Tag Archives: Botetourt County

Knox County TN Pryors: William Pryor from Botetourt Co., VA?

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Who knows, I may look at the projected line of Harris Pryor, thinking they connect to John Pryor and Mary New only to find they connect to another line all together. I’ve had to tweak the Botetourt County Pryor Chart by “annexing” some of the Knox County Pryors.

I also looked up William Anderson (the guy on the Harris Pryor bastardy case) in the the Virginia Chancery Cases. I found a man by that name had been sued by Archibald Franklin (who appears to be the relative of Harris Pryor (Sr) as he had a son in law named Edmund Franklin).

There’s another Chancery case in Bedford County, VA filed in 1805:  Thornton Pryor vs Archibald Franklin, et al. Joined as plaintiffs Thornton Pryor, Peter Nance, and John A. Anthony against Thomas Creasy.

Lets go  back to Knox County. I was able to get my hands on a 1836 case from the Knox County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions: State vs. William Pryor and Pryor Nance. This is one of those twists in the road where the Pryors give me a true headache — are we looking at one Pryor line or two Pryor lines in Knox County?

The headache stems from Botetourt County, VA where descendants of Samuel and Prudence Pryor married into the Nance family. Then by 1805 there’s the lawsuit mentioned above in Bedford County that appears to involve the Botetourt line. In the same year John Pryor (son of Joseph Pryor from Botetourt County?) married Sally Nance in Bedford County (Peter Nance surety). It doesn’t make it true, but numerous researchers have posted online that Pryor Nance in Knox County is the son of Peter Nance and Mary “Polly” Pryor. Pryor Nance married in Knox County in 1833; I haven’t seen any earlier records of the Nance family in Knox County.

The 1836 court record is very short, all that was located is a sheet tallying the costs, it includes the following names:
Justin Lindsey
C—? L Cox, warrants
Sheriff (William) Dunlap
James Badgett witness
Allen Perry witness
J. P. Kennedy witness
Susan Badgett witness

Allen Perry and James Badgett are on the same page of the 1830 Census in Knox County.

I’m glad I write a blog and it’s always in flux. I have thought that the Pryors in Knox County who match the names of sons of Harris Pryor in Bedford County, VA were all his sons, however we need to leave the decision open pending more documentation– William Pryor and some of the other Pryors in Knox County appear to be from the line that settled Botetourt County, VA.

This discovery also changes my own list of 5 lines to test for my own Pryor family DNA. I need a DNA tester from the family of Harris Pryor (his children and their descendants or from his brother’s descendants). If Harris is from the line of Boutetourt County Pryors, I won’t need a DNA tester at all– because we aren’t related.

Using the Knox County records, I tried to separate out Harris and William Pryor:

1799 – William Pryor signed petition for tax relief
1805 – Harris fathered child with Keziah Maxey
1806 – Harris Pryor on the tax list
1807 – Harris Pryor married Keziah Maxey
(1819 Harris Pryor in Louisville)
1830 – Harris Pryor (born 1761-1770 with 3 males in his household ages somewhere between 15 to 30 which may include the child born in 1805 to Keziah Maxey)

1830 – William Pryor on the census (born 1791-1800, likely not the William Pryor who signed petition in 1799 – ages don’t match up)
1831 – Deed William and Nancy Pryor & Burwell F. Badgett to Jabez Thurman, witnessed by Reuben Tipton, Nancy Badgett, and John Gordon
1835 – James Pryor married Lucy Cruse, bondsman Jacob Kennedy and William Pryor
1839 – Samuel Pryor married Merrian Crews

I can’t completely tease out the Pryors or merge them together as one family, however it should be noted that by 1820 Peter Nance was in Breckinridge County, KY as was Juggy Pryor (Harris’ sister) and her husband Richard Mays.

HINT: If you want to see the chart larger… just click on it .

Category: About TN Lines, Virginia Pryors | Tags: , ,

Knox County, TN – Mrs Pryor Kept A Tippling House (1834)

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Knox County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. State v. Elizabeth Pryor

One of the old court cases that came out of Knox County was filed in October 1834 against Elizabeth Pryor. She’s referred to as Mrs. Pryor in the documents. I don’t know who she was married to or if she was a widow at the time.  She was charged with running a “tippling without a license.”

Now I do have my suspicions. I suspect she was kin to William Pryor because Allen Perry was her security and his name shows up in the case of the State vs. William Pryor and Pryor Nance (1836).

It’s a rather short case document filed against Mrs. Pryor. Her conviction reads

…unlawfully kept a tippling house an sell and retail spiritous liquors by a less quantity than a quart to Joel Williams and divers other persons… without having first obtained  a license.

