| Sir John Port (the younger) | |
|---|---|
| Born | [1] |
| Died | 6 June 1557[2] |
| Education | Brasenose College |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Giffard and Dorothy Fitzherbert |
| Children | three daughters |
| Parents | Sir John Port 'the Elder' |
Sir John Port 'the Younger' (1514–1557) was an English Knight of the Bath and Justice of the Common Pleas. He founded Repton School, an almshouse at Etwall and also has a secondary school named after him.
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John was the son of Sir John Port 'the Elder' whose family came from Chester. He was one of the Justices of the Common Pleas in the reign of King Henry VIII.
John was the first lecturer or scholar on his father's foundation at Brasenose College[1]. He was elected knight of the shire (MP) for Derbyshire in 1539. He was knighted at the coronation of Edward VI in 1547 and was a member of Mary's first parliament representing Derbyshire in 1553. He was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1554. In 1556 he was involved in the execution of Joan Waste, a 22-year-old blind Protestant.
Port died on 6 June 1557.
Sir John Port married, firstly, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Giffard of Chillington in Staffordshire by Dorothy, his wife, third daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Montgomery, which Elizabeth was heiress to her mother. By his first wife, he had three daughters and two sons:
Sir John also married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert of Norbury.
His father was Sir John Port 'the Elder'. His mother was Jane, his father's first wife, daughter and heiress of Sir John Fitzherbert of Etwall. She had previously married Sir John Pole of Radborne.[4]
Port had three sisters: Ellen who married Sir Edmund Pierrepont of Holme, Nottinghamshire and later married Sir John Babington; Barbara married Sir John Francys of Foremark; and Maria who was the wife of Sir George Findern of Findern.
The family of Port were based in Chester. Henry Port, described as a merchant, was the great-grandfather of Sir John Port the founder of Etwall Hospital and Repton School and a second Henry Port of the same place was his grandfather. For the latter, there is a monument in Etwall Church recording that he died in 1512 having had by his wife Elizabeth, seventeen children. Elizabeth was daughter of Banowayte of Flowresbrook. Sir John Port the younger was created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King Edward VI
Sir John Port had no children when he died in 1557. By his will, he left bequests for the creation of an almshouse at Etwall and a "Grammar School in Etwalle or Reptone", where the scholars every day were to pray for the souls of his parents and other relatives.[2] The executors purchased land which had once been the grounds of an Augustinian priory in Repton. Luckily it and the surrounding buildings had survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries.[4] Repton School has since become one of the great public schools of England. Sir John also confirmed and augmented his father's grants to Brasenose College, Oxford.[1]