Prinsep may mean any of several notable members of the British Prinsep family.
The family descended from John Prinsep, an 18th-century merchant who was the son of Rev. John Prinsep, rector of Saundby, Nottinghamshire, and Bicester, Oxfordshire. John Prinsep, his son, founded indigo production in India as well as the making of cotton fabrics in Bengal, opened a copper mint in India and was a founder of the Westminster Life Insurance Society in London, where he later served as Alderman and in Parliament. Prinsep arrived in India as a soldier in the army of the East India Company but became a merchant soon afterwards. During his 16 years in India, John Prinsep amassed a £40,000 fortune, which he used to set himself up as a London businessman and get himself elected to Parliament. Prinsep made two large fortunes and lost both. He was the first of three succeeding generations of Prinseps in India, all of whom were known for their artistic abilities. Among his descendants are the artist Valentine Cameron Prinsep, the Anglo-Indian antiquarian, scholar and architect James Prinsep and others.
Charles Robert Prinsep, Singapore merchant for whom Singapore's Prinsep Street and Prinsep Place are named, owner of the Prinsep nutmeg plantation, 6,700 nutmeg shrubs covering much of what is now downtown Singapore[4]
Edward Augustus Prinsep, (1828–1900), Calcutta merchant, son of William Prinsep of Calcutta[5]
Lieut. Frederick Bruce Prinsep (d. 1879), soldier, 21st Hussars, 3rd European Light Cavalry, decorated for his role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857[6]
George Augustus Prinsep Esq., (d. 1839) prominent Anglo-Indian journalist, cotton merchant, salt manufacturer, shipping owner, Calcutta, member, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, assumed editorship of The Courier newspaper of Calcutta after failure of early business venture, publisher Calcutta Gazette, regained fortune through salt interests, son of merchant John Prinsep[7]
Lt. Col. Henry Auriol Prinsep (1836–1914), soldier, Bengal Staff Corps, his daughter Mary married Hon. William Fitzwilliam James Dundas[10][11]
James Prinsep (1799–1840), numismatist, linguist, artist, scholar, Secretary of the Asiatic Society, son of John Prinsep, brother of Henry Thoby Prinsep and William Prinsep (executor of his estate), died at sea returning to England, 1840[12]
Henry Thoby Prinsep[13] (1793–1878), merchant and civil servant, Bengal Civil Service, named director of East India Company 1849, served on the Council of India 1858–1874, son of patriarch John Prinsep, lived at Little Holland House, Kensington, London, one of London's sought-after salons of the age, and The Briary, Isle of Wight, amateur oil painter,[14] married in 1835 to Sarah Monckton Pattle (Calcutta, 1816–Brighton, 1887), and brother-in-law of photographer Julia Margaret Cameron
Sir Henry Thoby Prinsep (1836–1914), judge of the High Court, Calcutta
Arthur Thoby Haverleigh Prinsep (1862–1938), Sir Henry Thoby's son, Australian and New Zealand-based author, actor, poet, journalist and footballer. Wrote under the name F. D'A. C. De L'Isle.[15][16][17] He is also the father of Gordon De Lisle.
