PROSSER, Richard. b. Birmingham 3 April 1800; employed by Penn and Williams of Birmingham, brassfounders; civil engineer; took out patents for a bullion nail of iron 1831, for casting nails 1835, for nail and screw making machinery 1839, for boiler stoves 1839, for rollers in calico printing, for welded tubes 1840, for a new principle of making iron tubes 1845, for anti-welded tubes 1850, on which he spent £20,000, these tubes are still in use; produced buttons, tiles, tesseræ and articles of pottery from clay in a powdered state 1840; with Job Cutler had a patent for engraved grooved rollers 1843; suggested the Indices of Patents which were compiled by Bennet Woodcraft 1857–89; gave evidence before the Small arms committee 1854. d. King’s Norton, Worcestershire 21 May 1854. R. B. Prosser’s Birmingham inventors (1881) 5, 245; Regina v. Prosser 1847 to set aside patents and works of Caledonian tube company.
PROSSER, Sophie Amelia (daughter of Charles Dibdin 1768–1833). b. London 17 May 1807; m. 1 Jany. 1830 William Prosser, vicar of Ashby Folville, Leicester, who d. 28 June 1884 aged 85; wrote in Leisure Hour and Sunday at Home for about 20 years to her death; author of Original fables and sketches 1864; The Awdries and their friends 1868, 2 ed. 1889; Cicely Brown’s trials 1871, 3 ed. 1885; The cheery chime of Garth 1874, 2 ed. 1888; The day after tomorrow 1877, 2 ed. 1882; Amos Fayle 1878; Frog alley and what came out of it 1879; Ludovic or the boy’s victory 1879, 2 ed. 1883; Lined with gold 1884; Michael Airdree’s freehold 1888; Uncle Christie the strange lodger 1889; The face in the shutter 1890; The Crinkles of Crinklewood hall 1892; her name as Mrs. Prosser is attached to upwards of 30 books, almost all of them published by the Religious Tract Society. d. St. Luke’s vicarage, the residence of her son, Wolverhampton road, Bilston 14 Feb. 1882. bur. Bilston cemetery 17 Feb. The Bilston Herald 18 Feb. 1882 p. 4.
PROTHERO, George (4 son of Thomas Prothero of St. Woolos and Malpas court, Newport, Monmouth 1780–1853). b. 1819; educ. Brasenose coll. Oxf., B.A. 1843, M.A. 1866; V. of Clifton-on-Teme, Worcestershire 1847–53; C. of Whippingham, Isle of Wight 1853–7, and rector 1857 to death; hon. chaplain in ordinary to the queen 6 July 1865, and chief chaplain in ordinary 22 June 1869; canon of Westminster 1869, and sub-dean 1883 to death; rural dean of East Medina, Isle of Wight 1872; proctor for dean and chapter of Westminster in convocation 1880 and 1886; enjoyed the esteem and confidence of the royal family for many years; author of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, a sermon 1881; The armour of light and other sermons preached before the queen 1888. d. Whippingham rectory 16 Nov. 1894. Graphic 24 Nov. 1894 p. 598 portrait.
PROTHERO, Georgiana Mary (only dau. of Matthew Marsh, chancellor of Salisbury, d. 1846). With her father visited at Holland house and saw Samuel Rogers, the poet Bowles, Coxe and others; appeared at a commemoration ball at Oxford and was the beauty of the day; was an admirable Latin scholar and a student in natural history and botany; m. 2 Feb. 1837 rev. Thomas Prothero, who d. in 1870, when she took up her residence at Malpas court, Newport and managed the estate. d. Malpas court 11 Oct. 1895.
PROTHERO, Thomas (brother of George Prothero 1819–94). b. 14 Aug. 1811; educ. Charterhouse 1823 and Brasenose coll. Oxf., B.A. 1833, M.A. 1837; P.C. of Malpas 1843–6; C. of Whippingham, Isle of Wight 1846–53; chaplain to prince Albert at Osborne 26 Dec. 1848 to 1853; chaplain in ordinary to the queen 16 Nov. 1853 to death; author of A sermon preached at the parish church of Whippingham 1847. d. Malpas court 11 June 1870. I.L.N. lvi 667 (1870); Times 14 June 1870 p. 5, col. 3.
