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| thomas_prior_m-p_family_founder [2022/06/12 22:15] – judith | thomas_prior_m-p_family_founder [2022/06/12 22:29] – [Prior memorials] judith |
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| {{:prior_absentee_cropped.jpg?direct&200|}}Cover of the second edition of Prior’s List reproduced in Clarke’s //Thomas Prior//. | {{:prior_absentee_cropped.jpg?direct&200|}}Cover of the second edition of Prior’s List reproduced in Clarke’s //Thomas Prior//. |
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| No life is without misjudgement. Tom Prior's most publicised failure was his promotion of the medieval remedy [[wp>Tar_water|tar-water]], a mixture of pine-tar and water. The context of his belief in tar-water were the horrendous famine years of 1739-41: as usual, hunger has been accompanied by the plague and other diseases. Prior's close friend Bishop George Berkeley initiated the public promotion of tar-water as a cure-all, publishing a pamphlet about it in 1744, promoting it as a restorative as well as cure for the plague and other diseases, both for cattle and humans. While the medical profession at the time had little success in curing disease, they did know a quack cure when they saw one. They led the attack, condemning tar-water as worthless. Prior staunchly defended it and his friend Bishop Berkeley, writing //Authentic Narrative of the Success of Tar-Water, in Curing a Great Number and Variety of Distempers// (Dublin/London, 1746). Alas, he was wrong: pine-tar and water was no cure for the diseases which stuck the malnourished and starving.\\ | No life is without misjudgement. Tom Prior's most publicised failure was his promotion of the medieval remedy [[wp>Tar_water|tar-water]], a mixture of pine-tar and water. The context of his belief in tar-water were the horrendous famine years of 1739-41: as usual, hunger has been accompanied by the plague and other diseases. Prior's close friend Bishop George Berkeley initiated the public promotion of tar-water as a cure-all, publishing a pamphlet about it in 1744, promoting it as a restorative as well as cure for the plague and other diseases, both for cattle and humans. While the medical profession at the time had little success in curing disease, they did know a quack cure when they saw one. They led the attack, condemning tar-water as worthless. Prior staunchly defended it and his friend Bishop Berkeley, writing //Authentic Narrative of the Success of Tar-Water, in Curing a Great Number and Variety of Distempers// (Dublin/London, 1746). Alas, he was wrong: pine-tar and water was no cure for the diseases which stuck the malnourished and starving.\\ |
| Tom Prior was buried in the graveyard beside the Anglican church in Rathdowney. The precise location of his grave is now unknown as his tombstone was later relocated inside the church.((Teddy Fennelly, //Thomas Prior.//pp.x,60-62.)). His other memorials are:\\ | Tom Prior was buried in the graveyard beside the Anglican church in Rathdowney. The precise location of his grave is now unknown as his tombstone was later relocated inside the church.((Teddy Fennelly, //Thomas Prior.//pp.x,60-62.)). His other memorials are:\\ |
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| **1.**{{:prior_memorial_enhanced.jpg?300|}}{{:top_of_prior_memorial.png?300|}} The Prior monument (Thomas Prior introducing Ceres to Hibernia by [[wp>John_van_Nost_the_younger|John Van Nost the younger]]), at entrance of [[wp>Christ_Church_Cathedral,_Dublin|Christ Church Cathedral]], Dublin. The sculpture was erected in 1756 and abounds with symbols of Prior’s work for Ireland.((Homan Potterton, //Irish Church Monuments 1570-1880//, [Belfast]: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1975, pp.31,86.)) The first photo,((Provenance: J. Godden, taken by David Godden)), with me (Judith Godden) looking at it in 1985 indicates its size – around three metres high. The second photo((Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P)) is the bust of Thomas Prior on top of the monument. The effusive praise of Tom Prior on the monument was written by his friend Bishop Berkeley - in Latin. A later member of the family copied a translation into their Family Bible:((Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P)){{:mp16.jpg?300|}}{{:epitath.jpg?300|}}\\ | **1.**{{:prior_memorial_enhanced.jpg?250|}}{{:top_of_prior_memorial.png?250|}} The Prior monument (Thomas Prior introducing Ceres to Hibernia by [[wp>John_van_Nost_the_younger|John Van Nost the younger]]), at entrance of [[wp>Christ_Church_Cathedral,_Dublin|Christ Church Cathedral]], Dublin. The sculpture was erected in 1756 and abounds with symbols of Prior’s work for Ireland.((Homan Potterton, //Irish Church Monuments 1570-1880//, [Belfast]: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1975, pp.31,86.)) The first photo,((Provenance: J. Godden, taken by David Godden)), with me (Judith Godden) looking at it in 1985 indicates its size, around three metres high.\\ The second photo((Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P)) is the bust of Thomas Prior on top of the monument. The effusive praise of Tom Prior on the monument was written by his friend Bishop Berkeley - in Latin. A later member of the family copied a translation into their Family Bible:((Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P)){{:mp16.jpg?300|}}{{:epitath_use.jpg?350|}}\\ |
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| | **2.** Perhaps the most recent monument to Tom Prior is the one recorded by the Laois Heritage Forum: In 2017, the Forum stated that in 2016, at St Andrew’s Church of Ireland, the Square, Rathdowney, a plaque was unveiled in Thomas Prior's memory, not just as one of the founders of the Royal Dublin Society, but also as the founder of the (local) Ossory Show. \\ |
