John Port

Sir John Port (c.1472 – c. 14 March 1540), judge, was the son of Henry Port of Chester. He was involved in the trials of Sir Thomas More, John Fisher and Anne Boleyn. Family John Port was born about 1472 at Chester, where his ancestors had been merchants for some generations. His father, Henry Port, was a sheriff of Chester in 1471-2 then mayor of Chester in 1486-7, and his mother, Anne Barrow, was the daughter of Robert Barrow, also a sheriff of Chester in 1488-9 and 1506-7 then mayor of Chester in 1526-7. Career By 1495 Port had settled at Etwall in Derbyshire as a result of his marriage to the daughter of John Fitzherbert (d.1502). Port studied law at the Middle Temple, where he was Reader in 1509, Lent Reader and treasurer in 1515, and governor in 1520. In 1504 he was one of the commissioners appointed to raise a subsidy in Derbyshire. On 2 June 1509 he was made King's solicitor, and on 26 November signed a proclamation as member of the Privy Council. In the same year he was "keeper of the King's books", and in 1511 clerk of the wardrobe. Before 1512 he was appointed attorney to the earldom of Chester, and in that year he appeared as one of the commissioners selected to inquire into the extortions of the masters of the mint.