Colonel Thomas Prior; wife unidentified
Colonel Thomas Prior, the elder son of Captain Thomas Prior and Elizabeth Prior, inherited his father’s Irish estates. He raised a militia corps, commanding them as Colonel. Such a militia was needed as there was fierce resistance by the dispossessed Irish led by guerrillas known as Raparees. Colonel Prior was among those who, on at least one occasion, resisted demands to arrest prominent local Catholics. Yet he was also implicated in the (quite legal) offer of a £5 reward for anyone who brought in a head of any Catholic priest who continued to offer the sacraments in Ireland. While only probable that it took place before Colonel Prior's death, it appears the head of an unfortunate priest was bought to the Prior home, Garrison House. Given such provocation and the widespread misery of the dispossessed Irish, it is no wonder that Colonel Prior was fatally wounded by rebels in 1700.1)
No one appears to notice that, in all the writings about him, there is no mention of Thomas Prior's wives other than, as noted by Fennelly, that his second wife was 'the daughter of a small farmer who was remarkably good looking'. Fennelly also notes the claim that this marriage was kept secret from his previous children: presumably her looks were not matched by her social standing. From his first marriage, Colonel Prior's children were:
1. Richard,
2. Isabella, who married Samuel Stubber 'a gentleman of large landed property in Derbyshire' who died without issue in 1704. Isabella in turn left the estates to her elder brother Richard.2)
3. Ann,
4. Thomas
5. Elizabeth, and
6. Mary.3).
His children from his second marriage were:
7. Robert and
8. William Prior.4)
Sources: John & John B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z,London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846, p.1075; Family Bible, Burkes Landed? Gentry, Clarke; Teddy Fennelly, Thomas Prior. His Life, Times and Legacy, Ireland: Arderin Publishing, 2001, pp.3-4.