Charles Porter (Lord Chancellor of Ireland)

Sir Charles Porter (6 September 1631 – 8 December 1696), was a flamboyant and somewhat controversial English-born judge, who nonetheless enjoyed a highly successful career, being twice Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Porter was born in Norwich, a younger son of Edmund Porter, prebendary of Norwich and chaplain to Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry. Much of what we know of his early life comes from his own very colourful later account, given to his friend Roger North, which North accepted as being largely true. During the Second English Civil War, while he was an apprentice, he took part on the Royalist side in the serious rioting in Norwich in 1648. He was pursued by a troop of Parliamentary soldiers, and escaped by seizing a child and pretending to carry it to safety. He fled to Yarmouth and took ship for Amsterdam; there he first trained as a soldier, then ran a tavern. After about five years he judged it safe to return home.

He decided on a career in the law, entered Middle Temple in 1656 and was called to the Bar in 1663. Critics were to say that he was a poor lawyer, and his addiction to all forms of pleasure, especially drink, undoubtedly injured his practice. On the other hand, he was a hard worker, had a good knowledge of procedure and was a superb orator. Early in his career he acquired the reputation of a man who had "the courage of his convictions". As counsel in Crispe v Dalmahoy (1675), one of several controversial cases on the claims of both Houses of Parliament to act as judges, Porter insisted on his right to argue against the alleged judicial powers of the House of Commons, even on pain of imprisonment for contempt of Parliament. He attracted the favourable notice of several judges, especially Francis North, 1st Baron Guildford, who described him as "a man who had the good fortune to be universally loved". During the last years of Charles II, with Guildford, now Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, at the head of the judiciary, Porter was at the height of his professional success, and entered Parliament as member for Tregony in 1685.

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