Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/356

 rewarded his services with a grant of forfeited lands in Scotland to the value of 500l. per annum (Commons' Journals, vii. 132).

Pride played no great part in politics, and was not a member of any of the parliaments elected during the Protectorate, excepting that of 1656, nor of any of the councils of state. He inclined to the advanced republican section of the officers, and in 1654, when his regiment was sent to Scotland, it was reported that the colonel was kept in England because he was distrusted by the Protector (, ii. 414). But his stay in England may perhaps be explained by the fact that on 7 Nov. 1654 he had entered into a contract, jointly with Denis Gauden and others, for the victualling of the navy (Rawlinson MSS. A. 216, f. 257, Bodleian Library). He had become rich enough to buy Nonesuch Park and House in Surrey, and in 1655–6 was high sheriff of that county (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655–6, p. 317).

On 17 Jan. 1656 the Protector knighted him, performing the ceremony with a faggot stick, if Ludlow is to be believed (Memoirs, ed. 1894, ii. 25). He was also appointed on 25 March 1656 one of the commissioners for securing the peace of London (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655–6, p. 238).

Pride rigorously suppressed cock-fighting, and had the bears which were kept for bear-baiting killed, exploits which were satirically celebrated by royalist wits:


 * The crime of the bears was they were cavaliers,
 * And had formerly fought for the king.

(Rump Songs, 1662, p. 299;, Original Letters, ii. 83). In the agitation among the officers against the proposal to make Cromwell king, Pride played a very important part, talked of armed opposition, and concerted the army petition against kingship which finally caused Cromwell to refuse the crown (, ii. 25;, i. 749). Nevertheless, after the passing of the petition and advice, he accepted a place in Cromwell's new House of Lords. ‘He hath now changed his principles and his mind with the times,’ commented a republican pamphleteer, adding that ‘the lawyers need have no fear now that he would hang up their gowns alongside of the captive Scottish colours in Westminster Hall, as he had once threatened’ (Harleian Miscellany, iii. 481).

Pride signed the proclamation declaring Richard Cromwell successor to his father (Cromwelliana, p. 176). He died on 23 Oct. 1658, and was buried at Nonesuch on 2 Nov. According to a newspaper, his last words were ‘that he was very sorry for these three nations, whom he saw in a most sad and deplorable condition’ (The Weekly Intelligence, 1–8 Nov. 1659).

At the Restoration the commons avenged the wrongs of the king and the insults to their own members by voting that Pride should be attainted (15 May 1660), and that his carcass should be exhumed, drawn to Tyburn, hung up in its coffin, and be buried under the gallows (4 Dec. 1660). This sentence was executed on the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw; but, according to Noble, Pride's escaped the indignity. His estates, however, were confiscated, and Nonesuch Park was restored to the crown (Commons' Journals, viii. 27, 73, 197).

Pride married Elizabeth, natural daughter of Thomas Monck, brother of the Duke of Albemarle. He had by her two daughters: Elizabeth, wife of John Sherwin, and another who married Robert, son of Colonel Valentine Walton. A son, Thomas Pride, was lieutenant in his father's regiment in November 1647, attained the rank of captain, and was left out in the reorganisation of July 1659 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1658–9, p. 378). He married Rebecca, daughter of William Brydges, seventh lord Chandos (, Peerage, ed. Brydges, vi. 726).

[Noble's House of Cromwell, 1787, i. 417, and the same author's Lives of the English Regicides, 1798, ii. 132. Other authorities are quoted in the article.]

 PRIDEAUX, EDMOND (d. 1659), lawyer and politician, second son of Sir Edmond Prideaux, bart., an eminent lawyer, of the Inner Temple and member of an ancient family originally of Prideaux Castle, Cornwall, by his second wife, Catherine, daughter of Piers Edgecombe of Mount Edgecumbe in Devonshire, was born at his father's seat, Netherton, near Honiton. He graduated M.A. at Cambridge, and on 6 July 1625 was admitted ad eundem at Oxford (, Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 424). On 23 Nov. 1623 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple: his practice was chiefly in chancery. He became recorder of Exeter, and subsequently, in 1649, of Bristol (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1639, p. 368). He was returned to the Long parliament for Lyme Regis (which seat he held till his death), and forthwith took sides against the king. His subscription for the defence of parliament, in 1642, was 100l. (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xii. 359). By his own side he was regarded as one of the persons best informed as to the state of feeling in the west of England. For three years, from 10 Nov. 1643 until it was transferred to the custody of the speakers of the two houses, he was