Tennessee Pryors

Over  the winter I was contacted by a researcher who was trying to piece together the line of Dr. Samuel Pryor of VA and his wife Frances Meriwether, nee Morton.  Before her marriage to Samuel, Frances married Nicholas Meriwether, a man from a prominent Goochland County, VA family.  In this first marriage, Frances gave birth to a son in about 1745 and he was named George Meriwether. After the death of her first husband, Frances married Samuel Pryor on August 27, 1760 per the records of St. James Northam Parish in Goochland County.  The parish records also record that Samuel and Frances were the parents of young Samuel Pryor who was baptized on January 12, 1762.

The researcher points outs that Frances was married to Nicholas Meriwether from 1740 to about 1758, but a son John Alexander Pryor born about 1750 is attributed to her marriage to Pryor.  She wisely questioned whether Frances was having children with Samuel Pryor while she was still married to Meriwether.

Now that I’m looking at what I have on Samuel and Frances, I question the children attributed to their marriage: Nancy, John Alexander, and Marietta. Where did these names come from? What’s the proof that the right people are in the right positions in this branch of the Pryor tree?

While doing a little online research on this union I found The Encyclopedia of Louisville By John E. Kleber states that Frances and her first husband were the parents of George Meriwether and Nicholas Meriwether born in 1745 and 1749 respectively.  Yet… here’s my real beef… Dr. Samuel Pryor  the son of Col. William Pryor and the husband of Frances Meriwether  was born somewhere about 1740.  Was Samuel only five years younger than George Meriwether, his step-son?

I looked for records that would prove the relationship.  The only record is the marriage of Samuel Pryor and Frances cited in the William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, volume 15 published in 1915. The magazine published the St. James Northam parish records, including the marriage of “1760, Aug. 27. Samuel Pryor , of Amelia County, & Frances Morton, of this parish.

There are mostly second-hand references to Frances Morton as the same person who was the widow of Nicholas Meriwether:

1915 – The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Volume 13 by Kentucky Historical Society. A letter from Judge William S. Pryor to Henry Strother dated December 1, 1914.

The Meriwethers and Their Connections, published 1991 by the Meriwether Society references a earlier publication, “Frances Morton about 1740. After his death she married Samuel Pryor. Frances Morton was listed as “Mary Frances Pryor” in Louisa HA Minor’s genealogy in 1892.”

Is this a Pryor genealogy question that people searching their Virginia Pryors have know about for a long time? Is there a source to answer it?