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THE

LIFE OF PRIOR.

MATTHEW PRIOR, from an obfcure original, attained

to an exalted rank in life. The place of his nativity and the fituation of his parents cannot be afcertained. According to some accounts he was born July 21, 1664, at Winborne, in Dorfetfhire; while others relate that he was defcended from George Prior, a citizen of London. With refpect to rank, it is obfervable, that as a native of Winborne he is denominated in the Register of St John's College, Cambridge, Filius Georgii Prior generosi, which does not accord with the account of the meanness of his origin.

On the decease of his father, he devolved to the care of his uncle, a vintner near Charing-crofs, who most faithfully discharged the truft reposed in him by his brother, as was acknowledged by his nephew with the utmost gratitude.-----Prior was placed for fome time under the care of the eminent Dr. Bulby, of Westminster school; but, as he was not intended for any of the scientific profeffions, his uncle, when he had acquired a confiderable degree of claffical knowledge, took him to refide at his own houfe, where, fortunately, as Burnet relates, he was obferved by the earl of Dorfet, reading Horace, and that noble lord, ever known as the patron of genius, was fo pleased with his proficiency in claffical learning, that he generously undertook the care and expence of his academical education.

In his eighteenth year he was admitted into St. John's College, Cambridge, and in a few days after was appointed, through the intereft of his noble patron, a scholar of that house, on the foundation of the Duchefs of Somerset, by her Grace's own recommendation. He foon became distinguished among his

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