or perhaps master, of a merchantman, and Douglas, recognising his worth, placed him on the quarterdeck as a midshipman. He afterwards served in the Ardent and in the Ramillies, guardships in the Medway, and in 1776 was entered on board the Discovery, where he was rated as master's mate by Captain Charles Clerke [q. v.] He continued in her during the celebrated voyage of circumnavigation [see Cook, James, 1728–1779], till, in August 1779, he was moved into the Resolution. On returning to England he passed his examination on 7 Sept. 1780, when he was officially stated to be ‘more than 32’ (Passing Certificate). On 14 Sept. 1780 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Firebrand, attached to the Channel fleet. In May 1785 he was appointed by the King George's Sound Company to command the King George, a vessel of 320 tons, and an expedition to the north-west coast of North America. She sailed from Gravesend on 29 Aug. 1785, in company with the smaller ship Queen Charlotte, commanded by George Dixon [q. v.] On 19 July 1786 they arrived at Cook's River, and, after some stay there, ranged along the coast, sighted Mount St. Elias, and on 29 Sept. sailed for the Sandwich Islands. There they wintered, returning to the American coast in the spring. When winter approached they again sought the Sandwich Islands, and, after having refitted there and refreshed the men, sailed for Macao and England. They anchored in Margate roads on 24 Aug. 1788. In the following year he published ‘A Voyage round the World, but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America …,’ 4to, 1789. Though rich in geographical results, the voyage was primarily intended to open out the fur trade, in which object it was fully successful.
In 1791 Portlock was appointed to command the Assistant brig, going out as tender to the Providence, which had been ordered to the Pacific to bring bread-fruit plants to the West Indies [see Bligh, William]. The ships returned to England in August 1793, and on 4 Nov. Portlock was promoted to the rank of commander. In 1799 he commanded the Arrow sloop, with the tremendous armament of twenty-eight 32-pounder carronades, fitted on the non-recoil principle suggested by Sir Samuel Bentham [q. v.] (James, Naval Hist. i. 456), and on 9 Sept. captured the Dutch ship Draak, at anchor in the narrow passage between Vlie and Harlingen (ib. ii. 388). On 28 Sept. Portlock was advanced to post rank, but he does not seem to have had any further service afloat. During his later years his health was much broken. In 1816 he was admitted to Greenwich Hospital, where he died on 12 Sept. 1817. A portrait, engraved by Mazell after Dodd, is prefixed to his ‘Voyage round the World.’ His son, Joseph Ellison Portlock, is noticed separately.
[Marshall's Royal Naval Biogr. iv. (vol. ii. pt. ii.), 630, and vi. (Suppl. pt. ii.) 386–7; his Voyage round the World; Paybook of Resolution and other documents in the Public Record Office; Gent. Mag. 1817, ii. 379.]
PORTMAN, EDWARD BERKELEY, Viscount Portman (1799–1888), born 9 July 1799, was son of Edward Berkeley Portman (d. 1823) of Bryanston and Orchard Portman, Dorset, by his first wife, Lucy, elder daughter of the Rev. Thomas Whitby of Cresswell Hall, Staffordshire. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours, B.A. 1821, M.A. 1826. As a liberal he sat for Dorset from 1823 to 1832, and for Marylebone from 12 Dec. 1832 to March 1833, being the first member to represent that constituency after the Reform Act. On 27 Jan. 1837 he was created Baron Portman of Orchard Portman, and raised to be Viscount Portman of Bryanston on 28 March 1873. For some time he was a prominent speaker in the House of Lords. He was lord lieutenant of the county of Somerset from 22 May 1839 to June 1864, a commissioner and councillor of the duchy of Cornwall on 19 Aug. 1840, a councillor of the duchy of Lancaster on 13 Feb. 1847, and lord warden of the stannaries and high steward of the duchy of Cornwall from 20 Jan. 1865 to his decease. He was an active supporter of the Royal Agricultural Society from its commencement in 1838, and served as president in 1846, 1856, and 1862. He was a considerable breeder of Devon cattle and of improved Alderney cows. He died at Bryanston on 19 Nov. 1888.
He married, on 16 June 1827, Lady Emma, third daughter of Henry Lascelles, second earl of Harewood. She died on 8 Feb. 1865, leaving,six children: William Henry Berkeley, who succeeded to the peerage; Edwin Berkeley, barrister-at-law; Maurice Berkeley, a member of the Canadian parliament; Walter Berkeley, rector of Corton-Denham, Somerset; and two daughters.
[Doyle's Baronage, 1886, p. 68; Times, 20 Nov. 1888, p. 10; Illustrated London News, 12 July 1862, p. 57, with portrait, 11 April 1863, p. 400, with portrait; Journal Royal Agricultural Soc. 1889, p. vi.]
PORTMAN, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1557), judge, was the son of John Portman, who was buried in the Middle Temple Church on
