At the end of 1619 he went to America as secretary to Sir George Yeardley, governor of the colony of Virginia. In November 1621 he and his chief returned to England, but in 1623 Pory went back to Virginia as one of the commissioners to inquire into its condition. He finally, in 1624, settled in London for the remainder of his life, corresponding regularly with Joseph Mead [q. v.], Sir Thomas Puckering [q. v.], Lord Brooke, Sir Robert Cotton, and others. He died in London in September 1635.
His letters, of which twenty-three originals, and more than forty copies, by Dr. Thomas Birch [q. v.], are in the British Museum (Jul. C. iii. ff. 298, 301, 303, 305, 307; Harl. MS. 7000, ff. 314–50; and Addit. MSS. 4161, 4176, 4177, 4178), supply much valuable historical information. Fourteen were printed by Dr. Birch in 'The Court and Times of James I.'
[Venn's Admissions to Gonville and Caius, p. 64; Maty's New Review, 1784, v. 123; Arber's Transcript of the Stationers' Register, iii. 64; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ii. 1153; Court and Times of James I, i. 41, 42, 65, 135, 194, 255, 388, 443, 450, ii. 11, 14, 29, 30, 32, 52, 64; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1603–10 pp. 368, 579, 1611–18, passim; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Wood's Fasti, i. 187.]
PORY or POREY, ROBERT (1608?–1669), archdeacon of Middlesex, son of Robert Pory, was born in London, probably about 1608. He was educated at St. Paul's School under the elder Gill, and went up
with his class-fellow, John Milton, to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a lesser pensioner 28 Feb. 1624-5. He graduated B.A. 1628, M.A. 1632, B.D.
1639, D.D. (per literas regias) 1660. In 1631, on the birth of the Princess Mary, 4 Nov., he contributed to the 'Genethliacum' put forth by his university. On 20 Sept. 1640 he was collated to the rectory of St. Margaret's, New Fish Street, London (which he resigned before 18 Aug.
1660), and in November following to that of Thorley, Hertfordshire. On the breaking out of the civil war he was, according to Newcourt (Repertorium, i. 83 n.), 'plundered and sequestred,' but his name does not appear
in Walker's 'Sufferings of the Clergy.'
At the Restoration preferments were showered upon him. On 2 Aug. 1660 he was made D.D. by royal mandate, along with Thomas Fuller and others (Bailey, Life of Fuller, p. 872 n.) On 20 July 1660 he was collated both to the rectory of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate Street, London (resigned before 22 May 1663), and to the archdeaconry of Middlesex (Le Neve, Fasti). The articles on his visitation in 1662 were printed. On 16 Oct. (but, according to Le Neve, 16 Aug.) 1660 he was installed prebendary of Willesden, in the diocese of London, and before the year was out was made chaplain to Archbishop Juxon. In February 1661 he was instituted to the rectory of Hollingbourne, Kent; in 1662 to that of Much Hadham, Hertfordshire; and in the same year to the rectory of Lambeth. On 19 July 1663 he was incorporated D.D. of Oxford. He died before 25 Nov. 1669, when Dr. Henchman was admitted to the rectory of Hadham. Pory was licensed, 21 Sept. 1640, to marry Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Juxon of Chichester, a relative of the archbishop.
It is said that 'Poor Robin's Almanack,' the first edition of which appeared in 1663, was so entitled in derision of him. It professed to bear his imprimatur (Wood, Fasti, pt. ii. col. 267; cf. Peat, Thomas).
[Lansdowne MS. 986; Masson's Life of Milton, i. 79, 88, 603; Foster's Alumni Oxonienses; Gardiner's Admission Registers of St. Paul's School; Lysons's Environs of London, i. 294.]
POST, JACOB (1774–1855), quaker, son of John and Rosamund Post, was born at Whitefriars, London, on 12 Sept. 1774. He was educated at Ackworth school from 1782 to 1787, and subsequently settled at Islington. He was one of the founders of the North London and Islington Auxiliary of the Bible Society in 1812, and took a lively interest in it until his death at the age of eighty on 1 April 1855. His wife died on 14 Feb. 1844. A clever and promising son, Frederick James, died, aged eighteen, in 1837. His father edited, for private circulation, 'Extracts from his Diary and other Manuscripts, with a Memoir,' London, 1838.
Post's principal works, consisting of popular expositions of the history and belief of the Society of Friends, are: 1. 'Some Popular Customs amongst Christians questioned and compared with Gospel Precepts and Examples,' London, 12mo, 1839. 2. 'On the History and Mystery of (those called) the Sacraments: shewing them to be Jewish Institutions, and not Ordinances appointed by Christ to be observed in His Church,' London, 1846. 3. 'Some Reasons for continuing to refuse the Payment of all Ecclesiastical Demands,' 1849; a reply to Jonathan Barrett's 'Reasons for ceasing to refuse,' &c. 4. 'The Bible the Book for All,' 12mo, 1848; reprinted, with additions, 1849 and 1856. 5. 'Instructive Narratives for the Young, in a Series of Visions and
