Judge Pryor

Roger Atkinson Pryor (1828-1919) was a Virginia lawyer who, because of ill health, instead began working as a journalist. In 1848 he married a fellow Virginian, Sara Agnes Rice (1830-1912), a writer who published her five books after the age of 70. Pryor was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia and served from 1859 until the Civil War began in 1861. He was then a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and served in the Confederate States House of Representatives briefly. He joined the Confederate Army and was promoted to Brigadier General but his ineptitude in battle resulted in his resigning his commission in 1863. After the war he moved with his family to New York City and opened a law practice. In 1890 Pryor was appointed a judge of the New York Court of Common Pleas and in 1894 he was appointed a justice of the New York Supreme Court, serving until 1899. In 1912 he was appointed official referee of the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court, serving until his death in 1919.