More on the Elizabeth City, VA Pryors: Brazure Williams Pryor Related to Christopher J D Pryor

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has a project that is adding valued information to Pryor family trees: Digital Library on American Slavery (library.uncg.edu/slavery_petitions). This project isn’t just for African Americans tracing their ante-bellum ancestors. Because slaves were considered property, white slave owners are named in petitions and lawsuits that involved ownership disputes.

Brazure Williams Pryor was born in 1775 to 1794, possibly the son of a Samuel Pryor. He probably was born closer to 1775 as he served as an officer in the War of 1812.  He died on 21 April 1827. I’ve suspected that Brazure was related to Christopher J D. Pryor b. 1800, as they both hailed from Elizabeth City, VA.

The American Slavery database contains a petition filed by Christopher in Williamsburg, VA in September 1827, “Christopher J. D. Pryor states that Brazure W. Pryor qualified as his guardian.” The petition contends that Brazure sold slaves that were part of Christopher’s estate and he was petitioning for an accounting of the sale from John A. Deneufville, the estate administrator. The court proceeding lingered, ending in 1839.

While it’s unclear how these two men are related, we now can look at them on one “branch” of the Pryor family tree.