PORTER, Henry II (1635-81), of Lancaster, Lancs.

Porter II was the son of Lancaster’s most influential inhabitant during the civil-war period.10Infra, ‘Henry Porter I’. In the elections to Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament of 1659, he was returned as junior Member for Lancaster – the constituency that his father had represented in the first and second protectoral Parliaments.11Lancs. RO, DP 522/4/1, unpag. He was named to only two committees – for settling a godly ministry in the northern counties and to consider the affairs of Scotland.12CJ vii. 600b, 623b. He made no recorded contribution to debate.

During the late 1650s and early 1660s, and possibly beyond, Porter resided in London and had two of his children baptised in the chapel at Gray’s Inn (to which he had been admitted in 1657) and at St Andrew, Holborn, respectively.13St Andrew, Holborn par. reg.; Lancaster ed. Brierley, 124. It may have been Porter rather than his father who signed a loyal address to Charles II from the Lancashire and Cheshire gentry in London in the spring of 1660.14SP29/1/35, f. 68. But the crown evidently did not value his loyalty, if such it was, for the only office he is known to have held after the Restoration was that of capital burgess in Lancaster corporation.

Porter died, apparently intestate, at some date early in 1681 and was styled ‘of London’, where he may well have been buried.15Lancs. RO, WRW/A, Henry Porter of Lancaster, late of London, 1681. It was probably his son and namesake who was buried at Lancaster on 22 May 1682.16Lancaster ed. Brierley, 302; Lancs. RO, WRW/A, Henry Porter the younger of Lancaster 1683. Porter II was the last of his line to sit in Parliament.