I heard from a researcher who is looking for information on the Cynthia Pryor, mother of Hiram Pryor, in Smith County, TN. I admit I don’t have a lot of information on this line as they were in Smith County only for the 1850 and 1860 censuses. It’s time to look at the Pryors from Smith County again.
A 1952 “Cal’s Column” quotes a record from about 1802: “Deed, Thomas and Mourning White to Richard Pryor, proven by the oath of William Pryor, one of the subscribing witnesses thereto.” Mourning was the widow of Richard Pryor born about 1736 in Virginia. By 1810 Mourning was in Logan County, KY. Since her husband, Richard, was already deceased in 1802 it is likely that the Richard in Smith County was her son or the son born to the elder Richard Pryor and Mary Mooney in Goochland County, VA in 1763.
Richard and Mourning Pryor’s line from Virginia appears to have assimilated into other counties by the 1820 Census and the next migration of Pryors to Smith County appear in 1830: John Pleasant Pryor and his son Green Pryor from North Carolina. I see that there are Ancestry.com family trees that ID Green Pryor the husband of Cynthia Pryor and father of Hiram. I’d like to see a source for this information because the Green Pryor who was in Smith County is in Izard County, AR with a wife named Elizabeth and 9 children.
Also in Izard County: Frederick Lancaster and wife Elizabeth Pryor, probably a daughter of Green Pryor.
Another family in Izard County who appears to have Smith County roots: John Lancaster 58, TN, Clarissa 48 NC, John 18 TN, Rhody Ann 15 TN, Leroy E. 13 TN, Lemuel L. 7 TN, Margaret M. 5 AR. It’s interesting to note that Cynthia Pryor had a daughter recorded on one census as Clarissa.
In 1870 Hiram Pryor was in Gallatin County, IL. In this county there was an older woman named Cynthia Pryor Lafferty on the 1850 and 1860 census. Connected?
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