PRYSE, Sir Richard, 1st bt. (c.1610-51), of Gogerddan, Trefeurig, Card.

In 1623, at the age of 13, Pryse succeeded his grandfather, becoming the largest landowner in Cardiganshire. Immediately afterwards he was made a ward of the prince of Wales, later Charles I.11CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 337. Pryse entered Gray’s Inn in 1628 and in the same year married the daughter of Sir Hugh Myddelton†. As a ship-money sheriff in Montgomeryshire and Cardiganshire, 1638-40, Pryse struggled to collect the sums due and repeatedly petitioned the privy council for more time to pay.12CSP Dom. 1637, pp. 55, 203, 452; 1637-8, p. 94; 1639, p. 122; 1640, pp. 9, 23, 220. In the same period Pryse was involved with Thomas Bushell in the exploitation of the Cardiganshire lead mines under the aegis of the Society of Mines Royal, but he got cold feet when the scheme was slow to prosper.13W.J. Lewis, Lead Mining in Wales, ch. 3. Subsequently he did his best to obstruct Bushell, and orders of the House of Lords of 14 Aug. 1641 and 13 May 1642 were necessary to restrain him: on the latter occasion he was bound over for £500.14LJ iv. 700b; v. 41b, 49b, 62b. This harsh treatment at the hands of Parliament may have encouraged Pryse to side with the king. There are signs of his continuing acceptability at court: he was created a baronet in August 1641; in the early summer of 1642 he married the widow of Sir Anthony Van Dyck; and in July of that year he was made a commissioner of array for Montgomeryshire.15CB; Brown and Ramsay, ‘Van Dyck’s Collection’, 704; Northants RO, FH133, unfol. There is, however, no evidence that Pryse was an active royalist during the first civil war, and any enthusiasm on his part for the king’s cause may have been offset by his close connections with Welsh parliamentarians. He was related by marriage to the staunch parliamentarian, Sir Thomas Myddelton*, who had lent Pryse £4,400 before the civil war. This connection proved an embarrassment to Pryse in November 1644 when a contingent from south-west Wales, hoping to join Myddelton’s force in the north, visited Gogerddan on its march: an encounter that Pryse avoided by fleeing north to Merioneth.16N. Tucker, Denb. Officers in the Civil War, 27. Although outwardly a neutral, Pryse seems to have been collaborating with the royalists as late as February 1645, when Esay Thomas* complained of his connivance at the detention of his agent at Machynlleth.17Herbert Corresp. 120.

Pryse’s political position was sufficiently ambiguous to allow his election, presumably on his own interest, as recruiter MP for Cardiganshire in August 1646. He was one of nine Members, most of them Welsh, who took the Covenant on 30 December.18CJ v. 33b. He headed the county committee appointed on 23 June 1647.19Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 132. Yet even at this stage Pryse’s allegiances were unclear: in the same month as his election he was assessed as being liable for a fine of £3,000 by the Committee for Advance of Money; and in June 1647 John Blakiston* claimed that Pryse had raised horse for the king in Cardiganshire, a charge that resulted in his immediate summons to the House to explain himself.20CCAM, 727; Add. 31116, p. 621; Whitelocke, Mems. ii. 151; CJ v. 195a. Suspicion about Pryse’s loyalty grew in the early months of 1648. Although he was retained on the assessment commission for Cardiganshire in February, shortly afterwards he was removed from the county committee.21A. and O.; Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 141. In April one report had it that he was raising troops in Cardiganshire to assist John Poyer in his rebellion in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire; soon afterwards there were counter-claims that he had refused to join Poyer, and was engaged in making preparations to withstand the insurgents; and a third report linked Pryse and the earl of Carbery, claiming that they ‘have withdrawn themselves out of their society, and also out of that country, who may happily by their example move others to do the like’.22Phillips, Civil War in Wales, i. 399; ii. 353. Pryse was excused his absence at calls of the House on 24 April and 26 September 1648, but was secluded at Pride’s Purge in December.23CJ v. 543b; vi. 34b; A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62); Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 383.

Pryse was suspected of complicity in a royalist plot in Cardiganshire in June 1651 and detained for a while, but the council of state directed the committee for examinations to discharge him, the evidence being inadequate.24CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 237, 239. He died, intestate, soon afterwards and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 21 Oct. 1651.25Westminster Abbey Reg. 145. Two of his three sons – Sir Richard, who succeeded to the baronetcy, and Carbery Pryse, the youngest – went on to marry daughters of Bulstrode Whitelocke*.26CB.; Whitelocke, Diary, 247, 643.