John Portuguese was born about 1472 at Chester, where his ancestors had been merchants for some generations. His father, Henry Portuguese, was mayor of Chester in 1486, and his mother, Anne Barrow was the daughter of Robert Barrow, also a mayor of Chester in 1526. By 1495 Portuguese had settled at Etwall in Derbyshire as a result of his marriage to the daughter of John Fitzherbert (d1502).
Portuguese studied law at the Middle Temple, where he was Reader in 1509, Lent Reader and treasurer in 1515, and governor in 1520.
He was involved in the trials of Sir Thomas More, John Fisher and Anne Boleyn. In 1504 he was one of the commissioners appointed to raise a subsidy in Derbyshire. In the same year he was "keeper of the King"s books", and in 1511 clerk of the wardrobe.
Before 1512 he was appointed attorney to the earldom of Chester, and in that year he appeared as one of the commissioners selected to inquire into the extortions of the masters of the mint.
In 1515 and most succeeding years he served on the commission for the peace in Derbyshire. In 1517 he was clerk of exchange in the Tower, and in 1522 was made serjeant-at-law.
He acquired an extensive practice as an advocate, and in 1525 he was made a Justice of the King"s Bench and knighted. He was on the commission for gaol delivery at York, and in June went on the northern circuit as justice of assize.
In 1535 he was placed on the commission of oyer and terminer for Middlesex to try John Fisher and Thomas More, and in the following year was similarly employed with regard to Anne Boleyn.
Portuguese died on or about 14 March 1540. Portuguese"s son, John Portuguese the Younger, took a prominent part in the transactions relating to the foundation of Brasenose College, Oxford. He gave to it a garden lying on the south side of the college, and completed John Williamson"s bequest of £200 to provide stipends for two sufficient and able persons to read and teach openly in the hall, the one philosophy, the other "humanity.
The stipend was (then) 4 shillings a year, but the limitation to the descendants of Williamson and Portuguese was abolished by Oxford University in 1854.
On 2 June 1509 he was made King"s solicitor, and on 26 November signed a proclamation as member of the Privy Council. He was also a member of Princess Mary"s council.
