William Prynne, an English political writer, born at Swainswick, near Bath, in 1600, died in London, Oct. 24, 1669. He graduated at Oriel college, Oxford, in 1620, studied law, and was admitted a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. Having become a Puritan, he published pamphlets against Arminianism; and some passages in one entitled "Histriomastix, the Player's Scourge" (1632), appearing to reflect upon the king and queen, Bishop Laud brought him before the star chamber, and by that court he was excluded from Lincoln's Inn, and condemned to pay a fine of £5,000, to have his ears cut off, to stand in the pillory at Westminster and Cheap-side, and to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure. His work was also ordered to be burned before his eyes by the common hangman. This sentence was rigorously carried out, but from his prison he continued to issue tracts against the prelates. The publication of one of these, in 1637, entitled "News from Ipswich," stirred up anew the anger of Laud, and Prynne was again summoned before the star chamber, and fined £5,000. The remains of his ears were cut off, and the letters S. L. (seditious libeller) were branded on both cheeks.

At the execution of this sentence in the palace yard, and afterward on his way to his prison, Carnarvon castle, a great crowd was present, which manifested its sympathy and respect for the sufferer. Such numbers also visited the castle, that after a residence of ten weeks he was removed by an illegal order to the castle of Mont Orgueil in the island of Jersey. On Nov. 7, 1640, he was released by an order of the house of commons, his sentence being reversed, and damages to the amount of £5,000 being awarded him against his judges. His entrance into London had the appearance of a triumphal procession. Soon after he became a member of parliament for Newport in Cornwall, and in 1647 he was elected recorder of Bath. He took a prominent part in the proceedings of the long parliament, zealously espousing the cause of the Presbyterians and opposing the Independents. Just before the king's trial he was ordered into the custody of the sergeant at arms for "denying the supremacy of parliament," and on Dec. 6, 1648, he was arrested by the army and ejected from the house. He now became a bitter opponent of Cromwell, and published articles of so virulent a character that he was twice imprisoned. He was discharged from his office of recorder of Bath in 1654, but was reelected after the restoration.

He was one of the excluded members who sat in the house of commons early in 1660, and was zealous in furthering the restoration, after which he was appointed keeper of records in the tower. Wood, in his Athena Oxonienses, gives a catalogue of his writings, which comprises nearly 200 volumes. The most valuable are his " Collection of Records," " Calendar of Parliamentary Writs," and "Observations on the Fourth Part of Coke's Institutes." His "Records" he intended to bring down as late as the reign of Elizabeth, but he lived only long enough to complete the work as far as that of Henry III.