Arthur Wellesley Pridham

Believe he left the Brethren at the time of JND's 'Sufferings' controversy. Does anyone know any more about his previous or subsequent history?

In a letter of 16th June, 1851, Willam Kelly mentions him, " With this I hope to send a borrowed copy of my friend Mr. A. P.’s (Arthur Pridham) Notes on Romans which you will find not unprofitable. My own copy has been in the hands of two clergymen here for some time and is not yet returned."

Is he the same mentioned in the last paragraph here: http://www.stempublishing.com/magazines/bt/BT_NS05/1905_333_Church_Millenial_Eternal.html ?

Arthur Wellesley Pridham (29 June 1815-1879) and his older brother Charles (19 Dec 1812-1886) were the fifth and fourth sons (respectively) of Joseph Pridham (1772-1828) and his wife Maria (née Dawkins, c.1777-?1851+) of Northview House, Plymouth.

Charles matriculated at Oxford University in 1832 from Exeter College (where B W Newton was still a Fellow) graduating B.A. in 1836. His sister Caroline married [23 June 1831] Henry Borlase (1806-35, the first editor of the 'Christian Witness'), and, as a widow, in 1841 with her eight year old son George, was living with her bachelor brothers, Charles and Arthur ('Private teachers'), in Cobourg Street, Plymouth. Later in that year [1841] Charles married Susannah Rachel Prideaux (whose sister, Sarah Anna had married Samuel Prideaux Tregelles in 1839), and for some years (c.1850s) they lived in Newport, County Mayo, but by 1881 they were living in Westbury, Bristol.

In 1851, Arthur (described as a 'preceptor') was living with his widowed mother in Plymouth, but, having married [1856] Amy Eales (some twenty years younger than him) he was taking pupils at Montpellier St, Cheltenham in December 1858. In 1861 he was back in Devon (a 'private classical teacher' in East Budleigh, near Exeter), and was tutoring two pupils in his home, Alfred T Schofield (aged 14) and his younger brother Harold (aged 10).

In February 1867 (described as a 'Private Tutor') he was adjudicated bankrupt in Plymouth. By census time in 1871 he was a 'Private Tutor' in Weston-super-mare. So both brothers seem to have spent their last years in the Bristol area. I suspect that Arthur was given the names Arthur Wellesley in honour of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who was victorious at Waterloo, ten days before Arthur Pridham's birth.

Thanks Rodger, yes I assume so, I reproduce the paragraph below .. I would like to know more about where he went after Brethren. I was told that even during his time among the meetings there was some 'non-standard' doctrine in his books, tho not sure exactly what that refereed to.

"Needless to say that to Mr. Darby belong his Collected Writings, of which I was simply Editor, not author, as he strangely seems to think. What he cites thence is as sound, as his objection is futile. Till I read p. 20, I had no notion that A. Pridham had departed so far from the truth he once seemed to hold. O these days of declension! How long too they have been in progress! For his volumes on the Scriptures were widely circulated and much cried up by the company he joined some years before his death. Did they know no better than such earthly views? What sufficient proof has even been given that the judaising root of error has ever been thoroughly extirpated?"

Thanks for all that .. yes I had copied erroneously straight off Ancestry, though in fairness I did know you were likely to correct it, if wrong :-)

A brief comment about Charles and Arthur Pridham from WK's letters.

(22nd February, 1901)

Newton, after resigning his fellowship in Exeter College, Oxon. did keep a school, and Borlase, an ex-clergyman, may have helped him. But Borlase soon died. C. and A. P. also kept school, the former being a real scholar who helped Sir C. B. in his English Version of the Septuagint. Tregelles helped in Mr. W.’s Englishman’s Concordance; but in the Hebrew it was chiefly B. Davidson and a lot of converted Israelites who lived on the work for many years, and most of whom became clergymen! I cannot say who Tregelles’ cousin that attended Borlase’s school may be. Tregelles and Newton and the Prideaux were Quakers.

WK's difficulty was that he was only converted in 1840 and therefore wasn't personally acquainted with the earliest days of the movement. This is reflected in another of his Letters (8 Sept. 1897) where Hargrove is misspelt as Hargreaves.
The Hebrew scholar, whom he mentions, was Benjamin Davidson who, according to the 1841 Census, was living in Willliam Street, Islington next door to John K[eylock] Campbell (1788-c.1854), the publisher of several Brethren pamphlets, who managed the Tract Depot in Warwick Square.
WK’s mention of a cousin of Tregelles, must refer to the distinguished legal author, Frederick Prideaux, who, we know, studied Thucydides with BWN when he [Newton] was assisting Henry Borlase in his school in Plymouth. Frederick Prideaux, who in the 1840s attended the London assembly in Rawstorne Street, (as did his cousin and brother-in-law, Samuel Tregelles), married Fanny Ball, the daughter of Richard Ball, another Quaker associated with the early Brethren. Most of these Quaker connections are dealt with more fully in my ‘Elusive Quest…’ pp.36-37. Timothy Stunt

Does anyone know of any sources outlining biographical details of this Arthur Pridham? I'm writing a PhD on the history of interpretation of Hebrews 6:4-6 and am including his work on Hebrews. Some proper references on who he is would be really helpful.

Any help appreciated!

Chris Northcott from New Zealand.