Pryor, John

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Barry M. Moody, “PRYOR, JOHN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pryor_john_12E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Baptist minister and educator; b. 4 July 1805 in Halifax, son of John Pryor and Sarah Stevens; elder brother of Henry Pryor; m. 9 Oct. 1826 Elizabeth Mary Boggs probably in Halifax, and they had four children; d. there 17 Aug. 1892.
    • John Pryor’s father was a prosperous Halifax merchant and influential member of St Paul’s Church (Anglican). Business connections and family ties allied the Pryors with the political, social, and economic élite of Nova Scotia. John attended King’s College, Windsor, graduating ba in 1824 and ma in 1831. While there, however, he apparently came under evangelical influences that would dramatically alter his life.
    • Forces within the Church of England in Nova Scotia, stirred by such men as the Reverend Hibbert Binney, tore St Paul’s asunder in the mid 1820s. The Pryor family sided with the evangelically minded curate, John Thomas Twining, in a deep and acrimonious quarrel with Bishop John Inglis over the appointment of Robert Willis as rector. Finally defeated in 1825, the dissidents were forced to leave St Paul’s; some, including Pryor, James William Johnston, John Ferguson, and Edmund Albern Crawley, left the Anglican church completely. After some hesitation, they moved toward the Baptist denomination. However, the presence of these upper-class lawyers and businessmen in the essentially working-class, and primarily black, Baptist church led by the Reverend John Burton caused serious strains and would ultimately be satisfactory to neither group. On 30 Sept. 1827 a separate congregation, known as Granville Street Baptist Church (now First Baptist), was formed by the dissidents. Two weeks later Pryor was baptized by immersion and joined the church. Within less than a month of his baptism he was appointed clerk of the church, and on 12 Sept. 1828 he was licensed to preach.
    • Their proposal was laid before the Nova Scotia Baptist Education Society at a meeting on 15 November, at which time the decision to found Queen’s College (renamed Acadia in 1841) was made. The first classes were held in January 1839, with Pryor and Crawley sharing the teaching and administration. The student population numbered 19. Pryor served Acadia for nearly twelve years, the last three as the college’s first president.
    • He spent the 1850s as minister of the Baptist church in Cambridge, Mass., and in 1863 returned to his home church on Granville Street in Halifax. This last move turned out to be a disastrous one. Pryor became embroiled in a scandal that would permanently blacken his reputation. In 1867, after several years of rumours, members of his congregation accused him of embezzlement of trust funds and of impropriety with a woman of questionable character. His church was torn apart by the resulting controversy, and the entire denomination became involved.
    • Perhaps because of this scandal, Pryor has not received the credit due him for his role in the founding and development of Acadia University. In addition, he was overshadowed by the flashier, and louder, Crawley, who was determined to have whatever honours were forthcoming.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6806
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/228121682/john-pryor