A Danish Pruden connection?
Hello, all - A number of years ago, I found a book entitled "Peter Prudden" in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and I photocopied a couple of interesting bits of it to take home with me.Darn it, I forgot to note on my photocopies who the author of the book was.
Oh well, in any case, I'm going to transcribe the first couple of paragraphs of the book here just because it is interesting stuff.
To quote:
"The veil which obscures the Prudden name prior to the time when the Rev. Peter Prudden came [from England] to this country [the United States] in 1637, is lifted once in the chronicles of the latest Danish kings of England.Here we learn that in the year 1042, King Hardicanute died at a carousel in Lambeth Palace, where one of his nobles was celebrating the marriage of his daughter to "Tovi, surnamed Prudan, a nobe and powerful Dane."
"Most of the histories of that time spell the name of this person "Pruden," but by some it was written "Pruda."It is impossible now to say whether this name continued during the next three hundred years, or those who bore it were descendants of this "Tovi" or "Tobi" Prudan, or even, whether the "Pruddens" that began to be found in the sixteenth century were descendants of his.At different periods the English records so vary the manner of spelling the same name that it would not be surprising if as time passed this one had been completely altered.A continuous line of descent may have followed down through the names of Prudde, Prudow, Prothowe, Proddehowe, Prudhon, and a dozen other similarly sounding names.
The derivation and meaning of the name is uncertain.One writer says it means the "proud."Another, interpreting English Surnames, says "We now talk of a 'prude' as one who exaggerates woman's innate modesty of demeanor.Formerly it denoted the virtue pure and untravested.The root of the Latin 'probus,' excellent, still remains in our Prudhommes, with those more commonly corrupted forms, Pridham, Prudames or Prudens, a sobriquet which formerly referred simply to the honest and guileless uprightness of the owners."
"The first distinct record of the name which has been found, since that of 1042, is in some early wills in Her Majesty's Court of Probate, in Somerset House in London, where it is spelled, as now, "Prudden."All of these earlier Pruddens seem to have been inhabitants of a district on the borders of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, twenty-five miles from London."
Interesting stuff,what??I should probably mention too that the reference to the Danish Prudan is footnoted.The footnote refers to "Florence of Worcestor's Chronicle, 'Bohn's Library, p. 144, Manning & Pray.'History of Surry, Vol.III, p. 461."
So ... if you sometimes get the urge to eat herring roll-mops, or wear a fur hat with horns sticking out from opposite sides, then maybe this is why - you descend from the Vikings.Or maybe not.Interesting to speculate upon, in any case.
More Replies:
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Re: A Danish Pruden connection?
Gerri Berger 6/03/12
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Re: A Danish Pruden connection?
Paul Pruden 5/17/03
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Re: A Danish Pruden connection?
Karen Shirley 5/17/03
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Re: A Danish Pruden connection?