I saw this weekend that someone had “liked” an old Pryor post on Facebook– a post about Capt. Pryor and the Wabash Indians. I realized that I haven’t disclosed the identity of the Captain. I think it was Capt. Abner Prior. It’s always tough to ID a Pryor when we don’t have a first name. OK, you can stop laughing… yes, I know it’s hard to identify Pryors even when we DO have a first name! Continue reading
I had figured out Alexander Donelson a while ago, however I’m just getting around to correcting his ID on the TNPryors.com website. Donelson was the elder brother of Rachel Donelson, wife of President Andrew Jackson.
I had gone on a dig for Alexander Donelson’s will. It was signed 9 September 1826. He appointed Nicholas B. Pryor as his executor. It’s important to look at documents – a transcript provided by another Pryor family researcher identified a witness as “Lain B. Pryor.” There is no record of a Lain B. Pryor. I think the signature is Zach B. Pryor– Zachariah B. Pryor was counted on the line above Alexander Donelson on the 1820 Census in Davidson County, TN.
An obit for Alexander Donelson (see Find A Grave) indicates he died 23 May 1834. I looked for an inventory of his estate to see if Nicholas B. Pryor signed it as executor. Probably not because his family recorded his death as January 1833. I’m guessing Donelson’s estate may have gone into Chancery Court for an administrator to be appointed due to the death of the executor.
Nicholas B. Pryor moved in some pretty elite crowds. His sister married Thomas Jefferson’s brother and he was associated with the in-laws of another president.
“An Aweful Revenge–Mr. Eli Abbot, formerly Mayor of Columbus, Miss. Was recently found in his bed, with his head cut off. It is stated that, about four years ago, he killed a young man, named Pryor, and that he has ever since lived in the constant fear of his relatives, some of whome, it is supposed, have at length taken this terrible method of revenge.”
New-York Tibune, New York City, 21 April 1841
The Death of Beverly Pryor
Geesh! Which Pryor did Abbott cross? I took a look at Abbot to see if I could figure out where he was and when he was there and which Pryor he may have killed. Well, I didn’t have to look far. Last year I wrote Murder on the Racetrack about the killing of Beverly Pryor by Eli Abbott. If it was a Pryor who later killed Mr. Abbott, then they were patient to wait years. What is it that they say?… Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Looking at Eli Abbot
Abbot appears to have taken seriously whatever threat was made against him. The Mecklenburg Jeffersonian, a North Carolina newspaper published 27 April 1841 reported that Abbot resorted to “having his house barricaded, and never going out after dark.” I tried to find more about Eli Abbot but can only find his household on the 1840 Census in Lowndes County, MS. If Eli was the oldest male in his household he was 40 to 49 years old. There weren’t any Pryors on that census…but hey, they had horses so I guess they could travel.
There’s an interesting group of African-American Pryors in North Carolina. They were free-blacks 50 years before the Civil War. Joseph Pryor and Peter Pryor (also spelled Prior) Continue reading
The photos above are of Miss Epes Fickling daughter of Gerald Pryor Fickling and Miss Carolina Pryor Baker, daughter of Mr. G. L. Baker (published the Washington D.C. Evening Star, June 3, 1922). I wondered which line of Pryors they are from. Continue reading