PRIDE, Thomas (d. 1658), Parliamentary officer, was of humble origin, and is stated to have been brought up by the parish of St Bride’s, London. Subsequently he was a drayman and a brewer. At the beginning of the Civil War he served as ensign under the earl of Essex, and gradually obtained promotion to the rank of colonel. He distinguished himself at the battle of Preston, 17th August 1648, and in Cromwell’s Scottish campaign he held command of a brigade. He was noted for his resolute character and extreme anti-Royalist sentiments. After the Commons had voted that the king’s concessions at Newport were a basis for a settlement, he was chosen by the army chiefs to effect their purpose of “purging” the Commons. Taking his stand at the entrance of the House of Commons with a written list in his hand, he caused the arrest of the Royalist members who were pointed out to him, and placed them in custody. After about a hundred members had been dealt with by this ordinance, subsequently known as “Pride’s Purge,” the mutilated House of Commons proceeded to bring the king to trial. Pride was one of the judges of the king and signed his death-warrant. Under Cromwell he received the honour of knighthood, and was also chosen a member of the new House of Lords. He died at Nonsuch on 23d October 1658, and after the Restoration his body was dug up and suspended on the gallows at Tyburn along with that of Cromwell.

Noble, Lives of the Regicides ; Bate, Lives of the Prime Actors and Principal Contrivers of the Murder of Charles I. ; Carlyle, Cromwell.

PRIDEAUX, Humphrey (1648-1724), dean of Norwich, was the third son of Edward Prideaux of Place in Padstow, Cornwall, by his wife Bridget, daughter of John Moyle of Bake in the same county. Both families were of good repute in the west of England, and that of Prideaux was especially influential, as is shown by the elaborate pedigrees in Sir John Maclean’s Deanery of Trigg Minor (ii. 194-242). He was born at Place on 3d May 1648, and received the rudiments of his education at the grammar-schools of Liskeard and Bodmin. In 1665 he was placed at Westminster under Dr Busby, and after staying there for three years was admitted a student at Christ Church, Oxford, taking his degrees in the following order, B.A. in 1672, M.A. 1675, B.D. 1682, and D.D. 1686. It was the rule of that house that its best scholars should, after they had taken their first degree, be employed in editing some classical writer, and Prideaux was accordingly deputed to superintend a new edition of Lucius Florus and to prepare for the press, from a Greek MS. in the Bodleian, a work by Johannes Malalas. The first of these works is now exceedingly scarce, if indeed a copy be in existence, and the second was, on his advice, left in manuscript. The famous Arundel marbles had just been given to the university, and Prideaux was instructed to undertake the task of describing the gift, his transcript of the inscriptions, with a commentary and additions from the Selden marbles, appearing in 1676. In 1679 he was appointed to the rectory of St Clement’s, Oxford, and in the same year became Hebrew lecturer at Christ Church, whereupon he published two Hebrew tracts of Maimonides with a Latin translation and annotations. Prideaux continued tutor at Christ Church until February 1686, holding for the last three years ...