Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/304

  Byron's Works, ed. 1832, vii. 244; Taylor's Records of my Life, i. 38–47; Bath Booksellers, by R. E. M. Peach, in Bath Herald 15 Dec. 1894; Monthly Mirror, xv. 363–6.] 

PRATT, THOMAS SIMSON (1797–1879), commander of the forces in Australia, born in 1797, was son of Captain James Pratt, by Anne, daughter of William Simson, and was educated at St. Andrews University. He was gazetted to an ensigncy in the 26th foot on 2 Feb. 1814, and served in Holland in the same year as a volunteer with the 56th foot. He was present at the attack on Merxem on 2 Feb. and the subsequent bombardment of Antwerp. He purchased his captaincy on 17 Sept. 1825. He was with the 26th foot in the China expedition, and commanded the land forces at the assault and capture of the forts of Chuenpee on 7 Jan. 1841, and again at the capture of the Bogue forts on 26 Feb. In the attacks on Canton, from 24 May to 1 June, he was in command of his regiment, and was present also at the demonstration before Nankin, and at the signing of the treaty of peace on board H.M.S. Cornwallis. On 28 Aug. 1841 he was gazetted lieutenant-colonel, and from 5 Sept. 1843 to 23 Oct. 1855 was deputy adjutant-general at Madras.

From 1856 to 1861 he was in command of the forces in Australia, with the rank of major-general. During 1860–1 he was in New Zealand, conducting the war against the Maoris. From 8 Jan. 1860 to May 1862 he commanded the forces in Victoria, and was then appointed to the colonelcy of the 37th regiment. In October 1877 he retired from active service. He was made a C.B. on 14 Oct. 1841, and, for services in New Zealand, promoted to K.C.B. on 16 July 1861, being publicly invested with the ribbon and badge by Sir Henry Barkly, governor of Victoria, on 15 April 1862. This was the first ceremony of the kind performed in Australia. He was advanced to the rank of general on 26 May 1873, and died in England on 2 Feb. 1879. He married, in 1827, Frances Agnes, second daughter of John S. Cooper.

[Hart's Annual Army List, 1872, pp. 8, 281; Times, 6 Feb. 1879, p. 10.] 

PRATTEN, ROBERT SIDNEY (1824–1868), flautist, second son of a professor of music who was for many years flautist at the Bristol theatre, was born at Bristol on 23 Jan. 1824; his mother's maiden name was Sidney. On 25 March 1835, at Clifton, Pratten made an early début, playing Nicholson's arrangement of ‘O dolce concento.’ After an engagement as first flute at the Dublin Theatre Royal, he came in 1846 to London. The Duke of Cambridge and others were interested in his talent, and he was sent to Germany to study composition. Pratten's popular piece for flute, ‘L'Espérance,’ was published at Leipzig, 1847. Upon his return to London in 1848 Pratten soon rose to the front rank of his art. He played first flute at the Royal Italian Opera, English Opera, the Sacred Harmonic, Philharmonic, and other concerts and musical festivals. His tone was powerful, his execution brilliant. He wrote instruction books for his instrument, special studies for Siccama's diatonic flute, 1848, and for his own perfected flute, 1856, a Concertstück, 1852, and many arrangements of operatic airs. He died, aged 44, at Ramsgate, on 10 Feb. 1868. His younger brother, Frederick Sidney Pratten, contrabassist, died in London on 3 March 1873.

Pratten married, on 24 Sept. 1854, Catherina Josepha Pelzer, guitarist, born at Mülheim-on-the-Rhine. She made her reputation as a child artist in Germany, and in her ninth year appeared at the King's Theatre, London. Madame Pratten eventually settled in London as a teacher of the guitar, for which she composed a number of pieces. She died on 10 Oct. 1895.

[Bristol Mirror, 28 March 1835; Musical World, 1868, pp. 108, 125; Athenæum, 1868, i. 331; Brown's Dict. of Musicians, p. 483; Musical Directory, 1868, p. xiii; Grove's Dict. of Music, iii. 27; Daily News, 16 Oct. 1895; Pratten's Works.] 

PRENCE, THOMAS (1600–1673), governor of Massachusetts, whose name is also written Prince, but not by himself, was born in 1600 at Lechlade in Gloucestershire, where his family had been settled for some generations. His father was a puritan, and emigrated to Leyden while Thomas was still young. In November 1621 Thomas arrived at New Plymouth, with several distinguished colonists, in either the Fortune or the Anne. He brought a considerable fortune with him, and rapidly became a prominent citizen, though he always had a distaste for public office.

Having become a member of the court of assistants, Prence was elected to succeed Winslow as governor of Massachusetts in 1634, but resigned in the following year on removing his residence to Duxbury. In 1637 he did good service to the state in raising a corps to assist Connecticut against the Pecquot Indians, and in 1638 was urged to become governor again; he reluctantly consented, making it a condition that the law requiring residence at New Plymouth should be relaxed in his favour. At the