I’ve pulled together everything I can find on the life of Major John Pryor. You’ll see below it’s suggested that he’s connected to the line of Gen. Roger A Pryor and Col. William Pryor and perhaps also John Pryor and Mary New of Goochland County, VA. Any ideas?
1777 – Captain-Lieutenant 1st Continental Artillery, 13th February, 1777 [Richmond During the War of 1812 , The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Apr., 1900), pp. 406-418] Note: the 1777 date matches the 1807 sworn statement for Pryor’s Revolutionary War land bounty warrant.
1779-1783 – Major Aid-de-Camp to General Alexander, 9th June, 1779, to 14th January, 1783
1782 – Major Pryor’s mother was still living in 1782? Capt. Pryor’s letter to Col. Davies asking leave to visit his mother “in great distress with the probability of losing her husband, who is my Father in Law (his step father?) by sickness, and wishes much to see me.” On Oct 10 1782 from Richmond. [Calendar of Virginia State papers and other manuscripts …, Volume 3 By Virginia, Henry W. Flournoy]
1796 – John Pryor married Anne Beverly Whiting in Richmond.
After Revolution – Secretary of the Jockey Club. Owned Haymarket, a pleasure park in Richmond, VA
1800 – A Comprehensive Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of James Monroe, Volume 1, By Daniel Preston. John Pryor was the subject of allegations of misconduct during the Revolution: alleged he did not examine arms thoroughly. Pryor sent a letter on 5 Feb 1800 from Haymarket stating he would refute the charges. William Preston mentioned in 28 Jan 1800 correspondence. (Is this the William Preston who lead Preston’s Rangers? — See Botetourt County records)
1802 – Samuel Coleman (society’s treasurer) and John Pryor were recorded at a meeting of the Society of Cincinnati in Richmond, VA on 13 Dec 1802 [The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 1, By Philip Alexander Bruce, Virginia Historical Society, William Glover Stanard] – Note: Samuel Coleman provided a sworn statement in 1807 for John Pryor’s Bounty Warrant. An online family tree shows that Samuel Coleman was married to Nancy Ann Wright a daughter of John Wright and Ann Pryor of Goochland Co., VA– Ann Pryor was the daughter of John Pryor born abt 1689 and Mary New of Goochland Co.
1804 – Board of Hampden Sydney College
1807 – I do certify that John PRYOR was c— (commissioned?) in a Captain Lieutenant in the first Regiment of Artillery on Continental the 13th of January 1777 – in the service until the end of the war. Given under my hand this 29th day of June 1807. Samuel Coleman. [from Revolution Bounty Warrants, Library of Virginia online Catalog. The back side of this document states that Captain Pryor was given 4000 acres. ]
1812 – “I see Major Pryor* frequently; he is now very fat, and still active as military agent.
(Footnote on the same page) John Pryor, Captain-Lieutenant 1st Continental Artillery, 13th February, 1777; Major Aid-de-Camp to General Alexander, 9th June, 1779, to 14th January, 1783; retired on last-named date. After the war Major Pryor resided in Richmond, and was for a time military agent of the State. Like many retired officeers, he was in reduced circumstances, and for a time kept apleasure resort called Pryor’s Garden, situated on the river side near the present Byrd street station. While residing here his wife separated from him, and soon after became the wife of Mons. Fremont, dancing master, and the mother of John C. Fremont. Author John Bigelow, in a campaign life of Fremont, published in 1856, makes a very pretty story of youth and beauty chained in unbearable union to age and decripitude, of separation by mutual consent and a happy second marriage; but the real story, as told by documentary evidence, is of a very different sort.” Richmond During the War of 1812 , The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Apr., 1900), pp. 406-418
1815 – John Pryor married a second time to Elizabeth Quarles Graves (per her statement in Revolutionary War pension application).
1823 – Death notice was in the Richmond Enquirer on 23 Mar 1823.
1823 – John Pryor’s heirs are first listed in an 1800 will that was drawn up while he was still married to Anne Beverly Whiting. [The Great Catastrophe of My Life: Divorce in the Old Dominion, by Thomas E. Buckley]
“…bequests to two living sisters, Elizabeth Hankins and Mary Quarles, and to the children of his deceased sister, Sally Taylor” (Note: this same book states Robert Quarles of Richmond, VA was married to John Pryor’s sister. I found a publication Boulder Genealogical Society, Virginia Genealogical Society, published 1977 states that Robert Quarles widow completed a Revolutionary War Pension Application stating that Robert was the son of James Quarles and Mary Pryor. I have reviewed the Pension Application #W9868 and note his mother only recorded as Mary, however their James and Mary’s first born was named Pryor Quarles. The Pension Application contains information from the Quarles family Bible, stating Mary died 1 December 1816 in her 73rd year – born 1743. Mary would be a contemporary of Maj John Pryor and that agrees with her being the named sister in the will. In Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans by William S. Speer, published 1888— page 163, “…James Quarles, was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He married a Miss Pryor, of the Pryor family of Virginia, from whom Gen. Roger A Pryor, the brilliant criminal lawyer, now of New York, is descended.” Family trees on Ancestry.com place Mary Pryor Quarles as a daughter of Col. William Pryor and Sarah Wood—They are probably not aware that she is the sister of Maj Pryor and other known siblings Elizabeth and Sally/Susan )
After his death in 1823, his final will was filed in Pulaski Co., KY – is that because he owned property there?
“PRYOR, John (of the City of Richmond). Will proved there March 1823. Names wife, Elizabeth Graves; nieces, Dorcas Bryan, Elizabeth Taylor, Rebecca Taylor, Charlotte Morrison (of Williamsburg, Va.), Elizabeth Hazelwood; nephews, Thomas Pryor and Archer, William, Romert, John, and Pryor Hankins. Friend, Lewis Burwell. First wife was named Ann. “ [http://www.newrivernotes.com/va/pulwb.htm]
(Note: I found Pryor and Archer Hankins on the 1800 Tax list of James City, VA and census records in the same county).
1856 – His widow, Elizabeth Quarles Graves files for a pension from his service during the Revolution. Pryors ex-sister in law (Susan Lowery, sister of Anne Beverly Whiting) filed an affidavit stating:
- He was an aid to General Lord Sterling (Note: Stirling was stationed in NJ and NY during the war and was in charge of Washington’s Army in the North and died in Albany in 1783.)
- He received a “considerable” land bounty for his war service.
- He had no children – only nieces and nephews in Charles City and James City by the name of Hawkins or Hankins. [see Rev. War application of Edmund Beadles http://revwarapps.org/s17842.pdf.
When I was adding more records to the North Carolina Pryors pages of the website, I stumbled upon a connecton to Wilkes County, GA. Henry Lansford and wife Catharine Pryor were the parents of Henry Lansford born 1754 in Halifax County, NC. Like in the old card game “Concentration” I matched up a Henry Lansford named in a 1793 deed in Henry County, GA (filed in Wilkes Co., GA). Also named in the deed is a John Pryor.
