OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
www.oldplymouth.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: March 26, 2020
Webpage updated: March 26, 2020

        

WHO WAS WHO IN OLD PLYMOUTH

WILLIAM PRANCE (1782-1861)

William Prance was born in Appledore, north Devon, on June 13th 1782, the son of Mr William Prance (1755-1813) and the former Miss Anna Connell.

William Prance married Miss Sarah Gribble in Barnstaple on July 29th 1816.  She bore him four children but died in 1829 at the young age of 56 years.

He was articled to a solicitor in Bridport, Dorset, but upon completing his training he moved to Plymouth with no intention of putting his knowledge to any practical purpose.  His early years were spent in manufacturing and other commercial enterprises, including public works.  He was elected Governor of the Hospital of the Poor's Portion.

During the banking crisis of 1825, when Sir William Elford's Bank crashed, he was appointed one of the assignees.  As a result of the experience he gained doing that work he and Mr David Derry (1794-1867) created the Devon and Cornwall Banking Company Limited in 1832.  He was appointed the Company's chairman and Mr Derry was the bank manager.

Mr Prance, a member of the Liberal Party, was first elected to the Town Council in the first election after the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.  The following year he became a magistrate.  He declined the wishes of the local Liberal Party members to represent the Town in Parliament.

Along with the Reverend John Hatchard, the vicar of the Ancient Parish Church of Saint Andrew the Apostle, he was very interested in providing the Town with a hospital and in 1840 the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital was opened in Sussex Place, Notte Street.  He was its treasurer for the following eighteen years.  When the new premises were opened at Greenbank, one of the Wards was named in his honour.

In 1841 he was chosen to be an Alderman of the Borough and followed that up in 1842 by being selected as Mayor of Plymouth for 1842-1843.  In that capacity he greeted Her Majesty Queen Victoria on her visit to Plymouth in August 1843.

William Prance died at his home, 18 Princess Square, Plymouth, on March 22nd 1861.  He was 78 years of age.  Instead of being interred in the family vault at the George Street Baptist Chapel burial ground, Mr Prance was placed in a vault he had chosen at the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Cemetery.  The funeral took place on Thursday March 28th 1861.  The service was conducted by the Reverend T C Paige, minister of the George Street Baptist Chapel, of which Mr Prance had been a long-standing member, and the Reverend T Horton, pastor of the Hope Baptist Chapel at Devonport.  His three sons and one son-in-law, Mr J N Bennett (1803-1899), were present, as well as the Mayor of Plymouth, Mr W Luscombe, and other civic and medical dignitaries.

In the Obituary in the Western Morning News he was described as  'not a quick and brilliant man or remarkable for his eloquence ..... but his sterling worth lay beneath a somewhat phlegmatic exterior.  To have lived so long and yet leave behind the memory of no public fault, error of judgement, haste of temper or mistake of purpose is a great thing'.

The funeral was underthe supervision of Mr Yabsley, undertaker, of Old Town Street, Plymouth, who had himself made the massive oak coffin and shell.