The estate of William Pryor piqued my attention since it’s thought that he was from a Pryor line that was in early Greene County and later White County and migrated into Illinois Continue reading
Thank you Ancestry.com for putting up wills in Tennessee! Access these record has given me the opportunity to see if there are some Pryors I’ve missed. I had found Zach B. Pryor of Nashville, TN on the index long ago, so it’s awesome to see his actual will.
Continue reading
I’ve got another old petition in my hands. Petition Sundry Inhabitants South of French Broad, filed in 1789 by men living on the NC frontier (the French Broad River area would become Greene County, TN).
I recently mentioned this petition again in a post: Connecting Pryor from 1789 TN Frontier to 1840 MO Census
And like the petition filed by the Inhabitants of the west country, we now have 2 more Pryor signatures: William Pryor and Joseph Pryor. Joseph’s signature is very unique, using an old-fashioned “s” that looks like an “f”.
Discover Kingsport (an online history outline of Kingsport, Sullivan Co., TN), states mentions Gilbert Christian several times as well as John Pryor. Christian was from Virginia and first explored the area in 1769. Moses Looney was there by 1774 and John Pryor was living in the area by December 1787 (date the petition was submitted to the NC State Senate.
I think this is the John Pryor who stated his place of birth as England and year of birth as 1757 on the 1850 Census in Sullivan County.
I’m holding another example of why researchers need to get their hands on original documents or good photocopies of them. It’s the Petition of the Inhabitants of the Western Country, a petition filed by men living on the NC frontier (later Tennessee) to the General Assembly of North Carolina.
There’s a good transcription available online (see Google book), “The State Records of North Carolina, Volume 22” (pub. 1907), however the original is so much better. The reason it’s better is that it shows the signatures. We can get a sense of who signed it with whom because the pen (or was it a quill?) changes with groups of signatures.
The other fascinating thing is that the signatures are in a different order than how they are displayed on the online transcription. For instance, Moses Looney appears in the left column online and John Pryor is right (there’s a middle column in-between). On the original, Looney’s signature is directly under John Pryor’s. Gilbert Christian signed above John Pryor.
There’s yet another point that stands out. John Pryor didn’t sign his name using a “y”. It’s signed John PRIOR! Am I being too pedantic? Probably not.
Discover Kingsport (an online history outline of Kingsport, Sullivan Co., TN), states mentions Gilbert Christian several times as well as John Pryor. Christian was from Virginia and first explored the area in 1769. Moses Looney was there by 1774 and John Pryor was living in the area by December 1787 (date the petition was submitted to the NC State Senate.
I think this is the John Pryor who stated his place of birth as England and year of birth as 1757 on the 1850 Census in Sullivan County.
I spotted politician Pryor Lea from Knox County in a document with his name spelled “Lee”. Just passing along that his name can be spelled different ways. I usually hear from researchers who ask if politician Pryor Lea was a Pryor or wasn’t he a Pryor? I think I’ve spotted a Pryor family who share names with his family.
| Pryor Lea born 1794 in TN Parents possibly Major Lea and Lavinia Jarnigan m1 Maria Kennedy on October 6, 1818. Children, Abraham, Julia, Centhia, and James Kennedy m2 Minerva Heard m3 Mary Perkins. |
William Pryor born c. 1800 m Lavinia Kennedy born c. 1805 in PA Children: James, Isaac, William M, Samuel L, Catherine Elizabeth. Son James named son Abraham Pryor |
A year ago I wrote about the Botetourt, VA Pryor names who showed up in Knox County (see post). Keeping this research note on the back burner for later.