M. Prior

Prior, Matthew, the well-known English poet, contributed "Heavy on me, 0 Lord, Thy judgments lie" (Ps. lxxxviii.) to N. Tate's Miscellanea Sacra, Pt. ii., 1698. Prior was born in 1664, educated at Westminster School, and St. John's College, Cambridge. He held several important appointments under the Government, as Secretary to the Congress at the Hague, 1690; Secretary of State, 1700, and others. He died at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, in 1721.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)