Pryors of Preston

Preston, Hertfordshire
in the Nineteenth Century

Although the family hailed from East Anglia, the Pryors were ‘old Hertfordshire stock’. Their business interests evolved from being corn merchants to maltsters to brewers. For a century and a half from the 1660s they were also Quakers. (Link to Pryor family tree)

We begin this brief account of the family with Robert Pryor who died in 1744. He established a substantial malting business in Baldock, a town five miles north-east of Hitchin. Malt is produced from fermented barley and the fields around Baldock yielded fine quality grain. It was recorded that ‘the town was noted for making the most excellent malt, the quantity made being exceeded but by one town in the Kingdom’. As a result of his business acumen, Robert owned property in the villages of Willian, Weston, Bygrave and Clothall which surround Baldock.

Following his death, the main portion of his estate, the brewery, was left to his son, John Pryor (1741-1819). Although the Pryor malting business continued to burgeon – leasing another brewery and acquiring tied public houses - the family fell out of love with Quakerism because of the formality and superstition which had infiltrated the faith. As a consequence, all of John’s eight children were baptized as Anglicans. However, the Quaker precepts of peace and philanthropy were deeply planted and guided the family during the nineteenth century.

The Pryor family were prominent in Preston in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, as they owned the majority of the village! Their lasting legacy to the village is

Pryor House near Preston Green and the land around St Martin’s Church.

Brewers and maltsters

The Pryor’s business continued to expand as John purchased yet another brewery for £12,000 and by 1813 his empire included 50 pubs and inns.

John’s eldest son was the brewer and magistrate, John Izzard Pryor, who was born in May 1774. John Izzard retired from brewing in 1826, aged fifty-two, and the next year he purchased Clay Hall at Walkern, Herts (a modest estate of 500 acres which became known as Walkern Hall) with the intention of living the life of a gentleman.

He wrote a diary which has been transcribed and arranged by Gerald Curtis in a book entitled, A Chronicle of Small Beer – a wonderfully detailed account of the life of the gentry in Hertfordshire between 1827 and 1861. (see right)

Skipping a generation, John Izzard’s third grandson was Henry Maclean Pryor (1839-1904). After attending Eton College, Henry made his reputation as a soldier. In 1861, aged twenty-two, he was an ensign in the 60th Beds Regiment – which illustrates how far the family had drifted from their Quaker ideals - the faith frowns on warfare, believing ‘how can one kill another child of God, a potential channel of truth’.

Henry married Margaret Frances De Vins Wade in 1862 and the couple settled at Clifton Lodge, near Biggleswade in Bedfordshire. They had six children. The eldest was Ralston de Vins Pryor (RDV) (bn 1864) and their youngest son was Gerard Ithel Eade Pryor (GIE) (bn 1868). The 1871 census noted that Henry, a Captain in the 7th Bedfordshire Rifle Volunteer Corps was at home and had a visitor, William H Darton, a Lieutenant in the same Regiment. William’s parents owned the Temple Dinsley estate at Preston. A further strand tying together the young men was that they received their commissions on the same day: 2 March 1871.

When Temple Dinsley was sold by auction in 1874, Henry Pryor (who had recently received bequests and legacies from relatives) bought Lot One (of eight lots, see below) of the estate evidently intending that his two young sons, RDV and GIE would manage it when they grew older. He paid £19,000, and a further £1,902 was added to the price for timber rights. This outlay was possibly a stretch for Henry as he arranged to pay a cash sum of £9000 and raised a mortgage for the remainder at 4%.

The purchase of Temple Dinsley - 1874

|To Hitchin

To Hitchin

Chequers Lane

Crunnells Green

Preston Hill Farm

To Kings

Walden

Temple Farm

Temple

Dinsley

To Whitwell

To Charlton

Church

Wain Wood

Hitch Wood

The area shown as blue in the map above comprised Lot One which Henry Pryor purchased. In addition to the Temple Dinsley mansion, The Cottage and Temple Farm, the lot included cottages at Crunnells Green, School Lane, to the north of Blacksmiths and Chequers Lane together with The Chequers public house and three plots on Preston Green.

Seven other lots of the estate were also sold which included Poynders End and Austage End Farms, West Wood and Earns Field Wood (adjacent to Staganhoe) and the three cottages along Chequers Lane at the junction with the Charlton Road.

Projected rental income from Henry’s purchase was £847 pa which included £200 from the occupiers of the mansion, £300 from the tenant of Temple Farm and £165 from the 25 cottages and gardens which made up Lot One of the estate. (Note:The interest on the mortgage was approximately £476 pa)

The Pryors never lived in the mansion of Temple Dinsley. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the house was let to John Weeks, then Henry Brand (MP and magistrate) and Frederick MacMillan.

In 1881, RDV was continuing his education at St Paul’s College, Stony Stratford East, Bucks.

By 1891, aged 27, RDV was living in The Cottage (aka Dower House, see below) which is beside the Hitchin Road on the outskirts of Preston. This had a drawing room, dining room, library, kitchen, scullery, cellar, dairy, eight bedrooms and two dressing rooms. Close by were stables, coach-house and a small farmyard and buildings. There was a garden with greenhouses and hothouses. Ralston described himself as an ‘estate agent’ – which referred to his duties in connection with his father’s property. With him was his brother, Armigel Pryor.

‘The Cottage’

Clearly The Cottage was too extensive for Ralston’s needs so it was decided to also let this property - Henry Anstruther, Lord of the Treasury, was residing there in 1901.

