Anthony Prossor, son of John, was born in Cashel, Ireland, in 1792. This painting is by Albert Goodwin 1845-1932
The Prossors of Tipperary, Portsmouth, Southampton and Liverpool
The connection
Will is descended from the Prossors via his paternal grandmother Marie, 1890-1953.
The name
The name is Welsh, meaning the son of Roger. As for the spelling, Irish Prossors use two Os, and the Welsh an O and an E — though this is not a hard and fast rule.
Will’s gt gt grandfather Anthony Prossor was born in 1792 in Co Tipperary. He and his brother emigrated to England in the early 1800s.
The first mention of a Prossor family in Ireland comes when a Thomas Prossor opens an inn in Finglas, Dublin, ‘towards the end of Charles II’s reign’.
Gt grandfather Henry Prossor 1842-1928 is probably the most colourful character in the Bramhill family tree. Read why in our detailed notes.
Will’s grandmother was Marie Prossor, 1890-1953.
In July 1863, Henry Prossor is said to "have held a loaded pistol to the head of his wife and threatened to shoot her,” as revealed in a divorce petition dated March 1867.
Mabel Bramley, right, was Henry’s second daughter by his second wife. She had a terribly sad life, not knowing her father until she was an adult and dying before she could meet him.
One story to emerge in our family history is the theft of 300 firkins of butter, involving Anthony Prossor as a victim. The case sheds light on the difficulties of everyday trade in the 1840s.
Odds and ends
• The wife of Anthony Prossor b1792 was Prudence Max. We have had amazing luck in tracing this family back thanks to the survival of a series of family wills. One person mentioned is Mary Max, Prudence’s cousin, who was the victim of a violent kidnap by her uncle and cousin in 1777.
• The Prossor name may be familiar still to people in Liverpool. For years it was painted on the roof of a retail warehouse selling PPE — personal protection equipment. The company was started by Will’s great uncle Charles and is still in business.
• In the Rebellion of the United Irishmen in 1798, a Thomas Prossor was one of several malcontents who raided the house of the Rev William Stopford in Blarney, Cork. The house was pillaged but no one was killed. Thomas was found guilty of treason and sentenced to transportation. Co-conspirator John Buckley was executed. As yet we cannot tie Thomas into our tree.
Highlights
• Prossors were in Ireland from at least the mid-1600s — whether it is our family is impossible to say. The first mention is of a Thomas Prossor, an innkeeper in Finglas, northwest Dublin, “at the close of the reign of Charles II” — so the early 1680s. Will has also been told of an Australian “family book” that tells of two Prossor brothers joining William of Orange’s army to fight in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690: this would fit with the Finglas connection as it was a mainly Protestant town and "King Billy" camped there with his army before the battle.
• The first Prossor we know to be “ours” is John, Will’s 3x gt grandfather. He was the father of Anthony b1792 in Cashel, Co Tipperary. John is recorded on his 1778 marriage to Prudence Max in Cashel . . . and that is about it. Earlier, in 1757, the death of “the widow Prossor” of Dirty Lane, Cashel, is recorded in the local paper, so the family could have been in the town for some time.
• Anthony b1792 and his brother Samuel b1796 settled in Portsea, England, in about 1832, probably trading in Irish foodstuff. They married sisters Mary and Harriet Baker and went into business with their father-in-law George Baker. Anthony and Mary had eight children, including Henry b1841, Will’s gt grandfather.
• How to describe Henry b1841? A gentleman, a chancer, a rogue, a charmer, a tyrant? Glimpses support all of these. Henry married twice before settling with Will’s gt grandmother, Louisa Lloyd, in Manchester then Liverpool – it seems that they didn’t marry. He also had a selection of jobs: actor, running a wine company, manager of a fertiliser company, sanitary inspector, jeweller, accountant and, allegedly, lawyer. It was in that last role that in the 1920s he helped in the legal separation of Bridget Hitler (nee Dowling) from her husband Alois, Adolf’s half brother.
Read the detail...
Want to know more about the Prossors and associated families? We’ve put together these files.
Henry’s divorce
HK and the colour cure
Henry’s birthday book
We thought we knew all there was to know about Henry Prossor … then we discovered his link to Tynemouth and this huge building by the beach.
HK Prossor was Henry’s grandson by his first marriage. After serving in Salonika in WW1, he became an expert in the use of colour to treat soldiers’ mental illness (PTSD). He later designed room sets.
We believe our Irish Prossors might have been clockmakers in Clonmel. This grandfather clock, made 1790-1820, is marked “Prossor" .
This is the Prossor family grave in Peartree cemetery, Southampton. It is the resting place of Anthony b1792, his wife Mary b1805, and five of their daughters.