| **2.** Perhaps the most recent monument to Tom Prior is the one recorded by the Laois Heritage Forum: In 2017, the Forum stated that in 2016, at St Andrew’s Church of Ireland, the Square, Rathdowney, a plaque was unveiled in Thomas Prior's memory, not just as one of the founders of the Royal Dublin Society, but also as the founder of the (local) Ossory Show. | |
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| **3.** {{ :thomas_prior_bust.jpg?direct&200|}} | **3.** {{ :thomas_prior_bust.jpg?direct&200|}} |
| This photo of a bust of Tom Prior was taken by [[five_children|Nora Boyd]] when she visited Dublin. Presumably it is the one that was sculptured for the Dublin Society by John Van Nost the younger, who created Prior's memorial in Christ Church Cathedra.((Fennelly, //Thomas Prior//, pp.63,74.)) | This photo of a bust of Tom Prior was taken by [[five_children|Nora Boyd]] when she visited Dublin. Presumably it is the one that was sculptured for the Dublin Society by John Van Nost the younger, who created Prior's memorial in Christ Church Cathedra.((Fennelly, //Thomas Prior//, pp.63,74.)) \\ |
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| **4.** Tom A. M-P recalls another statue of Tom Prior in a chapel opposite Trinity College – a quest for the next person who visits Dublin?\\ | **4.** Tom A. M-P recalls another statue of Tom Prior in a chapel opposite Trinity College – a quest for the next person who visits Dublin?\\ |
| Tom Prior died after, as it was described at the time, ‘a tedious fit of illness’. He was ‘not a wealthy man’ because he was ‘one of the few who sought neither place, patronage not honour’, and worked entirely voluntarily for the Dublin Society. When his friend Bishop Berkeley wrote his eulogy, he described (in Latin) Tom Prior as ‘not too careful of his private fortune, since he took a singular interest in the benefits of his fellow citizens’.((Desmond Clarke, //Thomas Prior//)) Certainly the home in Rathdowney, Garrison House, where he was born and died, seems modest enough even remembering that he also had a town house in Bolton Street, Dublin.((Fennelly, //Thomas Prior. //, pp.x,4,84-85.))\\ | Tom Prior died after, as it was described at the time, ‘a tedious fit of illness’. He was ‘not a wealthy man’ because he was ‘one of the few who sought neither place, patronage not honour’, and worked entirely voluntarily for the Dublin Society. When his friend Bishop Berkeley wrote his eulogy, he described (in Latin) Tom Prior as ‘not too careful of his private fortune, since he took a singular interest in the benefits of his fellow citizens’.((Desmond Clarke, //Thomas Prior//)) Certainly the home in Rathdowney, Garrison House, where he was born and died, seems modest enough even remembering that he also had a town house in Bolton Street, Dublin.((Fennelly, //Thomas Prior. //, pp.x,4,84-85.))\\ |
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| {{:garrison_house_tom_prior_born.jpg?direct&300|}} Photo of Garrison House, courtesy Laois Heritage Forum. It is described as located just off the Square in Rathdowney.\\ | {{:garrison_house_tom_prior_born.jpg?direct&400|}} Photo of Garrison House, courtesy Laois Heritage Forum. It is described as located just off the Square in Rathdowney.\\ |
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| When Tom Prior contemplated possible heirs, there were no males who were clear contenders. His elder brother Richard had died. He did have two step-brothers from his father's second marriage to a possibly disreputable woman (given that the marriage was reputedly kept secret). Of these step-brothers, Robert Prior was considered a 'good' man but not his son John, while the other step-brother, William, 'eclipsed them all' in bad behaviour. The morally upright Thomas passed over these possible heirs because of their ‘riotous living’ (apparently more towards the disgraceful rather than mere fun-loving point on the behavioural spectrum). Instead, Thomas left the Rathdowney estate to his cousin John Murray, the son of his aunt Mary Prior (sister of Colonel Thomas Prior) who had married the Reverend Thomas Murray. The family lived at Rathdowney and were close to Tom Prior.((Teddy Fennelly, //Thomas Prior//, pp.4,81-82.)) In Thomas’s will dated 22 June 1751, his legacy was conditional on John Murray assuming or adding((need to check his will for wording)) ‘Prior’ to his surname, hence ‘Murray Prior’ was born, later to be hyphenated.((copy of the will is in JOLQ, Praed papers, OM64-01, 10/7/2))\\ | When Tom Prior contemplated possible heirs, there were no males who were clear contenders. His elder brother Richard had died. He did have two step-brothers from his father's second marriage to a possibly disreputable woman (given that the marriage was reputedly kept secret). Of these step-brothers, Robert Prior was considered a 'good' man but not his son John, while the other step-brother, William, 'eclipsed them all' in bad behaviour. The morally upright Thomas passed over these possible heirs because of their ‘riotous living’ (apparently more towards the disgraceful rather than mere fun-loving point on the behavioural spectrum). Instead, Thomas left the Rathdowney estate to his cousin John Murray, the son of his aunt Mary Prior (sister of Colonel Thomas Prior) who had married the Reverend Thomas Murray. The family lived at Rathdowney and were close to Tom Prior.((Teddy Fennelly, //Thomas Prior//, pp.4,81-82.)) In Thomas’s will dated 22 June 1751, his legacy was conditional on John Murray assuming or adding((need to check his will for wording)) ‘Prior’ to his surname, hence ‘Murray Prior’ was born, later to be hyphenated.((copy of the will is in JOLQ, Praed papers, OM64-01, 10/7/2))\\ |