Sir Nicholas Fortescue the younger (1605–1644), was an English Knight of St. John. He was the fourth son of Sir Nicholas Fortescue, Chamberlain of the Exchequer. His father was throughout his life a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and his sons were brought up in that religion. It is probable that the memory of Sir Adrian Fortescue, who had late in his life become a member of the Order of St. John, was cherished among his kinsmen, who adhered to the faith for the sake of which they believed him to have died a martyr, and it may be assumed that this feeling inspired Nicholas with the ambition to resuscitate the order, which had completely died out in England. In 1637 he went to Malta, furnished, if Pozzo is to be believed, the historian of the order, with a direct commission from Queen