Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prujean, Francis
PRUJEAN, Sir FRANCIS, M.D. (1593–1666), physician, whose name was often spelt Pridgeon, son of Francis Prujean, rector of Boothby, Lincolnshire, was born at Bury St. Edmunds in 1593, and educated by his father. He entered as a sizar at Caius College, Cambridge, on 23 March 1610, and graduated M.B. in 1617, and M.D. in 1625. He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London on 22 Dec. 1621, and was elected a fellow in 1626. He practised in Lincolnshire till 1638, and then settled in London. In 1639 he was elected a censor at the College of Physicians, and again from 1642 to 1647. He was registrar from 1641 to 1647, and president from 1650 to 1654, in the last of which years he was chosen, on the special recommendation of William Harvey, M.D. [q. v.], who declined the office. He was treasurer from 1655 to 1663. He had a large practice, and was knighted by Charles II on 1 April 1661. When Queen Catherine had typhus fever in October 1663, he attended her, and her recovery was attributed to a cordial prescribed by him (Pepys, Diary). Evelyn describes (ib. 9 Aug. 1661) his laboratory and collection of pictures, and mentions that he played on the polythore. He was married twice: first to Margaret Leggatt (d. 1661), and secondly, on 13 Feb. 1664, to Margaret, the widow of Sir Thomas Fleming, and daughter of Edward, lord Gorges. By his first wife he had an only son, Thomas Prujean, who graduated M.D. at Cambridge in 1619. He died on 23 June 1666, and was buried at Hornchurch, Essex. Dr. Baldwin Hamey the younger [q. v.] composed a Latin epitaph for him, in obedience to a clause in his will. His portrait was painted by Streater, and is in the College of Physicians, having been purchased by that society in 1873 from Miss Prujean, his last surviving descendant. He lived by the Old Bailey, and the place of his residence was named after him Prujean Square (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. vol. v. passim).
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 185; Pepys's Diary, ed. Braybrooke, vol. ii. 6th edit.; Chester's Westminster Abbey Reg.]