Humphrey Prideaux | |
|---|---|
| Dean of Norwich | |
 | |
| Church | Church of England |
| Diocese | Diocese of Norwich |
| In office | 1702-1714 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 May 1648 |
| Died | 1 November 1724 (aged 76) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Westminster School London Liskeard Grammar School |
Humphrey Prideaux (3 May 1648 – 1 November 1724) was a Cornish churchman and orientalist, Dean of Norwich from 1702. His sympathies inclined to Low Churchism in religion and to Whiggism in politics.
The third son of Edmond Prideaux, he was born at Padstow, Cornwall, on 3 May 1648. His mother was a daughter of John Moyle. [1] After education at Liskeard grammar school and Bodmin grammar school, he went to Westminster School under Richard Busby, recommended by his uncle William Morice. [2] On 11 December 1668 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he had obtained a studentship. [3] He graduated B.A. 22 June 1672, M.A. 29 April 1675, B.D. 15 November 1682, D.D. 8 June 1686. [1] In January 1674, Prideaux recorded in his letters a visit to his home of William Levett; with Levett came Lord Cornbury, son of the Earl of Clarendon, Levett's principal patron. In other letters, Prideaux mentioned alliances with Levett in ongoing church political maneuverings. [4] At the university he was known for scholarship; John Fell employed him in 1672 on an edition of Florus . [1] He also worked on Edmund Chilmead's edition of the chronicle of John Malalas. [2]
Prideaux gained the patronage of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, as tutor to his son Charles, [2] and in 1677 he obtained the sinecure rectory of Llandewy-Velfrey, Pembrokeshire. In 1679 Finch presented him to the rectory of St Clement's, Oxford, which he held till 1696. He was appointed also, in 1679, Busby's Hebrew lecturer in Christ Church College. Finch gave him in 1681 a canonry at Norwich, and Sir Francis North in February 1683 presented him to the rectory of Bladon, Oxfordshire, which included the chapelry of Woodstock. He retained his studentship at Christ Church, where he was acting as unsalaried librarian. [1]
Prideaux married and left Oxford for Norwich, ahead of James II's appointment (October 1686) of John Massey, a Roman Catholic, as Dean of Christ Church. He exchanged (1686) Bladon for the rectory of Saham-Toney, Norfolk, which he held till 1694. He engaged in controversy with Roman Catholics, especially on the point of the validity of Anglican orders. As canon of Norwich he improved the financial arrangements of the chapter, and put the records in order. In December 1688 he was made archdeacon of Suffolk by his bishop William Lloyd, an office which he held till 1694. While Lloyd became a nonjuror, Prideaux exerted himself at his archidiaconal visitation (May 1689) to secure the taking of the oaths; out of three hundred parishes in his archdeaconry only three clergymen became nonjurors. At the Convocation which opened on 21 November 1689 Prideaux was an advocate for changes in the Book of Common Prayer , with a view to the comprehension of Dissenters. Subsequently he officially corrected a lax interpretation of the Toleration Act 1688, as though it exempted from the duty of attendance on public worship. Gilbert Burnet consulted him in 1691 about a measure for prevention of pluralities, and Prideaux drafted a bill for this purpose. Richard Kidder consulted him in the same year about a bill for preventing clandestine marriages. [5]
From 1689 to 1694 Prideaux resided at Saham. He declined in 1691 the Oxford Hebrew chair vacated by the death of Edward Pococke, a step which he afterwards regretted. Saham did not suit his health, and he returned to Norwich. In a letter written on 28 November 1694 after receiving the news of John Tillotson's death, he said that he had no expectations of future advancement. Early in 1697 he was presented to the vicarage of Trowse, near Norwich, a chapter living, which he held till 1709. He succeeded Henry Fairfax as dean of Norwich, and was installed on 8 June 1702. On the translation to Ely (31 July 1707) of John Moore, Prideaux recommended the appointment of Charles Trimnell, his fellow canon, as bishop. [6]
In 1721 Prideaux gave his collection of oriental books to Clare Hall, Cambridge. From about 1709 he had suffered severely from the stone, which prevented him from preaching. An operation was badly managed; attacks of rheumatism and paralysis reduced his strength. He died on 1 November 1724, at the deanery, Norwich, and was buried in the nave of the Norwich Cathedral, where there was a stone to his memory, with an epitaph composed by himself. [6]
Among his other works were a Life of Mahomet (1697), [7] with a polemical tract against the deists. [8] Its scholarship depended in particular on Pococke. [2] It was criticised by George Sale, in his notes to his translation of the Quran . [6]
The Old and New Testament connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations (1715–17) [9] was a significant work, of which many editions were brought out; it drew on James Ussher. [2] It was among the earliest English works to use the term Vulgar Era , [10] [11] though Kepler used the term as early as 1635. [12] It covered the historical interval between the Old and New Testaments, and led to a controversy between Prideaux and his cousin, Walter Moyle. Jean Le Clerc wrote a critical examination of it, which was published in English in 1722. [13] The French translation was by Moses Solanus and Jean-Baptiste Brutel de la Rivière. [14]
He published the following pamphlets: The Validity of the Orders of the Church of England (1688), Letter to a Friend on the Present Convocation (1690), The Case of Clandestine Marriages stated (1691). [8] Other works were:
His letters (1674–1722) to John Ellis were edited for the Camden Society in 1875 by Edward Maunde Thompson. [13]
On 16 February 1686 Prideaux married Bridget Bokenham, only child of Anthony Bokenham of Helmingham, Suffolk, and left a son:
William Wotton was an English theologian, classical scholar and linguist. He is chiefly remembered for his remarkable abilities in learning languages and for his involvement in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. In Wales he is remembered as the collector and first translator of the ancient Welsh laws.
