You may have seen a question I posted 4 months ago on the Pryor Lastname Genealogy Facebook page. I asked who was the man identified as “Little” Joseph Pryor in Botetourt County, VA records. Oct 1784, “Little” Joseph Pryor cited for cohabitating with William Fulton’s wife. There was Joseph Pryor who married Mary Fleming and his son who was born after 1766. The Facebook conversation included speculation of who an elderly Joseph Pryor was who turned up in White County records around 1813. Then there’s the Joseph Pryor who lived in Jackson County, TN. I wish the Pryors had been a bit more creative with the names… it would make piecing together the genealogy puzzle so much easier! Who were all of these Josephs?
I started looking at signatures. I was curious to see if there were any documents on the web that were signed by Joseph Pryors with similar signatures.
The first two signatures are the Joseph Pryor Sr and Joseph Pryor Jr who were from Botetourt County records. In 1800 a Chancery Court suit was filed in Augusta County naming Joseph Pryor as a resident of Botetourt County. Joseph Pryor “the elder” was a plaintiff and there’s a deposition (although very short) given by Joseph Jr who states that the older Joseph was his father. This is the signature of Joseph Jr. in 1802.
Isn’t it interesting how different the same signature looks? I guess it depended on how you held the quill on a given day! The “J” though is very similar and the final “r” in Pryor is also very similar.
This is the signature of of Joseph Pryor Sr. Wow, very different than his son’s writing. Different J. Different P. Different curve on the Y.
The next Joseph Pryor I looked at was the Joseph in Greene County, TN who signed the marriage bond in 1799 for Catharine Pryor and Enoch Odle.
Enoch Odle left his “mark” in 1799 (see above Joseph’s signature) as he did in 1855 when he applied for his 1812 land bounty warrant, but Joseph Pryor signed the bond. Was Joseph Pryor one of the educated men from among the Virginia Pryors? I don’t think this Joseph Pryor’s signature looks a thing like Jr or Sr Pryor from Botetourt County, so can we rule out that they are the same man?
The Joseph Pryor who was in Tuscaloosa, AL left a family Bible and will. I don’t know who wrote the names into the Bible or even if they are contemporary inscriptions. The writing doesn’t compare with any of the Josephs noted above– there are green dots next to “J” and “P” that differ from the above samples.
Joseph in Alabama left a will but it’s signed with a “mark” rather than a signature. Was he unable to sign his name due to old age or infirmity? Or was he a different man than the one who was in Green County, TN?
I’d love to compare another signature. In 1801 Joseph Pryor signed a petition in Smith County to prevent consolidating part of Smith County with White County. Enoch Odle also signed or left his mark. Does anyone have a copy of this document?