Walter Prideaux (1806 – 1889) was a poet and lawyer.Thomas Monck Mason
National Portrait Gallery, accessed May 2009 Prideaux rose to be clerk to

Goldsmiths' Hall Goldsmiths' Hall is a Grade I listed building at the junction of Foster Lane and Gresham Street in the City of London. It has served as an assay office and the headquarters of London's goldsmith guild, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one o ...

.West Country poets
1896 He was involved in record setting balloon flight.

Origins

Walter Prideaux was born 15 April 1806, at Bearscombe near Kingsbridge and

Loddiswell Loddiswell is a parish and village in the South Hams district of Devon, England. It lies on the west side of the River Avon or Aune and is three miles NNW from Kingsbridge. There is evidence of occupation going back to Roman times. The villages ...

, one of the six sons of Walter Prideaux (d. 1832) of Kingsbridge and Plymouth, a partner in the

Devon and Cornwall Bank The Devon and Cornwall Bank (formally the Devon & Cornwall Banking Company) was a bank which operated in the Westcountry of England between 1832 and 1906, when it was taken-over by Lloyds Bank. History The bank was established in 1832 as a jo ...

, a Quaker associated with the

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

, having in 1812 sold Bearscombe and moved to Plymouth. It is not clear what relation he was to the ancient gentry family of Prideaux seated variously at Orcheton, Modbury; Adeston,

Holbeton Holbeton is a civil parish and village located 9 miles south east of Plymouth in the South Hams district of Devon, England. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 579, down from 850 in 1901. By 2011 it had increased to 619. The south ...

;

Thuborough, Sutcombe Thuborough (alias ''Therborough, Theoburgh'', etc.) in the parish of Sutcombe, Devon, England, is an historic estate, formerly a seat of a branch of the Prideaux family, also seated at Orcharton, Modbury; Adeston, Holbeton; Soldon, Holsworthy; ...

;

Soldon, Holsworthy Soldon in the parish of Holsworthy Hamlets, Devon, England, is a historic estate, a seat of the Prideaux family. The manor house is a grade II listed building dating from the mid-16th century with later alterations. It was sold in 2014 as an eight ...

;

Netherton, Farway Netherton in the parish of Farway in Devon is an historic estate situated about 3 1/2 miles south-east of Honiton. The present mansion house known as Netherton Hall was built in 1607 in the Jacobean style, restored and rebuilt 1836-44, and is a ...

; Ashburton;

Nutwell Nutwell in the parish of Woodbury, East Devon, Woodbury on the south coast of Devon is a historic Manorialism, manor and the site of a Georgian neo-classical Listed building, Grade II* listed mansion house known as Nutwell Court. The house is s ...

Woodbury Woodbury may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Woodbury Glacier, a glacier on Graham Land, British Antarctic Territory Australia * Woodbury, Tasmania, a locality in Australia England * Woodbury, Bournemouth, an area in Dorset *Woodbury, East Devo ...

;

Ford Abbey Forde Abbey is a privately owned former Cistercian monastery in Dorset, England, with a postal address in Chard, Somerset. The house and gardens are run as a tourist attraction while the estate is farmed to provide additional revenue. Forde Abbey ...

Thorncombe Thorncombe is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It was historically, until 1844, an exclave of Devon. It lies five miles (8 km) south east of the town of Chard in neighbouring Somerset. Thorncombe is situated ...

all in Devon, and at

Prideaux Place 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 disti ...

Padstow Padstow (; kw, Lannwedhenek) is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately northwest of Wadebridge, ...

, and Prideaux manor,

Luxulyan Luxulyan (; kw, Logsulyan), also spelt Luxullian or Luxulian, is a village and civil parish in mid Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village lies four miles (6.5 km) northeast of St Austell and six miles (10 km) south of Bodmin. ...

, in Cornwall. The wife of Walter Prideaux (Senior) was Sarah-Ball Hingston, a daughter of his partner Joseph Hingston (1764-1835) (Senior), merchant, of Dodbrooke (adjacent to

Kingsbridge Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the abo ...

) in Devon, by his first wife Sarah Ball (d.1790), a daughter of Joseph Ball of

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

in Somerset.

Career

Prideaux is shown in a painting where discussions are taking place for a journey in a balloon by Charles Green, Thomas Monck Mason and

Robert Hollond Robert Hollond (1808–1877) was an English balloonist, lawyer, and politician. He funded and then took part in establishing a distance ballooning record with Thomas Monck Mason and Charles Green. He later served as a Whig politician represen ...

. The three travelled a record distance of 500 miles in 18 hours. Prideaux was included in the painting with the artist, John Hollins, and

William Milbourne James Admiral Sir William Milbourne James, (22 December 1881 – 17 August 1973) was a British naval commander, politician and author. He served in the Royal Navy from the early 20th century to the Second World War. During the First World War, he wa ...

. In 1840, Prideaux's poems were published as ''Poems of Chivalry, Faery, and the Olden Time''Poems of Chivalry, Faery, and the Olden Time
Walter Prideaux, 1840, accessed May 2009

Death

Prideaux died in 1889.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prideaux, Walter 1806 births 1889 deaths Writers from Devon 20th-century English poets 20th-century English lawyers