was a judicious collector of pictures, and as the friend of Rubens, Van Dyck, Daniël Mijtens and other painters, and as agent for Charles in his purchases abroad he had a considerable share in forming the king's magnificent collection. He was also instrumental in procuring the Arundel pictures from Spain. In 2013 a painting of his wife by Anthony van Dyck was found to have been undiscovered as a masterpiece in the Bowes Museum in County Durham. Sources Life and Letters of Endymion Porter, by Dorothea Townshend (1897) article in the Dictionary of National Biography, by CH Firth and authorities there cited Memoires, by D Lloyd (1668), p. 657 Burton's Hist. of Scotland (1873), vi. 346–347 English Historical Review ii.531, 692 Gardiner's History of England Lives of the Lords Strangford (1877), by E.B. de Fonblanque (Life and Letters) Anthony à Wood, Athenae Oxonienses Clarendon's History of the Rebellion State Papers and Calendar of State Papers; Calendar of Slate Papers: Dom. and of Committee for Compounding The Chesters of Chichele, by Waters, i.144–149 Eikon Basilike, by Ed. Almack, p. 94 There are also various references, etc., to Endymion Porter in Additional Charters, British Museum, 6223, 1633, 6225; Add. manuscripts 15,858; 33,374; and Egerton 2550, 2533; in the Hist. Manuscripts Comm. Series; Manuscripts of Duke of Portland, etc., and in Notes and Queries; also Thomason Tracts, Brit. Mus., E 118 (13). References 1587 births 1649 deaths 17th-century philanthropists Cavaliers Court of James VI and I Patrons of literature 17th-century English diplomats English MPs 1640–1648 Middlesex Militia officers