Constituency Dates
Ludlow [1558]
Bridgnorth [1559]
Family and Education
b. by 1530, o. s. of John Prince of Shrewsbury by Alice, da. of John Bradley of Wenlock. educ. I. Temple, adm. Nov. 1553. m. (1) Margaret (d.1584); da. of Geoffrey Manchester of Manchester, Lancs., s.p.; (2) Dorothy, da. of William Leighton of Plaish, Salop, 4s. 5da.; 1da. illegit. suc. fa. 20 July 1557.1Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 410; H. Owen and J. B. Blakeway, Shrewsbury, ii. 140; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), v. 47; viii. 122-5.
Offices Held

Counsellor-at-the-bar, ct. of the council in the marches of Wales, temp. Eliz.; feodary, Salop by 1562 – 73; commr. musters 1577.2P. H. Williams, Council in the Marches of Wales, 173; APC, ix. 379; CPR, 1560–3, p. 449; 1572–5, pp. 154, 354; C. A. J. Skeel, Council in the Marches of Wales, 255.

Address
Main residence: Shrewsbury, Salop.
biography text

Richard Prince’s father was a shoemaker and master of the hospital of St. Giles in the Abbey Foregate at Shrewsbury, the street in which lay the property he left to his son. Styled ‘literatus’ when in 1551 he was made a freeman of Shrewsbury, Prince had probably already begun his legal training, although the Inner Temple gave him special admission only in November 1553. His connexion with the council in the marches is known only from his reinstatement by the Privy Council in 1577 after he had been dismissed for lack of the necessary qualification, but it was clearly as a legal officer of the council that he was returned to two Parliaments in succession: the boroughs concerned were both meeting places of the council. In the election indenture for Ludlow his name was inserted over an erasure, perhaps replacing John Allsop’s: as Allsop was town clerk, his supersession would imply that Prince was imposed upon the borough in his stead. Prince afterwards prospered at Shrewsbury, where the house which he built still stands. He died on 4 Oct. 1598.3Shrewsbury Burgess Roll, ed. Forrest, 244; C219/25/89; Williams, 190; HMC 15th Rep. X, 19, 24, 52, 59; Owen and Blakeway, i. 387, 562; Pevsner, Salop, 286; C142/252/41.

Author
A.H.
Volume
Commons 1509-1558
Notes
  • 1. Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 410; H. Owen and J. B. Blakeway, Shrewsbury, ii. 140; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), v. 47; viii. 122-5.
  • 2. P. H. Williams, Council in the Marches of Wales, 173; APC, ix. 379; CPR, 1560–3, p. 449; 1572–5, pp. 154, 354; C. A. J. Skeel, Council in the Marches of Wales, 255.
  • 3. Shrewsbury Burgess Roll, ed. Forrest, 244; C219/25/89; Williams, 190; HMC 15th Rep. X, 19, 24, 52, 59; Owen and Blakeway, i. 387, 562; Pevsner, Salop, 286; C142/252/41.