WILLIAM, an English lawyer, noted alike for his pamphlets and his punishments, was born at Swainswick, near Bath in Somersetshire in 1600. After graduating at Oxford in 1620, he became an outer barrister of Lincoln's Inn, was well read in English law, and was filled with zeal for gospel doctrine and morality. On his arrival at the Inn he became a follower and admirer of the Puritan lecturer Dr John Preston, who, finding Prynne hot-spirited and zealous to a degree, put him forward on occasions where a considerate man would not have dared to appear. Struck by certain scandals of the time, real or imaginary, especially by that of play-acting and masking, Prynne saw good, in 1632, to assail them in his Histriomastix, or "Player's Scourge." Dr Peter Heylin, "lying Peter," as men sometimes call him, who had an old grudge at this zealous lawyer for "consulting some of his doctrines," was busy reading this book with the most intense interest, and by Laud's direction, making excerpts from it. This being done, Laud charged Attorney-General Noy to prosecute Prynne before the Star Chamber. This Noy did with rigour, and the young barrister was sentenced to pay a fine of L5000, to stand in the pillory, to lose his ears, to suffer perpetual imprisonment, and to witness the burning of his PRY

Histriomastix by the common hangman. During his residence in prison he continued writing and publishing fulminations against the bishops, "calling them Luciferian lord bishops, execrable traitors, devouring woolves, with many other odious names not fit to be used by a Christian," thinks old Wood. (Athen. Oxon., vol. iii., Bliss.) He published his pamphlet, News from Ipswich, in 1637, in which he fell foul of bishops and archbishops, and roused the indignation of Laud; on which he was again before the Star Chamber; was fined again in L5000; to lose his ears the second time, having had them "sewed on again" before; to be branded on both cheeks S. I. (seditious libeller); and to be perpetually imprisoned in Caernarvon Castle. A great crowd, we are told, witnessed the spectacle in the Old Palace Yard on the 30th June 1637, "silent mainly and looking pale" (Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i.), with Prynn addressing them from his exalted position, defying Lambeth, with Rome at the back of it, to prove to him that these practices were according to the law of England. It was against Laud and his "surprises at All-hallowtide" that Prynn had offended, and not against the law of England. He was borne to Caernarvon; thence to Mount Orgueil Castle; when, on November 7, 1640, there came an order from "the blessed House of Commons" (so termed by his party) for his release. "On the 28th of the same month," writes Anthony à Wood, "they triumphantly entered, being then accompanied with thousands on foot and horseback, and in coaches, with rosemary and bays in their hats, crying 'Welcome home, welcome home! God bless you! God be thanked for your return!' &c., to the great contempt of authority and justice." Prynn was elected member of Parliament for Newport in Cornwall, shortly after. Here he kept up his original assault against the bishops, and played an important part in the trial of Archbishop Laud. In the Long Parliament he was zealous in the Presbyterian cause; and when the Independents gained the ascendancy, he opposed them strongly. On his being excluded from the House by the "purging" which it received, he attacked Cromwell and his party with so great bitterness that he was again thrown into prison. He was shortly afterwards released, and took to his favourite exercise of the pen. Being raised to his seat after Cromwell's death, he was active in furthering the Restoration, and was chosen keeper of the records of the Tower, with a salary of L500. He died in 1669.

He was a most voluminous writer, but we fear more than the Histriomastix is now altogether unreadable. He wrote Records of the Tower, in 3 vols., and Parliamentary Writs, in 4 vols.; and presented his works, nearly 200 of them in all (a list of which is to be found in Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. iii.), in 40 vols., to the Lincoln's Inn library.