PRATT, Sir ROGER (1620–1684), architect, baptised at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire, on 2 Nov. 1620, was son of Gregory Pratt of London, and afterwards of West Ryston, Norfolk, by Theodosia, daughter of Sir Edward Tyrell of Thornton, Buckinghamshire, and widow of Edmund West of Marsworth. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, matriculating there on 12 May 1637, and was entered as a student of the Inner Temple in 1640. He travelled in Italy, and at Rome made acquaintance with John Evelyn [q. v.] the diarist, whose friendship he renewed in England. Pratt took to architecture, and achieved a high reputation in the profession. In August 1666 Evelyn records that he, Dr. (afterwards Sir Christopher) Wren, Pratt, May (the architect), and others, went to survey the fabric of St. Paul's Cathedral, then in a dangerous condition, and that Pratt's views as to the preservation of the steeple were opposed to those of Evelyn and Wren. A few days later the cathedral perished in the great fire. After the fire Pratt took a considerable part in the preparation of designs and the actual rebuilding of the portion of London then destroyed. For these services he was knighted at Whitehall by Charles II on 18 July 1668. He built a magnificent house at Horseheath in Cambridgeshire for Lord Alington, and also the vast but short-lived palace known as Clarendon House, in Piccadilly, for Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon. Pratt eventually succeeded to the estate of West Ryston in Norfolk, where he died on 20 Feb. 1684, and was buried. His portrait, painted by Sir Peter Lely, belonged in 1866 to the Rev. Jermyn Pratt. He married Anne, daughter and coheiress of Sir Edmond Monins, bart., of Waldershare, Kent, who married, secondly, Sigismond Trafford of Dunton Hall, Tydd St. Mary's, Lincolnshire; she died in 1706, and was buried at West Ryston.
[Blomefield and Parkin's Hist. of Norfolk, vii. 395; Le Neve's Pedigrees of Knights (Harl. Soc. Publ.); Evelyn's Diary, ed. Wheatley, vol. ii.; Wheatley and Cunningham's London Past and Present; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]
PRATT or PRAT, SAMUEL (1659?–1723), dean of Rochester, is variously stated to have been born on 2 June 1659 and on 22 July 1658. He entered Merchant Taylors' School on 11 March 1666. Thence he probably proceeded to Cambridge; but his only recorded degree is that of S.T.P. per regias literas, in 1697. On 10 March 1682 he became rector of Kenardington, Kent. He resigned this benefice in February 1693, and on 23 Nov. came into residence as vicar of All Hallows, Tottenham High Cross. On 7 April 1697 he became minister of the Savoy Chapel. Pratt was also one of the chaplains of the Princess Anne, and, on the recommendation of Lord and Lady Fitzhardinge, was appointed sub-preceptor, under Bishop Burnet, to her son, the Duke of Gloucester. On 27 Nov. 1697 he was named a canon of Windsor; on 8 Aug. 1706 he was promoted dean of Rochester and clerk of the closet. From 15 Aug. 1709 till July 1713 he was also vicar of Goudhurst in Kent, and from 21 Jan. 1712 till his death vicar of Twickenham. He died on 14 Nov. 1723.
In addition to many sermons, Pratt published: 1. ‘The regulating Silver Coin made practicable and easie to the Government and Subject. Humbly submitted to the consideration of both Houses of Parliament, by a Lover of his Country,’ 1696. This was a contribution of more curiosity than value to the problem of the restoration of the currency undertaken in this year by Somers and Montagu in conjunction with Locke and Newton. 2. ‘Grammatica Latina in usum principis juventutis Britannicæ, cum notis necnon conjecturis tam veterum quam aliorum Grammaticorum … subjunctis,’ 1722, 2 vols. 8vo. 3. ‘Ejusdem Grammaticæ Compendium,’ 1723, 8vo. The grammar was severely criticised by Solomon Lowe in his ‘Proposals’ prefixed to his own grammar, 1722.
The dean left a son, Samuel Pratt, B.A. of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, 1710 (cf. Atterbury, Correspondence, ed. Nichols, iii. 339–40).
[Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, vol. i.; Grad. Cantabr.; Le Neve's Fasti Anglic. Eccles. ii. 578; Newcourt's Repert. Eccl. Lond. i. 697, 755; Robinson's Hist. of Tottenham, ii. 14, 177; Wildash's Hist. of Rochester, p. 194; Hasted's Kent, iii. 44, 118; Cobbett's Memorials of Twickenham, pp. 113, 212; Loftie's Memorials of the Savoy, pp. 192–3; Hist. Reg. 1723 (Chron. Diary), p. 52, which overestimates Pratt's age; Memoirs of the Duke of Gloucester, by Jenkyn Lewis, ed. Loftie, 1881; Sandford's Genealog. Hist. of Kings of England, continued by Stebbing, 1707, pp. 861–2; Watt's Bibl. Brit. ii. 774; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
PRATT, SAMUEL JACKSON (1749–1814), miscellaneous writer, mainly under the pseudonym of Courtney Melmoth, was born at St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, on 25 Dec. 1749. He was the son of a brewer in that town who twice served as high sheriff
