----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- "George Pryme, a Simeonite Evangelical layman of Trinity College, Cambridge, BA 1803 (6th Wrangler), Fellow 1805, MA 1806; ate dinners at Lincoln's Inn. called to the bar in 1806 and served the Norfolk circuit until 1808 when he retired to Cambridge. He "still kept up his connection with the university, directing his attention particularly to political economy, a science then in its infancy. His devotion to this study ultimately led to the formal recognition by the university of a long-admitted want, and the title of Professor of Political Economy was in May 1828 conferred upon Mr Pryme. This was the first chair of Political Economy established in any British university . . ." This obituary notice (UL: Cam.c.869.23) is obviously wrong on the last point. It also omits to state that Pryme actually began lecturing in pol. econ. at Cambridge, gratis, in 1816 (which was certainly earlier than any pol. econ. lectures in Britain outside the EIC: Chalmers did not begin at St. Andrew's until1824); and that there was no payment whatsoever attached to the Cambridge chair. The Heads of Colleges, "who viewed the innovation with suspicion, insisted that the lectures were not to begin before twelve o'clock, lest they should interfere with college lectures" (DNB). Pryme held the chair until 1863 (he died in 1868), when he was succeeded by Fawcett. A.M.C. Waterman ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]