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History The Prideaux family is an ancient Cornish clan whose origins go back to the 11th century and who descend from such diverse characters as William the Conqueror, King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile. Jane Austen too was a close relation. Fourteen generations of the family have lived at Prideaux Place since its completion in 1592. Of its 81 rooms, 46 are bedrooms and only 6 of these are habitable! The rest are as the American Army left them at the end of the Second World War, complete with such notices as 'Lance Sergeants' Mess'.   Being politically inept, the family backed Cromwell during the English Civil War. Fortunately however, just before the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Edmund Prideaux married off his sister to Sir William Morice of Werrington, Secretary of State to Charles II, and thus secured a pardon for their ill-judged activities. The pardon forgives the family for crimes past, present and future.

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