Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/355

 the Leicestershire collections of his father-in-law, John Nichols [q. v.] His most useful antiquarian achievement was the continuation of the index and glossary to the ‘Rolls of Parliament,’ which had been commenced by Archdeacon John Strachey [q. v.] Over this he spent thirty years. It was completed by Edward Upham, F.S.A., and published in 1832, London, fol.

His excursions into architecture resulted in a design for the sea-bathing infirmary at Margate, of which he was joint founder with Dr. John Coakley Lettsom [q. v.], and for many years honorary secretary; a new vicarage at Caddington in 1812, and a plan for uniting Snow Hill and Holborn Hill, which he submitted to the Corporation of London.

He died on 5 April 1825 at his house in Fleet Street, and was buried on 12 April at St. Mary's, Islington, beside his first wife, Anne, daughter of John Nichols. His second wife, Anne, daughter of Robert Pickwoad of London, survived him. He had no issue.

[For the father see Gent. Mag. 1807 pt. i. p. 285, Roberts's Book-Hunter in London, p. 215, and Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 420. For the son Admissions to St. Paul's School, p. 130; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1888; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 644, iii. 421, ix. 18, 220 n.; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. ii. 683, 849, v. 200, 227, 228, 231, 750, 751, viii. 676, 677; Gent. Mag. 1811 i. 84, 1824 i. 237, 1825 i. 467; Lettsom's Hints to promote Beneficence, &c., ii. 150, iii. 238; Lewis's Hist. of Islington, pp. 180, 239, 252; Nichols's Leicestershire, *423.]  PRIDE, THOMAS (d. 1658), soldier, was of obscure origin. A contemporary newspaper states that he was born at Ashcott, three miles from Glastonbury (Mercurius Elencticus, 3 Sept. 1649). He has also been claimed as a native of Haverfordwest (English Historical Review, 1892, p. 718). One authority states that he was in early life a drayman, another that he was an honest brewer in London (, Obituary, p. 48; Second Narrative of the late Parliament; Harleian Miscellany, iii. 481). He entered the parliamentary army as a captain, and was a major in 1644 when Essex's infantry was forced to surrender in Cornwall (, v. 409; Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 38). When the new model was organised, Pride was made lieutenant-colonel of Edward Harley's regiment of foot (ib. p. 49;, Anglia Rediviva, 1854, p. 329). Colonel Harley was absent during the campaign of 1645, and Pride commanded the regiment at Naseby, at the storming of Bristol, and at the capture of Dartmouth, distinguishing himself by his good service on all three occasions (ib. pp. 41, 77, 117, 181).

When the army and the parliament quarrelled, Pride was one of the officers most active in asserting the right of the soldiers to petition for the redress of their grievances. Harley complained of his conduct to the House of Commons, and he was called to the bar to answer for his conduct (Commons' Journals, v. 129; Lords' Journals, ix. 115; Report on the Portland MSS. i. 418). He signed the vindication of the officers of 7 April 1647, took part in the preparation of the charge against the eleven members, and was finally given the command of the regiment in place of Harley (Clarke Papers, i. 2, 151;, vi. 471). In the second civil war Pride's regiment served under Cromwell in the Welsh campaign and at the battle of Preston (ib. vii. 1118;, Cromwell, letter 64). It presented, in conjunction with Deane's regiment, a petition demanding the punishment of the king, and formed part of the force which occupied London at the beginning of December 1648 (, Life of Admiral Deane, p. 324; Clarke Papers, ii. 65). On 6 Dec. 1648, Pride, acting under instructions received from Fairfax, set a guard round the entrances to the House of Commons, forcibly prevented about ninety members from entering, and arrested over forty others, in order to frustrate the intended agreement with the king. When Prynne demanded to know the authority by which Pride acted, he pointed to the soldiers standing round with their swords and muskets, and told him that was the commission (Old Parliamentary History, xviii. 447–71; Commons' Journals, vi. 93). This violent purification of the House of Commons became popularly known as ‘Pride's purge.’

In January 1649 Pride was appointed one of the commissioners for the trial of Charles I, attended every sitting of the court excepting one, and signed the death-warrant. ‘His name,’ says Noble, ‘is so strangely written, that it is scarce legible; and, though his beginning is said to be so humble, yet there is a seal of arms after his name, bearing a chevron inter 3 animals heads erased’ (House of Cromwell, i. 418). Pride's regiment remained in London through 1649 to guard the parliament, and the colonel himself was, on 21 Dec. 1649, elected a member of the common council (, London and the Kingdom, ii. 319).

In 1650 he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, commanded a brigade at Dunbar, and took part in the following year at the battle of Worcester (, Cromwell, letter 140;, Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 358). On 14 May 1652 parliament