live, and his letters from Brussels are more cheerful (Fonblanque, p. 80; Fairfax Correspondence, iii. 30). On 23 Nov. 1648 he was given leave to come over to England to compound for his estate, and did so in the following spring. His fine was fixed, on 21 June 1649, at 222l. 10s., the smallness of the sum being probably due to the fact that his landed property was encumbered, while all his movables had long since been confiscated (Cal. of Committee for Compounding, p. 1804; cf. Dring, Catalogue of Compounders, p. 87, ed. 1733). He died a few weeks later, and was buried at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on 20 Aug. 1649.
In his will, dated 26 March 1639, Porter inserted a tribute to the patron to whom he owed his rise to fortune. ‘I charge all my sons, upon my blessing, that they, leaving the like charges to their posterity, do all of them observe and respect the children and family of my Lord Duke of Buckingham, deceased, to whom I owe all the happiness I had in the world’ (Fonblanque p. 82; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ix. 353).
Olivia Porter survived her husband fourteen years; she died in 1663, and was buried at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on 13 Dec.
Porter's eldest son, George (1622?–1683) [q. v.], and his fourth son, Thomas [q. v.], are separately noticed. His second son, Charles (b. 1623), was killed at the battle of Newburn in 1640 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 231; Rushworth, iii. 1238). Philip, the third (b. 1628), was imprisoned in 1654 for complicity in a plot against the Protector (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 274). Otherwise he is only heard of as a swashbuckler of the worst type (Middlesex Records, iii. 210).
James Porter, the fifth son (b. 1638), entered the army after the Restoration, and was probably the captain of that name who held commissions in Lord Falkland's regiment in 1661, and in the Duke of Buckingham's in 1672. He was also captain of a volunteer troop of horse, raised at the time of Monmouth's rebellion, and was then described as Colonel Porter (Charles Dalton, Army Lists, i. 20, 120, ii. 16). During the reign of Charles II he was occasionally employed on complimentary missions to France and the Netherlands (Saville Correspondence, p. 116; Secret-service Money of Charles II and James II, p. 130). On 8 March 1686–7 he was appointed vice-chamberlain of the household to James II, having previously held the post of groom of the bedchamber (Luttrell, Diary, i. 395; Saville Correspondence, p. 167). He has been identified with the Porter who held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the regiment of Colonel Henry FitzJames in the Irish army of James II (James D'Alton, King James's Irish Army List, ii. 85). In February 1689 James sent Porter as envoy to Innocent XI (Macpherson, Original Papers, i. 302). On his return he continued to occupy the post of chamberlain in the court at St. Germains, and furnished materials for a funeral panegyric on his master (‘A Funeral Oration on the late King James, composed from Memoirs furnished by Mr. Porter, his Great Chamberlain; dedicated to the French King,’ translated into English, 1702).
A picture, representing Endymion Porter and his family, by Vandyck, was in the possession of Lord Strangford. Two other portraits of Porter, by the same artist, are in the possession of the Earl of Hardwicke and the Earl of Mexborough. The latter was No. 31 in the Vandyck exhibition of 1886. Another is in Mr. Fenwick's collection at Middlehill. There is in the National Gallery a likeness of Porter, by Dobson, which was engraved by Faithorne (Fagan, Catalogue of Faithorne's Works, 1888, p. 54). Another portrait by Dobson is in the National Portrait Gallery. A medal, representing Porter, was executed by Warin in 1635, the inscription on which states that he was then ‘æt. 48.’
[The best life of Porter is that contained in E. B. de Fonblanque's Lives of the Lords Strangford, 1877. A pedigree of the Porter family is given by Waters in The Chesters of Chichele, i. 144–9. The Domestic State Papers contain a large number of letters from Porter to his wife, many of which are printed in full by Fonblanque; notes and copies of other letters kindly supplied by Mrs. R. B. Townshend.]
PORTER, FRANCIS (d. 1702), Irish Franciscan, a native of co. Meath, joined the Franciscans, and passed most of his life at Rome. He became professor and lecturer, and was ultimately president, of the Irish College of St. Isidore in that city. He described himself in 1693 as ‘divine and historian to his most Serene Majesty of Great Britain,’ viz. James II. He died in Rome on 7 April 1702.
Porter was author of the following very rare Latin works: 1. ‘Securis Evangelica ad Hæresis radices posita, ad Congregationem Propagandæ Fidei,’ Rome, 1674, ‘editio secunda novis additionibus aucta et recognita;’ dedicated to Roger Palmer, lord Castlemaine. 2. ‘Palinodia religionis prætensæ Reformatæ,’ &c., Rome, 1679; dedicated to Cardinal Cybo. 3. ‘Compendium Annalium Ecclesiasticorum Regni Hiberniæ, exhibens brevem illius descriptionem et succinctam Historiam,’ 1690, 4to; dedicated to Alexander VIII. It contains an epistle to the
