HOF – Pridmore

Working back from the present (at the beginning of our research) it took three generations to move the location from Sheffield back to Bourne in Lincolnshire, where many of our Pridmores originated.

Bourne is a market town in the South Kesteven district. Situated on an old Roman road (King Street) the town boasts a castle and an abbey. Boosted by the Victorian industrial revolution and the railway coming to town, the emphasis on agriculture lessened but was still an important part of Bourne’s make up well into the 20th century.

The Pridmores of Bourne were mainly in the saddlery and rope-making professions providing services to the local farmers as agriculture was the mainstay of local employment. James Pridmore (1821 – 1866) was a saddler who married his own first cousin, Susannah Pridmore and lived in
Bourne.

James Pridmore and Elizabeth Ward were living in Star Lane, Bourne in the 1841 census whilst in 1861 Thomas Pridmore and Mary Franks had premises according to the Post Office Directory as a Collar, Harness and Rope Maker in North Street near to the Angel Inn.

1. John Pridmore and Ann Durham
          2. John (Flaxdresser)
          2. James
               3. James (Saddler)
                    4. Thomas (Master Saddler and Harness Maker)
               3. Henry (Rope maker)
               3. Thomas (Saddler)
                    4. Robert James (Saddler and Harness Maker)
                         5 William (Saddle Collar and Harness Maker)
                         5. Thomas (Saddler)

Whilst Bourne was the centre of the Pridmores in the 1800’s, the tradition of large families and poor circumstances inevitably meant a spreading of wings and during this time a movement south was seen with Pridmores heading towards Middlesex and even as far away as Australia by both government assisted passage and also at Her Majesty’s Pleasure !!

The adventurers who made the move from Lincolnshire to South Yorkshire included some interesting characters. Thomas William Booth Pridmore and his brother Brigham Young Pridmore appear to have been christened after founders of different religious organisations of the time. William Booth was a Nottinghamshire Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, founded the Salvation Army whilst Brigham Young was an American who became the second President of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. What influenced their parents to christen them with these names remains a mystery.

A further brother was named Joseph Hiram Smith Pridmore, presumably after Joseph Smith, the founding president of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. (We have found no record of polygamy in the Pridmores thus maybe ruling this out as a reason for the names).

Thomas William Booth Pridmore continued his work as a sadler after he moved to Sheffield, where we believe he became the chief sadler at Reuben Thompson’s Funeral and Cab Service, a large business that may have had up to 400 horses at its peak.

Henry Pridmore, born in Bourne in 1830, sailed for Australia aboard the ship Ramillies, (740 tons, Captain Hodden) from Southampton 20th February 1853, arrived at Port Adelaide, South Australia 19th May 1853. They established the Pridmore line in Australia which diversified over time. Son John married Annie Griffiths, daughter of Samuel and Bridget who had been sent to Tasmania by the much harsher passage of transportation under the English judicial system.

The Australian Pridmores settled in Tasmania and found work on local sheep farms. Their fortunes hit the extremes over the centuries with John Pridmore convicted of murdering his wife while Professor Saxby Pridmore made his reputation as an internationally renowned leader in the field of psychiatry.