Thomas Hearne or Hearn was an English diarist and prolific antiquary, particularly remembered for his published editions of many medieval English chronicles and other important historical texts.
Thomas Tanner was an English antiquary and prelate. He was Bishop of St Asaph from 1732 to 1735.
Daniel Cosgrove Waterland was an English theologian. He became Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1714, Chancellor of the Diocese of York in 1722, and Archdeacon of Middlesex in 1730.
Prideaux Place is a grade I listed Elizabethan country house in the parish of Padstow, Cornwall, England. It has been the home of the Prideaux family for over 400 years. The house was built in 1592 by Sir Nicholas Prideaux (1550–1627), a distinguished lawyer, and was enlarged and modified by successive generations, most notably by his great-great-grandson Edmund Prideaux (1693–1745) and by the latter's grandson Rev. Charles Prideaux-Brune (1760–1833). The present building, containing 81 rooms, combines the traditional E-shape of Elizabethan architecture with the 18th-century exuberance of Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Gothic.
John Clarke (1682–1757) was an English natural philosopher and Dean of Salisbury from 1728 to his death in 1757.
Edward Pierce was a Welsh Anglican priest and writer.
Rev. John Conant D.D. was an English clergyman, theologian, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.
Francis Turner D.D. was Bishop of Ely, one of the seven bishops who petitioned against the Declaration of Indulgence and one of the nine bishops who refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III.
William Levett was the Oxford-educated personal chaplain to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, whom he accompanied into exile in France, then became the rector of two parishes, and subsequently Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford and the Dean of Bristol.
John Kettlewell was an English clergyman, nonjuror and devotional writer. He is now known for his arguments against William Sherlock, who had justified the change of monarch of 1688–89 and his own switch of sides in The Case of the Allegiance. According to J. P. Kenyon, Kettlewell's reply made a case "with which conformist Anglicans could only agree, because it was spiritual, while Sherlock's was resolutely aspiritual". He went on to attack defenders of the Glorious Revolution generally as proponents of fallacious contractarian theories.
John Ellis (1643–1738) was an English official and Member of Parliament.
Edward Wetenhall (1636–1713) was an English bishop of the Church of Ireland. His name is also spelled Wettenhall, Whetenhall, Whitnall, Withnoll, and Wythnall.
Moses Solanus or Moïse du Soul was a French classical scholar.
Jean-Baptiste Brutel de la Rivière was a French Protestant minister, in exile in the Netherlands, and man of letters.
Samuel Shuckford (1693?–1754) was an English cleric, antiquarian, and mythographer.
John Smith (1659–1715) was an English cleric, known for his edition of the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede.
Edmund Prideaux (1693–1745) was an English painter and architect in Cornwall best known for his involvement in the architectural remodelling of Prideaux Place, an English country house located in Padstow.
Samuel Grascome (1641–1708) was a clergyman of the Church of England, then, after the nonjuring schism, a member of the breakaway church.
Ralph Taylor was an English clergyman, nonjuror and sometime chaplain to the court of James II at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Gordon, Alexander (1896). "Prideaux, Humphrey". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 352–354.
 | Wikisource has the text of A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature 's article about Prideaux, Humphrey . |
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