Between 1891 and 1901, the Pryors built The Laburnums (now Pryor House, right) in the field behind the Red Lion public house. It was described as a brick-built house with tiled roof. Inside were a drawing room, dining room, kitchen, scullery, laundry and w.c. and on the first floor, a bathroom and four bedrooms. In 1915, GIE was renting the first floor from RDV, his landlord.

The transcribers of the 1901 census mis-labelled the house, Labour-in-vain!

‘The Laburnums’ (aka ‘Pryor House’)

The numbered plots were purchased around Preston Green in 1874 by Henry Pryor.

Pryor’s property dealing at Preston

In 1895, Henry Pryor made a Deed of Gift to his son, Ralston, of land occupied today by Chequers Cottages and their gardens. This Deed may well have included the entire estate that he purchased as when the Inland Revenue conducted its survey of Preston in 1909/10, Ralston was recorded as owning twenty-seven cottages clustered in the middle of the village together with the Chequers Inn and odd plots of land including the allotments and the rail pond with its adjoining land by Preston Green. This indicates that the Pryors had sold none of the homes originally bought by Henry in 1874 and that RDV’s portfolio at Preston now included the newly-built The Laburnums and four small cottages at Back Lane.

By 1909 Ralston’s brother, GIE, had purchased seven houses (two on the south side of Blacksmith’s Lane and five at Back Lane) and some land. There is a record of the transaction which took place in 1909.

Footpath

Blacksmiths Lane/Kings Walden Road

Back Lane

The Laburnams

Cottages/land owned by RDV

Cottages/land owned by GIE

The area shown in light and dark blue on the map above was dealt with apart from the Temple Dinsley estate by Thomas H Darton. He raised a mortgage on it of £400 from Thomas Perkins which was repaid by Thomas’ widow, Emily, shortly after Thomas’ death in May 1885. She then sold this land to Gerard Pryor for £900 in 1908. In turn, the following year, GIE sold the area coloured in light blue to his brother Ralston for £200.

Temple Dinsley mansion and The Cottage together with other plots of land were sold to Mr James Barrington White in 1901 together with land sandwiched between Blacksmith’s and Back Lane. Shortly afterwards, Henry Pryor died intestate in the summer of 1904.

Although the Pryors owned the majority of the cottages at Preston, most of their properties were in a poor, dilapidated condition. Perhaps the prospect of demolishing and replacing their housing stock was daunting but five years or so after the death of their father, Henry, the Pryors sold all their properties at Preston, retaining only their home, The Laburnums in which the two brothers were living in 1911. The 1915 Electoral Roll shows that GIE was renting the first floor from his brother who was the landlord.

Margaret, Henry’s widow, died on 25 June 1915 at a flat at 38 Gunterstone Road, West Kensington.

The Pryor brothers contributed to the community life of the village. They organized amateur acting concerts in the carpenter’s shop at Preston Green. RDV was the Chairman of the Parish Council from 1901 to 1915. He was also one of Preston school’s managers and regularly visited the school. When approached by local clergymen, he generously offered an acre of land for St Martin’s Church and its graveyard – provided that sufficient funds were raised by benefactors to build the Church. On completion, his father, Henry, provided the oak from his Clifton estate which was formed into the altar of the Church. (Link: Altar)

Both the Pryor brothers had an interest in horticulture, growing sweet peas and roses. In 1921, RDV won a silver medal for amateur rose growers at the National Rose Society’s show at the RHS’s Hall, Westminster for a bloom of deep velvety crimson. One wonders if this rose survives in the garden of Pryor House?

Preston Green

Gerard (pictured right) notably supported the village cricket club. He was active in the re-forming of the team after World War I and worked on the ground and pitch, fetching water from the rail pond at the Green.

He was a fast bowler enthusiastic captain who coached many of the youngsters and was considered the ‘father of the club’. GIE played until about 1926.

Gerard died on 25 April 1928 and was buried at Clifton.

RDV took my father under his wing. My mother said that he was helped by ‘a local squire who taught him the rudiments of cards and snooker’. To my surprise, in 2005, I discovered confirmation of this relationship in my garden shed! I have an old woodworm-riddled fork (left) that was used by Dad which has ‘RdeVP’ etched into its handle. I was told by an aunt that, when he was dying, Ralston asked to see my father but was prevented from doing this by his housekeeper.

Ralston de Vins (described as a retired land surveyor) died of cancer of the rectum on 7 March 1945 at The Laburnums. His death was notified by his housekeeper, Annie Christobel Peters who was present at the death. Four days later, he was buried at St Martin’s Church opposite the door (right).

Of Ralston de Vins Pryor

Of Gerard Pryor

RDV’s will bestowed £50 to two of his three nominated executors. Annie Christobel Peters was to have his antique chest of drawers and a sum which was equal to five years cash wages. He left his gold signet ring with crest to his nephew, Harford de Vins Lury; his grandfather clock to Bertha Emily Nash (nee Peters); his Sheritan corner cupboard from the drawing room to Philadelphia Constance Peters. The residue was to be divided between his siblings, Lilian Amy Lury, Margaret Beryl Pryor and Armigel Henry Pryor. The net value of his estate was a surprising £540. It seems that he spent his inheritance ‘flying small planes and enjoying life’.

In 1951, Bertha Nash and her husband, George, were living at The Laburnums. Then, between 1961 and 1971, Stewart and Rosemary McConville were residing there and the house had been re-christened, Pryor House, as it is still known today – a constant reminder of a family who largely moulded the twentieth-century village of Preston.

The Cottage