♂George Porter

George Porter (baptised 2 September 1564; buried 30 December 1585) was a young man of Bayham, on the Sussex–Kent border, who was buried about nine days after making his will. He was the tenth great-grand-uncle of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), the brother of Richard Porter, Roger’s tenth great-grandfather. He had inherited a marsh at Pevensey from his brother Stephen and passed it, with his own lands, to their brother John.

Early life

George was baptized at Frant, Sussex, on 2 September 1564, a son of John Porter, in the same parish register that records the baptisms of his brothers Stephen, Robert and Thomas. Stephen’s will of 1581 names their mother as Agnes. In March 1581, when George was sixteen, his brother Stephen left him “my landes at Pevensey to holde to him and his heires for ever”. He was still a young man when his brother Richard, the ironmaster of Bayham, died in August 1584 and named him among his brothers.

The will

George made his will on 21 December 1585, calling himself “George Porter of Begham”, the spelling the family used for Bayham. He was buried at Frant on 30 December. He named no wife or child. His will was proved at London on 8 February 1585/6 by his brother John, whom he had made his executor and heir.

To John he left “all my landes tenementes rentes and hereditamentes whatsoever” in what appears to be Dallington, Sussex, “and all that my little marshe which I have in Pevensey which my brother Stephen Porter gave to me by his laste will”, together with the rest of his goods. He left John’s wife, “my Sister Porter”, forty shillings for a ring, and “my Sister Aynscombe” ten pounds. His mother received ten pounds and his brother Thomas eight. Thomas’s maid and three others received five shillings each, a debtor, Mr Goodale, was forgiven forty shillings, and the poor of Frant were given forty shillings. The wife of “my cosen Thomas Russell” was left twenty shillings for a ring, and Russell and Thomas Aynscombe were two of the three witnesses.

George’s mother was alive when he wrote the will, as she had been at the time of Richard’s and Stephen’s.

Notes

Uncertain points

The day of the month is the twenty-first (“one and twentithe” in the register); an automated text of the same line gives the sixteenth. The parish is probably Dallington, with moderate confidence. The sister’s husband’s surname is spelled Aynscombe; the Frant register records the marriage of Mary Porter and Thomas Aynscombe on 2 July 1571, and the sister named in the will is probably Mary. The Frant burial of 30 December 1585 is identified with the author of the will by the shared residence, the shared brothers and the mother living in both.