John Prideaux

John Prideaux D.D. (7 September 1578 – 29 July 1650) was an English academic and Bishop of Worcester.

The fourth son of John and Agnes Prideaux, he was born at Stowford House in the parish of Harford, near Ivybridge, Devon, England, on 17 September 1578. His parents had to provide for a family of twelve; John, however, attracted the attention of a wealthy friend, Lady Fowell, of the same parish, and was sent to Oxford at eighteen. He matriculated from Exeter College on 14 October 1596, received a B.A. degree on 31 January 1600, was elected Fellow of Exeter College on 30 June 1601, and received a M.A. degree on 30 June 1603. The College was then under Thomas Holland as Rector and William Helme as tutor.

Prideaux took holy orders soon after 1603, and was appointed chaplain to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Matthew Sutcliffe named him in 1609 one of the fellows of his Chelsea College.

Prideaux was admitted B.D. on 6 May 1611, and on 4 April 1612 he was elected Rector of Exeter College, Oxford and was permitted to take the degree of D.D. 30 May 1612, before the statutable period. Exeter was then fifth college numerically in the university, and attracted not only west-countrymen, but also foreign students. Prideaux built on its reputation for scholarship. Philip Cluverius and D. Orville the geographers, James Casaubon and Sixtinus Amama were among the Northern Europeans and others who studied under him. Robert Spottiswoode and James, Duke of Hamilton, were among his Scottish pupils. Prideaux added to the buildings of the college: a new chapel was built in 1624, and consecrated (5 October) with a sermon by him. Anthony Ashley Cooper, his pupil from 1636 to 1638, records that he could be just and kindly to excitable undergraduates. Another of his students was Dutch Reformed theologian Sixtinus Amama.

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