PORTER, Simon

More may be added to the earlier biography.1 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 121-2.

Besides his other properties in Reading, Porter also paid an annual rent of 20s. to the gentry family of Stonor for buildings he leased from them there.2 SC6/1122/19. In addition to the many tasks he undertook for the authorities in his home town, he did jury service, most notably in May 1444 for the indictment of Thomas Kerver for treason.3 KB9/245/45.

Porter’s business as a mercer quite often took him to London, and in 1431-2 he joined the prestigious fraternity of St. John the Baptist founded by the city’s tailors.4 Guildhall Lib. London, Merchant Taylors’ Co. accts. 34048/1, f. 226v. Besides trading in cloth, for some 40 years he continued to rent a fish stall in Reading’s market place, previously run by his putative father, and he also dealt in wine and fruit which he arranged to be carted to Reading from Southampton.5 Brokage Bk. 1447-8 (Soton. Rec. Ser. xlii), 34-35, 142-3, 178-9. Commercial interests also frequently brought him to the court of common pleas at Westminster in pursuit of his debtors. This litigation sometimes coincided with his regular attendance at Parliament. For instance, in Trinity term 1432 he sued a weaver and two masons from Reading, in Michaelmas term 1435 he alleged that the Berkshire esquire John Stokes of Brimpton owed him £40; and four pleas in progress in 1445 were intended to recoup sums amounting to £24.6 CP40/686, rot. 308; 699, rots. 141d, 621; 739, rot. 570; 757 rot. 164d.

Perhaps Porter’s failure to recover such debts caused his own financial difficulties in the 1450s. Back in July 1438 he had entered recognizances at the staple of Westminster whereby he agreed to pay two chapmen from East Hendred, Berkshire, the sum of £30 in the summer of 1451. When he failed to do so, and was facing legal actions, he made over all his goods and chattels to (Sir) John Lisle II*, Thomas Beke* and others to avoid their forfeiture. A writ was sent to the sheriff of Berkshire on 26 June 1458 to arrest him, and after an inquiry held at Reading in the following October ascertained that he held a messuage and shop there worth £2 13s. 4d. p.a. these were confiscated to pay his creditors.7 C131/70/15, 17; C241/235/40, 42; CCR, 1447-54, p. 469. He is last recorded, described as a gentleman, in the Hilary term of 1460, when the sheriff was again ordered to arrest him and bring him to the King’s bench, this time to answer for certain felonies of which he had been indicted.8 KB27/795, rex rot. 20d. Thus, a career of long and distinguished service to his home town ended in disgrace and ignominy.