Where were the Pryors and their allied familes before Williamson Co., TN? Well I’ve found some information from the time of the Revolutionary War.
There’s a deed in Caswell County, NC that seems to not only connect everyone but also it makes sense in the Pryor story.
1777 Deed – Math’w. Flourney and Elizabeth (PRYOR), William Stone and Rhoda (PRYOR), David Womack and Mildred (PRYOR), John Womack and Lucy (PRYOR), Nicholas Perkins and Lea (PRYOR), Joel Pope and Rachel, Henry McNeill and Dolly (PRYOR), Henrietta Pryor, John H. Pryor, all of Caswell, to John Baird of same county, for 267 lbs., 955 acres on Mayo and Donaldson’s Creeks adj. Robert McFarland, now Josiah Allday’s line, and Robert Donaldson’s, entered by Lord Granville on 26 Dec 1762. 17 Oct 1777. Wts: Archd. Murphey, Lawrence Vanhook, George Moore.
John Henry Pryor’s will was signed in 1771 in Orange County, NC. That’s the will that names his children and most of their spouses. His children Rhoda, Lucy, Leah, Elizabeth, Dorothy/Dolly and John Henry.
What were the Perkins, Pryors and these other families doing during the Revolutionary War? The pension application for a Richard Lovern states he was wounded in a battle in 1781 and taken to a hospital at Constant Perkins on the Dan River. The pension application for William Dixon talks about heading to Troublesome Iron Works (this was run by Nicholas and Constantine Perkins) in Guilford (now Rockingham Co.). If you go to http://revwarapps.org and search troublesome iron you’ll find numerous accounts of men who were part of the march to the Battle of Guilford Court House who recall stopping at the iron works. I suspect they were protecting the iron works or restocking.
The Perkins family of Rockingham and Caswell Counties had a plantation in Pittsylvania County, VA. There are several Revolutionary War pension applications that refer to a Col. Peter Perkins of Berry Hill who marched with his troops from Pittsylvania County, VA. The pension application for James Braden states that Berry Hill was used as a hospital for the wounded. There’s a photo of Berry Hill online (view photo)
The Perkins, Pryor, and Stone families started to show up in Tennessee after the Revolutionary War. A NC land grant to Constant Perkins in Hawkins County, TN shows Nicholas Perkins and Leah Pryor’s son John Pryor Perkins was one of the chain carriers.
The earliest grant was to Constantine Perkins in Greene County, TN in 1788. In the 1790’s Nicholas Perkins received numerous land warrants in Hawkins County, TN. Remember David Ross who supplied the army through the Oxford Iron Works and all the land he received? Perhaps Nicholas was given land for supplying the military through Troublesome Iron Works. More research is needed on that.
