When 2 new counties were added to Georgia in 1784, John Pryor from Virginia requested a land grant. Franklin county was cut up in the decades after 1784 to form Jackson, Clarke, Banks, Madison, and Stephens counties.
State of Georgia
To the Honourable the President and members of Council now sitting in Augusta for the purpose of granting Lands in the two new Counties of Franklin and Washington. The Petition of John Pryor from Virginia shewed. That your Petitioner is entitled to two hundred acres of Land on the headright of your petitioner as appears by affidavit annexed for which he has never had any Lands granted him this state. May it there fore please your honourable board to grant your petitioner two hundred acres of land in the county of Franklin on the right aforesaid and on his complying with the terms mentioned in the late land act and your petitioner will pray.
{signed “P” John Pryor
The Affixed Affidavit
Georgia } This Day came John Prior before us and made Oath that he never has taken up any Land as his head Right, and that he desires two hundred acres of Land in Franklin County. Sworn to April 13th 1784 “P” John Pryor
Before Us
Jas. McFarland
Igns. F…. (Note: Ignatius?)
Jas Mc Neal
If John Pryor was from Virginia did he go to Georgia? My thought was, What if we could ID the justices on the grant? I found James McFarland and Ignatius Few on a roster of Wilkes County, GA surveys http://www.hiddenancestors.com/wilkesga/plat_roster.htm. The justices appear to have been in Georgia and the document says “Before us” so it sounds like John Pryor was also in Georgia.
The http://www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/ogh/Franklin_County,_Georgia website states that a “brawl” erupted over the Franklin County grants in 1784 and there was corruption, so the grants were suspended. Did this preclude Pryor’s land from being surveyed? I don’t see anything to indicate that this was a Revolutionary War land grant.