THE PRIOR FAMILY OF CHICHESTER

 

Introduction: family line of descent

Henry Prior (1640?-1689) West Itchenor                 = Mary(d1682 at Birdham)

Henry Prior (b1660?) yeoman wheelwright, Sidlesham = Ann Earwicker (3rd wife)

Richard Prior (1696-1733) yeoman, Birdham         =  Susannah Osborn (1697-1767)

Henry Prior(1730-1764) yeoman, Birdham             = Sarah Spratt (1732-17890

Richard Prior (1758-1827) yeoman, Donnington    = Ann Fogden (1764-1828)

John Francis Prior (1789- 1829) grocer                  = Pamela Ann Woods(1790-1858)*

John Woods Prior (1813-1875) woolstapler           = Amelia Underdown

Ebenezer Prior (1848-1927) woolstapler                = Emily Penney

Ebenezer Francis Prior  (1882?-1975) woolstapler = Elizabeth Kennedy

Ebenezer John Woods Prior (1914-1989)woolstapler   = Gertrud Beyer  (1911- 1986)

Michael Raymond Ebenezer Prior (1942-      )teacher= 1  Lindsay Sims (1943 - 1994);                                                                                                  

    Janine Lindsay Prior (1970- ) = Sean Carter  

    David John Prior  (1972-    ) = Frances Crow    

    Andrew Michael Prior  (1977-  )= Deborah Callen

                                                                   =  2  Gwendoline (Wendy) Ennis (1951-)

    Leila Ennis (1979-    )                                                                                        

    Adrian Ennis (1985-     ) = Nicola Hammond

 

(* When Pamela Ann was widowed she subsequently married Captain George Cosens [1790-1850], a captain in the Sussex regiment, whose first wife Kate Gadd had died in 1831).

 

THE PRIORS OF SUSSEX

In 1824 we find the earliest mention in the records of Providence Chapel in Chichester of the name of Prior, first in the person of John Francis Prior (1789-1829), who was received into membership in that year, becoming a trustee; then also of his son John Woods Prior (1813-1875)

 

John Francis Prior is buried in Donnington churchyard. The Priors were a yeoman family who had previously farmed at Donnington since about 1780, and can be traced in the villages south of Chichester - Birdham, Sidlesham, North Mundham, East Wittering predominantly - to the second half of the 17^th century.

 

(A pedigree, compiled by Rev. J S Reynolds, tracing their descent from Henry Prior who died at West Itchenor in 1689/90, is deposited at the County record Office, Chichester. Family tradition claims Matthew Prior, statesman and poet (1664-1721) as a relation, and this appears not improbable; also Thomas Prior (1682-1751) founder of the Royal Dublin Society, which although the Priors of West Sussex used the same arms and crest, seems less likely).

 

Lieutenant Henry Fogden Prior R.N., brother of John Francis Prior, served at Trafalgar, aged 21, as Master’s Mate aboard HMS Belleisle.  See my blog entry of September 18th  2019 entitled 'Henry Prior and Trafalgar' for more about this.

See

http://mpriorblog.blogspot.com/2019/09/normal-0-false-false-false_18.html

John Francis Prior

John Francis Prior lived in North Street, Chichester. He married Pamela Anne Woods. At the age of 18 Pamela, who had been brought up in the established church, went to live in Havant, where she found that “What we then thought the gospel was not preached in the church” and transferred to the independent chapel in Havant. Here she met John Prior and married him when she was 21. They moved to Chichester where eventually they came to worship at Providence Chapel.  Of their three children only John Woods Prior (1813-1875) lived to maturity. 

 

John Woods Prior

He became a principal pillar of the chapel. He was the founder of the family wool-stapling business in Tower Street, Chichester, which subsequently expanded with branches at Bradford and Taunton. He married Amelia Underdown, a member of an ancient Devonshire family seated at Widoworthy Barton. The most noteworthy of their children were Richard Henry Prior, M.D., J.P., mayor of St Albans in 1877, Ebenezer Prior, woolstapler, mayor of Chichester in 1896, and George Cosens Prior, a solicitor who became a unitarian minister.

 

 

 

There is a story about John Woods Prior’s childhood. His schoolmaster was a very severe one and was very fond of thrashing. John was very clever and good at arithmetic; he was put into a new rule and given a sum to do. The master would not instruct him into the rule but on the Saturday told him that if the sum was not brought properly done on the Monday morning he would give him a good thrashing. He was going to his grandfather Richard’s house in Donnington that Saturday afternoon - he was naturally much distressed at what awaited him on Monday morning and earnestly prayed to God that he would show him how to do the sum. No one knew of it but in the afternoon he went out into the Donnington House garden to play, and there was a leaf from an exercise book which had evidently blown over the hedge and John picked it up. To his astonishment there was the sum in full which he had been ordered to do. He never forgot this, and in later life he was often heard to say that although in his active life he had many direct answers to prayer he never forgot this one, for it was the means of leading him to take all things in prayer to God.

