Last week while looking at David Pryor and the Amherst Pryors it got me wondering about trying to figure out if we can come up with a list of the VA Pryors who served in the Revolutionary War. The most concise source is a 1912 book I found in Google Books.
Pryors Counted in Virginia Report
I suspect that some of the Pryors are duplicates listed in the book “Report of the Virginia State Library”, publ. 1912, so beware:
Revolutionary War Soldiers of Virginia
James PRIOR, Auditor’s Account Book XVIII, 549
John PRIOR (maj.) , Council Journals 1781, 205
John PRIOR , Auditor’s Account Book XV, 518; Auditor’s Account Book XXII, 76; War 4, 317
William PRIOR, War 4 (a collection of MS volumes bearing on the military establishment of the State during and after the Revolution), 309
John PRYER (capt.), Auditor’s Account Book XII. 279; War 4, 17
Christopher PRYOR (comm.), Auditor’s Account Book XXX, 307
John PRYOR (maj.), Auditor’s Account Book VIII, 195, Council Journals 1781, 209
John PRYOR (capt.), Council Journals 1781-2, 56
John PRYOR (lt.), Bounty Warrants (a MS index to a collection of loose manuscripts); Arrangement of the Continental Line, 8, 15; Auditor’s Account Book VII 172
John PRYOR (aid), F. B. Heitman’s “Historial Register of Officers of the Continental Army,” Washington 1892, 337
John PRYOR, Auditor’s Account Book XVIII, 695; War 4 (a collection of MS volumes bearing on the military establishment of the State during and after the Revolution), 55
Joseph PRYOR, Auditor’s Account Book XXVIIA, 99
William PRYOR (Amherst), Report from the Secretary of War… in Relation to the Pension Establishment of the United States” 1835, Pensions, manuscript index to a collection of loose manuscrip papers filed by county 2, 111
William PRYOR, House of Delegates, 1834, Doc. 35, 9; Rejected Claims; W. T. R. Saffell’s “Records of the Revolutionary War“, NY 1858, 267; War 4. 317
Who Is Who?
I’m just guessing, but since there’s only one Joseph Pryor mentioned in the Revolutionary War Pensions, I’d have to say the Joseph mentioned above is the Joseph from Botetourt County.
James Pryor was a curve ball. Who is he?
William Pryor of Amherst County is a dead give-away with the 1835 date. But I don’t know who the William Pryor is who had a claim rejected in 1834. Are there 2 or 3 Williams? There’s a 3rd William on the list who spelled his name “Prior”.
You know I’m going to complain about all the John Pryors! If looking at rank, we may conclude there are more than one: Captain, Major, Lieutenant, Aid (Offered aid to the rebellion or was he an Aide as in Aide de Camp?). There’s the John Pryor from Richmond who was referred to as Maj. Pryor, but was a Capt. Lt. in the war. There’s the John Pryor, brother of William Pryor of Amherst County– what rank did he hold when he volunteered at Point Pleasant?
I think the Christopher Pryor is the one from Gloucester County who supplied 800 lbs. of beef for the war effort.
Two More Pryors Who Served
I think we can add 2 more Pryors to this list.
David Pryor, documented by Revolutionary War rosters.
Nicholas Pryor, documented by William Pryor of Amherst County’s 1835 pension application: “Again, in 1780, he was drafted under Capt. Richard Ballinger; fellow soldiers were Richard Tankersley and Nicholas Pryor, his elder brother.”
How Were They Missed?
I was wondering how David and Nicholas Pryor were missed from the 1912 list. Nicholas is mentioned in the 1835 pension application noted in the report, so I don’t know how he escaped them. David, though, was on the rosters. I didn’t see the rosters as a resource for the 1912 list, so perhaps they weren’t reviewed. Perhaps there are more Pryors on the rosters or there are missing rosters… why do I say that? William Pryor said he was drafted again in 1780, yet I didn’t find him in the rosters (Ancestry states they cover 1775-1783), nor did I find William and David’s neighbor, Richard Tankersley on a roster in 1780.