PROUDMAN, Joseph. b. London 1833; a choir trainer; an advocate of the Tonic Sol-fa system; had great alertness in conducting large bodies of children; conducted concerts of the Ragged school, the Reformatory union and Dr. Barnado’s homes at Exeter hall; took a choir to the Paris exhibition 1867; taught many thousands of pupils in schools and public classes; composer of Part songs and choruses 1870, three parts; and with A. I. Stapleton Voice training exercises 1878, 2 ed. 1883; author of Musical lectures and sketches 1869; Musical jottings, useful and humorous 1872, with a portrait; and with W. A. Essery The London chants 1870. d. 48 Jenner road, Stoke Newington, London 21 April 1891. J. Proudman’s Musical jottings (1872) portrait; Musical Times 1 May 1891 p. 284.
PROUT, John (son of Wm. Prout, farmer). b. South Petherwin, near Launceston 1 Oct. 1810; emigrated to Canada and farmed land at Pickering, Ontario 1832–42; partner with his uncle Thomas Prout as a patent medicine vendor at 229 Strand, London 1842, carried on the business alone 1859 to death; bought Blount’s farm, Sawbridgeworth, Herts. 1861, which he cultivated till June 1894 with success; he demonstrated that successive crops of cereals could be raised on heavy clay-land, if drained and deeply ploughed and dressed with properly prepared chemical manures; author of Profitable clay farming under a just system of tenant right 1881, translated into French and German. d. at his daughter’s house, Wimbish vicarage, Saffron Walden, Essex 7 Dec. 1894. The Cable Aug. 1893 p. 313 portrait.
PROUT, John Skinner (nephew of Samuel Prout). b. Plymouth 1806; resided in Bristol about 1830–4, in Sydney, N.S.W. and in Tasmania 1840–50; and in London 1850 to death; member of Institute of painters in water-colours; author of Antiquities of Chester 1838; The castles and abbeys of Monmouthshire 1838; Australia by E. C. Booth, illustrated by S. Prout 1873; some of his Bristol drawings were republished with letterpress descriptions under title of Picturesque antiquities of Bristol 1893; there are several of his drawings at South Kensington Museum. d. 4 Leighton crescent, Kentish town, London 29 Aug. 1876. J. L. Roget’s Old water-colour society i 406, ii 87 (1891); I.L.N. lxix 218, 253, 255 (1876) portrait.
PROUT, Samuel. b. Plymouth 17 Sept. 1783; educ. Plymouth gram. school; a water-colour painter in London from 1802; contributed 23 drawings to John Britton’s Beauties of England and Wales 1803–13; sold his water-colour drawings to Mr. Palser, Westminster bridge road 1804; member of Associated artists in water-colours 1810, exhibited 30 works in their gallery 1810–12; etched designs for Rudiments of landscape with progressive studies 1813 anon., and other educational books published by R. Ackerman of 101 Strand, who also published many detached etchings by Prout; member of the Oil and water colour society 1819; went abroad in 1820 and succeeding years and made drawings of churches, streets, etc.; painter in water-colours in ordinary to the queen 1829; exhibited 28 pictures at R.A. and 8 at B.I. 1803–27; in a loan collection at the Fine arts society gallery 148 New Bond st. 119 of his drawings were exhibited 1879–80; published S. Prout’s New drawing book 1819; Facsimiles of S. Prout’s Views in the North of England 1821; Sketches made in France and Germany 1833; Interiors and exteriors 1834; Hints on light and shade, composition, &c. 1838, republished 1848; Sketches in France, Switzerland and Italy 1839; Prout’s Microcosm 1841; Sketches at home and abroad 1844; the sketches he left were disposed of in a 4 days’ sale at Sotheby and Wilkinson’s, producing £1788 11s. 6d., May 19–22, 1852. d. 5 De Crespigny terrace, Denmark hill, Camberwell 10 Feb. 1852. bur. Norwood cemet., monument St. Andrew’s church, Plymouth. J. Ruskin’s Notes on S. Prout and W. Hunt (1879); J. L. Roget’s Old water-colour society i 340, ii 50, 459 (1891); G. Pycroft’s Art in Devonshire (1883) 106–17; Redgrave’s Century of painters ii 487–93 (1866); Art Journal March 1849 pp. 76–7 portrait; G.M. xxxvii 419–20 (1852).
PROUT, Thomas. b. 1785; patent medicine vendor at 229 Strand 1816 to death; a member of the Ballot Society to death; a most influential elector of city of Westminster 1832 to death. d. East Hill, Wandsworth, Surrey 25 July 1859, memorial tablet erected in St. Clement Danes church by sir de Lacy Evans, G.C.B. about 1867. Diprose’s St. Clements i 63, 146 (1868).