GENEALOGY.COM OPENS DOOR… Did anyone spot an interesting post on the Pryor board at Genealogy.com? (As of 2019 link to message #1779 on genforum.com is not available. The old link was not captured in the WaybackMachine archive)
The information in this post has opened up a new avenue of research for the VA roots of TN Pryors. If you are tracing Pryors in Sumner and Overton Co., TN, you will find some remarkable links. The Pryor patriarchs of Sumner and Overton Counties were John and William Pryor, son-in-laws of Edmund Taylor of Campbell Co., VA. Edmund Taylor appointed Anderson Woodson Jr. as the executor of his estate. From the information posted on Genealogy.com it appears that the Woodsons, Pryors, Taylors and a family named Childers/Childress were connected as early as the 1740’s in Virginia. Does anyone have information on the sons of David Pryor Sr., David Jr. and John, who were mentioned inthe Genealogy.com message? One theory is that David Pryor Jr. was the father of Nicholas Pryor and other Amherst Co. Pryors and John Pryor is the father of John and William Pryor who lived in Campbell Co., VA.
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SUMNER, OVERTON & MARION CO. PRYORS CONNECTED? An connection has come to light in the preparation of the Virginia Pryor spreadsheet. In 1790 the elder John Pryor, possibly the father of William and John Pryor of Sumner and Overton Co., was mentioned in a Campbell Co., VA deed with a man named Martin Rector. Martin Rector has been found in the records of Roane Co., TN. His children married in to the same Williams family as the heirs of Matthew Pryor of Marion Co., TN.
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CAN WE IDENTIFY NORTON PRYOR?… In 1808 Norton Pryor sold 50,000 acres to Andrew Erwin in order to form Bedford Co., TN. Andrew Jackson was his agent in the land deal. Norton was recorded as a land holder in Davidson Co., Rutherford Co., and Bedford Co., disappearing from records in about 1808.
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NEW PRYORS added to the ALL TN PRYOR file. The list of Pryors who either were born in or resided in TN before 1850 has continued to grow with several new additions. Included are two African American men, Arch or Alex Pryor and Henderson Pryor who reported their place of birth as TN on census records.
Also just added, Leonard Pryor who researchers report to be a son of David Pryor and Susan Ballow of Davidson Co., TN. The land owner, Norton Pryor (see above) has been added to the list.
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Musican Arthur Pryor of St. Joseph (Buchanan Co., MO). Arthur Pryor was a noted trombonist, playing with the Souza Band and becoming a noted radio performer. His father, Samuel Daniel Pryor, was also a noted musician was recorded on census records as born 1844 in MO, however he has not been found on the 1850 nor the 1860 US Census. This month two more Pryors from St. Joseph were also discovered to be missing from the 1850 and 1860 Census: James T. Pryor b. 1830 in NC and Emsley R. Pryor born 1831 in NC. James and Emsley appear related, not only by place of birth, but by their occupations recorded as well diggers and cistern builders. Their families lived just houses from each other. In the 1920’s when a grandson of James T. Pryor died, his obituary reported him as a cousin of the musician Arthur Pryor. Civil War records also shed some light on all three Pryors possibly being related– Emsley R.Pryor served 3 years in the Missouri State Militia as a bugler.
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Colorful information for the Sumner County Pryors… Cornelia Pryor unearthed a court record on the first marriage of Lucy Jane Lumsden whose second marriage was to George W. Pryor, a son of John and Massa Taylor Pryor. Lucy Jane married J. P. Chennyworth in Feb. 1848. Mr. Chennyworth went to prison on June 28, 1848 for bigamy. He was released from prison on June 26, 1850 and is recorded in the ledgers of the Nashville State Penitentiary in the book “Tennessee Convicts.”
