[2] He was known to have spoken Cree fluently, a fact which was confirmed by HBC administrator Sir George Simpson in his famous but "sometimes erratic" 1832 Character Book.

It may have been through a possible link to Sir James Winter Lake, 3rd Baronet (c. 1745–1807), whose family controlled the Company during most of the 18th century, and whose estate at "The Firs" was near Tanner's End, near the junction of the New and Salmon Rivers, in Edmonton.

Noted family historian Hal Pruden wrote: "The HBC took some of its eventual ships' captains from the Bluecoats charity school (Christ's Hospital) in London.

The name Edmonton was originally suggested by Pruden as it was the home of both the deputy governor of the HBC Sir James Winter Lake and his own former residence.

One year after receiving his promotion to Chief Factor, Pruden, aged 59, retired and moved to the Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement) (now Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada).

He served on the quarterly court as part of his office and In 1851, Eden Colvile, the Associate Governor of Rupertsland offered him an appointment as a magistrate.

A pioneer in every sense of the word, Pruden lived a long, full life and left behind, at his death in 1868, a large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Pruden was also instrumental in furthering the fur trading career of his half-nephew, John Edward Harriott, who also came to be in service to the Hudson's Bay Company and who had a long and illustrious relationship of his own with his HBC employer.

His second wife, British schoolteacher Ann Armstrong, whom he married at Red River on 4 December 1839, was 49 years old at the time of their marriage.