Richard Prosser

Born in Market Drayton, Shropshire as the fourth child of Humphrey Prosser and Eleanor Witherston. He graduated BA in 1770, MA in 1773, and DD in 1797 as well as elected chaplain-fellow in 1773. Prosser was ordained in London two years prior and by 1808 was appointed archdeacon of Durham which he remained as for thirty-five years. He established a parochial charity school in Easington building it in 1814 and endowing it in 1833. He and his wife only had one child, Richard Samuel who died at twelve. Prosser donated his library to Balliol upon his death and ordered his own manuscripts to be burned. His heir was his sister’s son Francis Richard Haggit MP who is estimated to have inherited £250,000. Much of this wealth aided in the restoration of English Roman Catholicism as his heir was a convert.