Robert Porter (after 1603–1648) was a sword-cutler in Birmingham who supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.
[2][3] In 1642, before the Battle of Edgehill the first pitched battle of the Civil War, Birmingham supplied the Parliamentary army of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex with about 15,000 sword blades, many of which probably came from Porter's blade mill, because when Prince Rupert briefly held Birmingham after the Battle of Camp Hill (3 April 1643), Porter's Mill was singled out and burnt down by local Royalists ("malignants" as they were described by supporters of Parliament) to prevent it supplying further blades to the Parliamentary armies.
He was a captain in the Parliamentary cavalry during the Battle of Camp Hill, and is reputed to be the author of a letter published in a propaganda pamphlet by the Parliamentary side (see A True Relation of Prince Rvpert's Barbarous Cruelly against the Towne of Brumingham).
[2][4] Later in the Civil War he was treasurer of the Parliamentary garrison of Edgbaston Hall under the command of "Tinker" Fox.
[2] Porter's two sons Josiah and Samual, both continued as sword-cutlers, or "long-cutlers" as they were sometimes called.