Author: Prior, Matthew
Biography:
PRIOR, Matthew (1664-1721: ODNB)
He is in a different sense a “prior” author since his works were published before 1770, but some of his poems were included in collections with works first published after that date. He was born on 21 July 1664 and baptised at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, London, on 2 Aug., the only surviving child of George Prior, a joiner, and his wife Elizabeth (whose birth name may have been Pennefather). He attended Westminster School, where he learnt to compose verses extempore; was obliged to leave about 1675 after the death of his father and to assist in a tavern run by his uncle; but there encountered a patron, the earl of Dorset, who provided the means for him to finish his schooling. As a scholarship student at St. John’s College, Cambridge (matric. 1683, BA 1687, Fellow 1688), he continued to compose in both English and Latin. In 1690 he embarked on a career as a civil servant and diplomat, appointed secretary (and sometime acting ambassador) to the British ambassadors at The Hague (1690-97) and Paris (1698-9, 1713-15). On his return to London as an under-secretary of state (1699-1711), he bought a house in Westminster, “Matt’s Palace,” to be the London base for various diplomatic missions. He never married but had successively three longterm mistresses. He moved in literary and political circles—Jonathan Swift (q.v.) was a friend. In 1709 he brought out his first collection of Poems on Several Occasions. His second, an expanded and handsomely produced subscription edition (1719), made him a fortune at a time when he badly needed it. He had been employed in secret negotiations with France that led ultimately to the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 but that cost him a year’s incarceration (1715-16) in London. Once released and financially secure, he embarked on a phase of collecting (books, paintings, objets d’art) and of building (a country house), with the support of new friends, Edward Harley of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire (1689-1741), and his family. On a visit to Wimpole in Aug. 1721 Prior was taken ill; he died there of cholera on 18 Sept. His body lay in state in Westminster Abbey for three days before a magnificent funeral on 25 Sept. He designed his own monument for his place in Poets’ Corner. (ODNB 18 Nov. 2023; Westminster School Records, collections.westminster.org.uk; findmypast.com 18 Nov. 2023)
Other Names:
- Prior