/FAc 2, f. 129v; FAc 3, ff. 3, 8v, 12, 15v, 17v, 19, 24v, 26v, 29, 31v, 34v, 37v, 41, 42v, 47, 49v, 53, 54v. Like many leading townsmen, he dealt in wine, and on three occasions between 1448 and 1452 he was listed among those charged for the privilege of selling it there.18 NR/FAc 3, ff. 3, 18, 20.

Porter survived until the mid 1460s, having outlived his first wife, Isabel. In his will, dated 18 Dec. 1465,19 Ibid. f. 52. he assigned a messuage in the New Romney parish of St. Lawrence, to his then spouse, Joan, for life, with remainder to his only known child, Petronilla, his daughter by Isabel. He directed his feoffees (among them his former parliamentary associate Thomas Howlot) to sell his other properties in that parish: from the proceeds, they were to pay 48s. 4d. to St. Lawrence’s church and settle up with John Page, from whom he had recently purchased a mill. Porter also ordered the sale of his remaining property, situated in St. Martin’s parish, directing his feoffes to deliver the proceeds to his widow and the Romney jurat, John Ford. Joan continued to pay her late husbands’ maltolts from 1466 until 1468, by which date she had probably remarried.20 Ibid. ff. 53v, 57v, 59v.