196. Payment to the Vicar of Pinhoe.—In the year 1001 a large force of Danes landed at Exmouth and besieged Exeter, but were driven off. The Fyrd collected under their Reeves Eadsige and Kola and were defeated in a bloody battle near Pinhoe. The funeral mound of the brave departed still remains.
The Vicar of Pinhoe receives each 1st October i6s., minus 2s. 10d. for "auditing" from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
Tradition runs that this pension was conferred on him because on the day of battle he galloped into Exeter and brought out arrows for the Fyrd; another tradition is that the pension was settled on him to pray for the souls of the slain.
The Valor Ecclesiasticus, vol. ii., p. 313, says the Prior of St. Nicholas Priory, Exeter, paid the pension. It has been paid by the Woods and Forest Department.
By what authority was this pension voted? When was the first payment made? Has it been fairly regularly paid since its institution? Can any reader quote other similar cases? S. Grose.
197. Surname Prideaux (IX., p. 208, par. 176).—In reply to the query by Curiosus II., the proper way to pronounce the name Prideaux is "Pridux," the accent being on the first syllable and the vowel short; but those members of the clan who have from time to time abandoned their west country domicile, not apparently being specially deficient in common sense, have preferred answering to the 'Prido' or 'Preedo' of those who addressed them, to insisting on accuracy in the matter, and have indeed mostly ended by calling themselves erroneously.
The person from whom the family trace, one Paganus, who lived near Fowey before the Conquest, wrote his surname (or, if he couldn't write, had it written) 'Pridias,' which is, according to a pedigree open before me, a name "evidently of Celtic origin."
It has been stated, on what should be good authority, that there is in France a family of Prideaux which is in no way connected with the Prideaux folk of Devon and Cornwall. H. Maxwell Prideaux.