William Huson (or Huston?) was the informant.

The members of the jury were
Samuel Stirling, foreman
William McLemore
Samuel R. King
Robert Childers
Martin Kirkpatrick
Young (or James) Edmundson
Harvey Walker
DD Deust
William Hussen
John Karns (or Korns)
Samuel Catrell
William McBoth (McBooth?)
DL Dearmond

 

Category: About TN Lines | Tags: ,

Explaining Botetourt County, VA Pryors

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Chart - Botetourt

Here goes… Botetourt County.

It’s another of my charts that attempt to make sense out of what we’ve found this year. I’ve used numbers in identifying the Pryors who link to the line of Samuel and Prudence Thornton. I’ve used letters for the Pryors who I can’t yet identify a line. Even then I think there are a few questionable matches… they just may not be from the lines they appear to be from!

  • I’m pretty sure that Joseph, Luke, and John were brothers. They are named as brothers in Luke’s (#2) will. Joseph owned land on Looney’s Creek.
  • I’m certain that Samuel Pryor (#8) was NOT the brother of Joseph, Luke, and John because their brother Samuel died in 1766 (see Chancery Court suits in prior posts). Samuel seems likely to be the Samuel Thornton Pryor who was the executor of his father William Pryor and his mother Sarah (Wood) estates. I’ve gone through the other grandchildren of Samuel and Prudence who were named Samuel and they were either dead or living in other counties, or too not yet adults in 1800 to be called as a witness on the suit involving Norvell. There’s always the possibility that he’s not that Samuel, but the Samuel who eventually married Fannie Ferguson and died in 1815 in Anderson County, TN.
  • John Pryor (#9) who sold land on Looney’s Creek is possibly, though not probable yet, Luke and Joseph’s brother. John was married to Mary Dennis. He died in 1785, so perhaps he was cleaning up his estate when he sold the land.  He may also be the John Pryor who was in Albemarle and Campbell County, however not enough information is available and we don’t have the name of his wife.
  • I’m not convinced that John (#9) who was married to Mary on Looney’s Creek is the same man who fought in Captain Preston’s Rangers. I think the one who fought with the Rangers is more likely to be an older John Pryor.
  • The Mitchell Bible said Samuel and Prudence had a son Frank Pryor. So where is Frank or Francis in records????

This was a good exercise to see who was in Botetourt and when. All ideas welcomed.

Category: Virginia Pryors | Tags: , , ,

Revolutionary War – Henry Pryor of Botetourt County?

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On 1 August 1777 an H. Pryor, Lieut advertised in Purdie’s Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg). He was seeking his friend Thomas Vaughn Nance who had enlisted with him in Col. Harrison’s artillery in York. He was entreating his friend to return to the unit before he was “deemed a deserter.” Thank goodness for Wikipedia.org, because there’s some good information there on this artillery. They formed in Williamsburg and fought in the Southern theater during the Revolutionary War, so Virginia should be the right place to start looking for this Pryor.

So Lt. H. Pryor may have been from Gloucester, Hampton, York Counties, or James City, Elizabeth City. I’ve got lots of records on the Pryors and “H” is a stand-out name in VA in the 1700’s. I have only one more Pryor that begins with “H” — Henry Pryor who was  recorded in Botetourt County, VA in 1786.

Now Botetourt is interesting because this H. Pryor was looking for a Nance and there are several Nance’s later in Botetourt.  Children of Joseph Pryor in Botetourt married into the Nance family: Molly Pryor married Peter Nance, and Thornton married Mary/Polly Nance.

The surname Vaughn is also connected to this line of Pryors: Joseph of Botetourt’s nephew John Alexander Pryor married a Martha Vaughn. Shadrack Vaughn married Mary Meriwether — Mary was one Joseph of Botetourt’s step nieces and nephews through his brother Samuel’s marriage to Frances Morton who had children from her first marriage to a Meriwether (I hope that had some clarity — there’s no easy way to state that relationship!)

I think we may be on our way to ID a “lost” Pryor.

Category: Virginia Pryors | Tags: , , ,

Goochland Pryors: The Children of Samuel and Prudence Pryor

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After the research that went into my last post I have new confidence in The Pryor Family (pub. 1900). I hate to rely on old books and second-hand information (memories and anecdotes) without any first-hand data (wills, deeds, court records) available. Show me a document that says Thornton Pryor was a son of Samuel Pryor and Prudence Thornton?! Continue reading →

Category: Virginia Pryors | Tags: , , , , , ,
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