This surname is derived from an official title, 'the prior,' the head of a convent.

Hugh le Priur, Suffolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard le Prior, Suffolk, ibid.

Hugh Priour, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

John Priour, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

John Priour, London, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

1577. Anthony Prior and Elizabeth Sharsey: Marriage Lic. (London).

1610. Baptised — Susan, d. Edward Pryor: St. James, Clerkenwell.

From ME. pri(o)ur, a monastic official next in rank below an abbot. Ricardus Priour was subprior of the Abbey of Dunfermline in 1448 (RD., p. 309). Janet Prior was married in Perth in 1568 (Sc. Ant., I, p. 169). Robert Pryor in Dundee was charged with aiding the English in 1552 (Beats, p. 327).

Woulfe describes this name (Mac an Phríora in Irish) as scattered. This is quite true of earlier times, but for the past hunderd years families of the name have been largely concentrated in and around Co.

Cavan. Of 21 births registered in 1866, sixteen were in Co. Cavan and three in Co. Leitrim; in 1890 ten of the fifteen registrations were in Co. Cavan and four in Connacht (mainly Co. Leitrim). In the records of earlier centuries references to the name in that area are infrequent; in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries we find many Priors, MacPriors, Maclnpriors and MacGilpriors, most of whom belonged to the Queen's Co. (Leix), with a lesser member in the Kavanagh country (Cos. Wexford and Carlow) and a few in Co. Cork. No doubt the Priors who appear in mediaeval records of Dublin and Limerick as clergy, jurors, artificers etc. during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries were of Norman not of Gaelic stock. Of the Irish variants given above the obsolete Maclnprior is a simple rendering of Mac an Phriora; Macgilprior is Mac giolla an phríora, denoting son of the prior's follower or servant. The townland of Ballymacprior in Kerry would appear to indicate the existence of an influential Prior family of Gaelic stock in that county, while Priorstown in Co. Louth is another suggestive place-name; but this and other townlands (Priorsfarm, Priorspark, Priorsweir, Priorswood, Priorswarren) may well have been named from the office not the surname. On the Longford side of Co. Cavan some families formerly Prior have become Fryer and Friary. Thomas Prior (1679-1751),one of the founders of the Royal Dublin Society, was of the Rathdowney, Co. Leix, family which continued to be prominent in the county until recent times.

(Anglo-French-Latin) Head of a Priory; also a nickname (as for a prior’s servant) and pageant-name [Middle English Old French pri(o)ur (French prieur); Latin prior, first]

Mac an Phríora The Priors of Cavan and Leitrim are usually of this Gaelic-Irish stock: elsewhere they may be of Anglo-Norman origin, especially those who appear in mediaeval records. SIF 125

(English) A member of a prior’s entourage; one who was the head of a priory, a monastic official next in rank bellow an abbot; one who played the part of a prior in play or pageant.

Armorially identified with Praers, or Praels. See Praill.

From the Flemish, Preier; from the French, Prier; from the Danish, Prior; a personal name.