In 1729 appeared at Dublin his 'List of the Absentees of Ireland,' and in the following year he published 'Observations on Coin.' In conjunction with Samuel Madden [q. v.] and eleven other friends, Prior in 1731 succeeded in establishing the Dublin Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures, Arts, and Sciences. It was duly incorporated, and received a grant from parliament in 1749 of 500l. a year, and subsequently developed into the Royal Dublin Society.
To Lord Chesterfield, who during his vice-royalty had occasional intercourse with Prior and formed a high opinion of him, Prior in 1746 dedicated 'An Authentic Narrative of the Success of Tar-water in Curing a great number and variety of Distempers.' This publication included two letters from Berkeley. An essay by Prior, advocating the encouragement of the linen manufacture in Ireland, wan published at Dublin in 1749.
Prior died on 21 Oct. 1751, and was buried at Rathdowny, A monument was erected by subscription to his memory in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, with an inscriptionin Latin by Bishop Berkeley, who styled him 'Societatis Dubliniensis auctor, institutor, curator.' A marble bust of Prior is in the possession of the Royal Dublin Society. A portrait of him in mezzotint was published at Dublin in 1752.
[Gilbert's Hist. of Dublin; Chesterfield'a Letters, by Lord Mahon; Reoords of the Dublin Society; Berkeley's Literary Relics; Tracts relative to Ireland, 1861; Berkeley's Works, 1871.]
PRIOR, THOMAS ABIEL (1809–1886), line-engraver, was born on 5 Nov. 1809. He first distinguished himself in 1846 by engraving a plate of 'Heidelberg Castle and Town,' from a drawing by J. M. W. Turner, R.A., and under Turner's supervision; it was published by subscription. He next essayed a plate in mezzotint, 'More frightened than hurt,' after James Bateman: but he afterwards returned to the line manner, in which he successfully executed several other plates after Turner. They included 'Zurich,' 1852; 'Dido building Carthage,' 1863; 'Apollo and the Sibyl' (Bay of Baiæ), 1873; 'The Sun rising in a Mist,' begun by William Chapman, 1874; and 'The Fighting Téméraire,' 1886, his latest and one of his best works. He engraved also after Turner, 'The Goddess of Discord choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides' and 'Heidelberg Castle' for the Turner Gallery, and 'The Golden Bough' and 'Venice: the Dogana' for the Vernon Gallery. Besides the last two, there are in the Vernon Gallery plates by him of 'Ruins in Italy,' after Richard Wilson, R.A.; 'De Tabley Park' and 'The Council of Horses,' after James Ward, R.A., and 'Woodcutting in Windsor Forest,' after John Linnell. He likewise engraved 'Crossing the Bridge,' after Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., and for the 'Art Journal' the following pictures in the royal collection: 'The Windmill,' after Ruysdael; 'The Village Fête,' after David Teniers; 'Dover,' after George Chambers; 'The Opening of New London Bridge,' after Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.; and 'Constantinople: the Golden Horn,' after Jacobus Jacobs.
During the later years of his life Prior resided in Calais, whither he removed in order to be near his son, who had settled there. He taught drawing in one or two of the public schools, and devoted his leisure time to engraving. He exhibited twice only at the Royal Academy, and never elsewhere. He died at Calais on 8 Nov. 1886.
[Times, 11 Nov. 1886; Athenæum, 1886., ii. 677; Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong, 1886, ii. 323.]
PRISOT, Sir JOHN (d. 1460), judge, was probably born at Westberies, Ruckinge, Kent, of which manor his father was lord, towards the close of the fourteenth century, He was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law on 31 Aug. 1443, and on 16 Jan. 1448-9 was made chief justice of the common bench. He was afterwards knighted, was a trier of petitions from Gascony and other parts beyond sea in the parliaments of 1453 and 1455, and in the latter year was a member of the Hertfordshire commission for raising funds for the defence of Calais. In 1455 he became one of the feoffees to the use of the crown of various estates in the duchy of Lancaster. He died in 1460, before the accession of Edward IV.
Prisot was a strong and learned judge and was 'of furtherance' to Littleton in the compilation of his 'Tenures'. He was lord of the mannor of Wallington, Hertfordshire, where his widow Margaret was residing in 1480.
[Cussons's Hertfordshire, Odsey Hundred, p. 80; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, iii. 597; Hasted's Kent, iii. 474; Dugdale's Orig. p. 59; Chron. Ser. pp. 64, 66; Nicolas's Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, vi. 239; Rot. Parl. v. 227, 279, vi. 355; Paston Correspondence, ed. Gairdner, i. 123, 211, 290-2; Foss's Lives of the Judges]
PRITCHARD, ANDREW (1804–1882), microscopist, eldest son of John Pritchard of Hackney, and his wife Ann, daughter of John Fleetwood, was born in London on 14 Dec. 1804. He was educated at St.
