JOHN PRINCE. 341 
only twenty-five lines, which was all they had been able to collect, 
‘notwithstanding the most diligent search.” The difficulty under 
which I labour in endeavouring, after a lapse of more than sixty 
years since that diligent but unsuccessful search, to collect particulars 
of this worthy Devonian, will therefore be readily understood. 
John Prince was born at Newnham Abbey, in the parish of 
Axminster, in the year 1643; and speaking of his birthplace, he 
quaintly says, ‘‘The first parish towards the south-east of this 
shire (Devon) that way is Axminster, where, at the Abbey of 
Newnham, the author of this discourse, through divine mercy, 
breathed his first air.” He was the son of Bernard Prince and 
Mary his wife, whose maiden name was Crocker, and was, through 
his mother, allied to the ancient family of the Crockers of Lync- 
ham, in Devon; one of whom, Sir John Crocker, knight (who was 
cup-bearer to Edward IY.), has a place among the Worthies. In 
speaking of him Prince says, ‘‘ There have been several other very 
eminent persons of this name and family, whom it may be thought 
tedious particularly to mention; only one there is whom, for his 
great loyalty to his prince, King Charles I., and this near relation 
I had unto him, being son to his brother’s daughter, I may not pass 
over in silence;’’ and then proceeds to give a sketch of his great- 
uncle, Sir Hugh Crocker, Knight, who was a younger son and an 
Exeter merchant, and so successful that at one time he owned no 
less than ten ships, and in 1643 was mayor of the ‘ever faithful ” 
city. It was during his mayoralty that King Charles I. came to 
Exeter, when pursuing the Parliamentary general the Earl of 
Essex. Having proceeded into Cornwall, the king on his return 
through Exeter knighted the mayor; a title which, Prince says, he 
was not ambitious of, and one which cost him much both in purse 
and person; for when the Royalists were overthrown, and those 
who had supported them had to compound for their estates, &c., 
his composition at Goldsmiths’ Hall was £288 ; his brother-in-law, 
Sir John Coleton, of Exeter, knight, having to pay £244 10s. 
In a recently published work, Gleanings from the Municipal 
Records of Kxeter, there are some very interesting particulars 
respecting Prince’s great-uncle. It seems that on the occasion of 
the visit of Charles to Exeter, £500 was presented to his majesty 
and £100 to Prince Charles, and the king was so delighted at the 
attention that he conferred the honour of knighthood on the mayor, 
Hugh Crocker; but at the same time it is unpleasantly hinted that 
VOL. VI. Z 
