Prudence Nightingale (nee Hackworth) was born at 10.30 am on 28 June 1822 at Warbottle. She was the daughter of Timothy Hackworth and Jane Hackworth (nee Golightly). She moved to Shildon in 1825 when her father gained employment with the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company. Prudence set up a school or ‘Seminary for Young Ladies’ in Penrith; all of her sisters either taught at or were taught there. She was responsible for sending her sister Jane Young (nee Hackworth) to school in Vilvorde, Belgium.

She married a widow. Charles Nightingale (born in 1816 and died in 1904), a Methodist Minister at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Darlington 17 August 1858. Because Charles was a minister it is likely that the family moved location every three years.

Correspondence created and received by Prudence is evidence that she was active in family affairs. After her father died Prudence was active in settling his estate. At the time the estate was winding up she left her school and rented a farm at Heighington, where her brother Timothy Hackworth, son of Timothy Hackworth also lived until his death in 1856 aged 31. Prudence was active in trying to gain recognition for her father and was in correspondence with individuals interested in his life and work. She was involved in sending Hackworth material to the Baltimore and Ohio Railway exhibit in the World Columbian Exposition, America. She also investigated when there was a possibility that the ‘’blast pipe letter’’ had been misplaced and displayed in an exhibition in London. She died in 1897