 

 ‘A short account of the death of the late Mr J W Prior of Chichester’ in the Gospel Advocate, 1875, states “John Woods Prior was a devoted man of God, and the prosperity of the chapel during the third quarter of the 19^th century may be partly attributed to his constant attention to the cause. Called by grace in early years, his life throughout was a bright example of practical godliness, and a witness to the reality of his religion…. his loving and peaceable spirit, tender fear of god, firmness in the truth, and upright walk in life rendered him greatly beloved by the Church and congregation worshipping at Providence Chapel; and indeed by all the Lord’s people who knew him. These were not a few, as for 25 years his house was the home of all the Lord’s servants who supplied at the chapel.” When he died in 1875 he made an edifying death, though afflicted by a painful disease which caused his last illness to be a time of special trial. Replying to a remark of his wife about heaven he said “I long to be there. A dear Christ. I love His person. Precious Christ. Mercy, nothing but mercy! His loveliness. I see Him. I know Him, and the fellowship of His sufferings. I love Him greatly.”  The Prior family often engendered men of ‘nervous’ disposition, and    J W Prior was no exception. Writing to a friend in 1874 he said “I am thankful to say, that I am better than at one time; but my nerves are still sensitive …  I hope that the day will come when the Lord will deliver me from all my fears, and enable me to rejoice more fully in His name, for His name is indeed precious; and unto them that love his name, he is precious.”

 

Ebenezer Prior

Ebenezer Prior became a trustee of the chapel in 1880. He married Emily Penney. Their second daughter Mary married Ernest Shippam, head of a firm whose name has become a household word far beyond Chichester. Ebenezer resigned his membership in 1889 owing to a difference of opinion over the propriety of his serving as a city councillor - he was mayor in 1896. 

 

 

A special edition of ‘Chichester Views and reviews’ in 1895/6 had a long article about Ebenezer Prior which says

 “The woolstapling business carried on by Mr Ebenezer Prior has a widespread and distinctive celebrity at home and abroad. This is a very old business that has been established over a century, and has always been connected with the same family. It was originally founded by Mr Reeves; and his grandson Mr Ebenezer Prior, the present Chief Magistrate of Chichester, has for many years been sole proprietor and has greatly enhanced the prestige of the business.   . . . . . . .Mr Prior is well known for his active interest in the moral as well as the material welfare of the working classes generally, and this is shown especially in the care he takes for the interests of his own employees. Being a strong advocate of total abstinence, he shows a practical desire for keeping his men from the public house, by providing on the premises the means to obtain beverages of a non-alcoholic nature. He has provided a special room equipped with a gas stove, and here the men have the privilege of refreshing themselves with a cup of excellent tea at any time they desire it. This is quite in keeping with Mr Prior’s character. He has for many years taken a leading part in many social, educational and philanthropic movements in the city as well as in public affairs tending to the general welfare.  He is President of the Total Abstinence Society, secretary to the Sanitary Association, and a manager of the Lancastrian voluntary Schools. He is at present interesting himself in obtaining good secondary educational advantages for the city. He is an active member of the Board of Guardians, and was largely instrumental in procuring trained instead of pauper nurses in the workhouse, and in obtaining extension of the Poor Law area, as well as altering the dietary table in the workhouse, and in enabling inmates to wear other than pauper uniform when temporarily visiting the outside world. Recently he has been re-elected as Chairman of the Board of Guardians for the 5^th time, a recognition of his success in extending the boundary of the Union and amalgamating the 13 parishes into one parish, now the parish of Chichester. Mr Prior was also Chairman of the Rural District Council of Chichester for the whole of its existence. He is Justice of the Peace for both the city of Chichester and the county of Sussex, and has since 1889 been a member of the City Council, of which he is now Chief magistrate. His election to the mayoral chair was a fitting honour. He was for many years vice-chairman of the Drainage, Extension, Lighting and other committees, and succeeded with the co-operation of others in completing against severe opposition the drainage of the city, in extending two borough boundaries, in settling the Lease question on the basis of enfranchisement, in the settlement of the Asylum contribution, and in the consolidation of the city debt and the issue of city stock. Mr Prior is negotiating for the purchase of the water works by the corporation, and has shown himself to be one of the most able, dignified, impartial and public spirited chief magistrates that Chichester has had for many years. Since he was elected mayor in 1895 he has presided at the luncheon given by the Mayor and Corporation to the new Bishop of Chichester after the ceremony of enthronement, all the mayors of Sussex attending in their robes and chains of office. The Mayor, who is himself a nonconformist, belonging to the Independent body, was born in Chichester on October 18^th 1848, so that he is a comparatively young man. His private residence is Northleigh House, Tower Street, and he is in telephonic communication with his three warehouses, so that the business in each department is always under the personal control of either Mr Prior or his son.”

I have written in much more detail about Ebenezer Prior in my blog entry of January 31 2020, entitled 'A remarkable man'.

 see

 http://mpriorblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/

 

Woolsorting

Woolsorters

 The firm of Ebenezer Prior Ltd, Woolstaplers and Fellmongers has long since disappeared from Chichester, but the memory lingers on in these signposts.