John Prinsep, vicar's son, patriarch of the Prinsep family in India, indigo planter, entrepreneur, arrived in India a few weeks after Warren Hastings became Governor General in 1773, amassed a large fortune in indigo production, retired to frescoed mansion on London's Leadenhall Street later occupied by the India Office, Londonalderman, Member of Parliament
Thomas Levett-Prinsep, heir to his uncle Thomas Prinsep and son of Theophilus Levett of Wychnor Park[19][20] Derbyshire. On the early death of Prinsep, his seat at Croxall Hall, Derbyshire, devolved onto his nephew Levett, who took the name Levett-Prinsep,[21] resided at Croxall Hall, Derbyshire, Justice of the Peace and landowner [22]
Valentine Cameron Prinsep[23] (1838–1904), painter, son of Henry Thoby Prinsep, trained to become an Indian merchant but turned to art instead, author of Imperial India, a book of travel writing
Anthony Leyland Val Prinsep (1888-1942), son of Valentine Prinsep, theatre manager and producer who married Marie Lohr and Margaret Bannerman.[24][25]
William H. Prinsep (1794–1874), merchant, Palmer & Co., Carr, Tagore and Company, founder, Union Bank (failed), founder, Bengal Tea Association, founder, Bengal Coal Company, owner, Bengal Salt Company (inherited from his brother George), Sheriff, Fort William, Calcutta, amateur artist (studied under George Chinnery), retired to Hyde Park Place, London, secretary, Great Western Railway, South Devon Railway, one of seven sons of patriarch John Prinsep.[26] Appointed secretary of the Oswestry & Newtown Railway in September 1855 but appointment rescinded in October 1855 because shareholders thought that he would be biased in favour of the Great Western Railway.[27]
The tree Prinsepia that grows in India, China and Bangladesh, is named for James Prinsep, secretary of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta.
Notes
^"Augustus Prinsep, Dictionary of Australian Artists Online". Archived from the original on 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
^"Prinsep, Charles Robert (PRNP806CR)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^A Treatise on Political Economy, Jean-Baptiste Say, translated by Charles Robert Prinsep, M.A., J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1857
^An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore, Charles Burton Buckley, Fraser & Neave, 1902
^"...Our house belonged to a man without a nose: M. Princeps [sic]. He was met only on horseback. Sometimes – on Sundays – he had a silver nose: other times not..." (Charles-Albert Cingria, Œuvres complètes, vol. 2, p. 829).
^Rugby School Register, Vol. II, Arthur Tompson Mitchell, printed by A. J. Lawrence, Rugby, 1902
^The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, Vol. XXIX, printed by William H. Allen & Co., London, 1839
^Royal Blue Book, May 1897, Kelly & Co. Ltd., London, 1897
^"Australian Dictionary of Biography, adb.online.anu.edu.au". Archived from the original on 2008-10-05. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
^Mary Maud Dundas, Bassano, National Portrait Gallery, London, npg.org.uk
^The Search for the Buddha: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion, Charles Allen, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003
^Henry Thoby Prinsep, portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron, albumen print, 1866, National Portrait Gallery, London, npg.org.uk,
^Clouds: The Biography of a Country House, Caroline Dakers, Philip Webb, Yale University Press, 1993
^"Prinsep v Prinsep". The Australian Star. 3 November 1893. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^"Mr Arthur Thoby Prinsep". Table Talk (Melbourne). 29 January 1892. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^"Mr De Lisle At The Choral Hall". Otago Witness. No. 2680. 26 July 1905. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^"The Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire, Vol. III, Joseph Tilley, Simkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., London, 1902". Archived from the original on 2023-10-31. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
^Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire, Alfred Williams, Walter Henry Mallett, F. Brown, 1889
^Melville Henry Massue marquis of Ruvigny et Raineval (1994). The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: Being a Complete Table of All the Descendants Now Living of Edward III, King of England. Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 338. ISBN 978-0-8063-1434-1.
^Croxall, Derbyshire, Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, London, 1891, The Andrews Pages, andrewspages.dial.pipex.com Archived 2010-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
^Valentine Cameron Prinsep, ca. 1870, Julia Margaret Cameron, albumen silver photograph, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, ngv.vic.gov Archived 2008-07-29 at the Wayback Machine
^"Marie Lohr Engaged". Sunday Times (Perth). 23 December 1911. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^"Divorce Decree". The Mercuty. 16 June 1938. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^New Arabian Studies, J. R. Smart, G. Rex Smith, B. R. Pridham, Published by Presses Université Laval, 2000 ISBN 0-85989-645-5 ISBN 978-0-85989-645-0
^National Archives RAIL552/1 (Minute book of Oswestry & Newtown Railway, pp. 46–7, 54–5, 76–7)
Surname list
This page lists people with the surnamePrinsep. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.