Author: Pryor, Abraham
Biography:
PRYOR, Abraham (fl 1786-1830)
Pryor is a curious character, a peripatetic surgeon who left miscellaneous publications in his wake. His history has to be pieced together from his works, since public records are almost nonexistent. He was probably born in Dover DE where he received a gentleman's education (he subscribed as from this town to a Philadelphia edition of Horace in 1786) and trained as a physician and surgeon. One of his Serious Poems was originally published in Portland ME (very likely in a newspaper) in 1804. By 1806 he had a medical practice in Canada, on Prince Edward Island, where he remained for thirteen years--an experience he describes in his short "description of British America," which was dated from Providence RI and published both there and in Troy NY in 1819. The Poems were produced in Lancaster PA and a Treatise on Dysentery in Morristown NJ, both in 1818. In Delaware in 1826, identifying himself as "Abraham Pryor, Schoolmaster," he took out copyright on a "Miniature Spelling Book" for very young children, but it may never have been printed. His last work was A Sketch of the Practice of Physic, a pamphlet of eight pages published in Pittsburgh in 1828 and 1830. His writings do sometimes touch on autobiography but do not appear to mention a wife or children. HJ