He was the eldest son of Sir John Pretyman of Driffield, Gloucestershire and entered Lincoln's Inn in 1629 before matriculating at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1631.
A royalist during the First English Civil War, he was present at the capture of Cirencester in 1642.
He suffered financially and sold the family estate at Driffield.
The baronetcy was created for him in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia in 1641,[2] or at the Restoration.
His daughter Mary married Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke.