Roger Pratt 1620-1685

Sir Roger PRATT 1620-85

Biographical Note

Of Ryston Hall, Norfolk; son of Gregory Pratt (d.1640). Matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1637 and entered the Inner Temple in 1639. An architect, Pratt was one of three commissioners appointed to supervise the rebuilding of the City after the fire of London in 1666. He married Ann (1643-1706), daughter of Sir Edmund Monins bt, in 1668 and with her had three sons, all of whom predeceased him.

Books

Known to have designed a library closet capable of holding ca. 400 vols. family papers refer to a number of book purchases in the 1650s and 60s. 69 vols survive at Ryston today.

Characteristic Markings

The books held at Ryston are now in later (18th century) bindings and annotated with distinctive marginal pencil marks.

Sources

• Bold, John. "Pratt, Sir Roger (bap. 1620, d. 1685), architect." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Skelton, K. Reading as a gentleman and an architect: Sir Roger Pratt’s library, Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society 53 (2009), 15-50.
• West, S. An architectural typology for the early modern country house library, 1660-1720, The Library 7th ser 14 (2013), 441-464, 449-50.
• West, S. The development of libraries in Norfolk country houses (UEA Ph.D thesis, 2000).