PRIDEAUX, HUMPHRY, a very learned clergyman of the Church of England, was born at Padstow, in Cornwall, in 1648. He studied three years at Westminster under Dr. Bushy, and was then removed to Christ Church, Oxford. Here, in 1676, he published his Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundelianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata, cum perpetuo Commentario. This introduced him to the Lord Chancellor Finch, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, who, in 1679, presented him to the Rectory of St. Clement's, near Oxford, and, in 1681, bestowed on him a prebend of Norwich. Some
Priest, years afterwards he was engaged in a controversy with the
Priestley. Catholics at Norwich, concerning the validity of the orders of
the Church of England, which produced his book upon that
subject. In 1688, he was installed in the archdeaconry of
Suffolk, to which he was collated by Dr. Lloyd, then Bi-
shop of Norwich. In 1691, upon the death of Dr. Edward
Pococke, the Hebrew professorship at Oxford being vacant,
was offered to Dr. Prideaux; but he refused it. In 1697, he
published his Life of Mahomed; and, in 1702, he was in-
stalled dean of Norwich. In 1710, he was cut for the stone,
which interrupted his studies during more than a year. Some
time after his return to London, he proceeded with his Con-
nection of the History of the Old and New Testament,
which he had commenced when he laid aside the design of
writing the History of Appropriations. He died in 1724.