I’ve been going back and forth discussing Christopher, John and David Pryor with a couple of other Pryors. The chart in an older post (Connecting Major John Pryor of Richmond to More Pryors!) was gnawing at us. We decided to play with the the relationships to see if there is a way to make better sense out of these Pryors. Maybe it will feel less like a bowl of spaghetti?
We decided to move John Pryor of Richmond right up next to David Pryor of Buckingham County and Christopher Pryor of Gloucester — all brothers.
- “Major” John married Anne Beverly Whiting. Christopher Pryor’s son was the administrator of Thomas Whiting’s estate, Anne’s father.
- “Major” John housed the cousin of President Jefferson during a scandal. David’s daughter married Jefferson’s brother.
Now, you know what that would mean? John and David are the orphan sons of David Pryor who died in 1747 in Goochland County. Hmmm. That would certainly steer some Pryor research in another direction.
One of the naggy questions we mulled over was why in the senior David’s estate different guardians were bestowed on John and David: Samuel Taylor was John’s guardian and Abraham Childress was David’s grandfather and guardian. One of my Pryor cousins thinks it was to divide duties. I think it was because John and David had different mothers. David’s mother was obviously a Childress, but if we look at this John as his brother, then he may have dropped a clue while serving in the Revolutionary War — he wrote a letter indicating his mother was still alive:
October 10th, 1782, Richmond.
Capt. John Pryor to Col. Davies
Asking leave to visit his mother “in great distress with a probability of losing her husband, who is my Father in Law, by sickness, and wishes much to see me.
— Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts, pub. 1883
There is also a Carrington connection that wends its way through these Pryors:
- In May 1778 David Pryor was serving with Lt. Mayo Carrington (Mayo, son of George Carrington). see post
- “Major” John Pryor of Richmond attended the marriage of Capt. Dandridge in 1782 with Col. Edward Carrington (Edward, son of George Carrington, brother of Mayo Carrington, and the foreman of the Aaron Burr jury). see post
- “Major” John Pryor received land grant in 1785 in KY, near C. Carrington (Codrington, son of George Carrington) see post
- 1747 George Carrington deeded land to John and David, their father had already paid him for the land. see post
You know I’ve got my pencil out and I’m working around the Pryor chart testing out new relationships. Autosomal testing, as annoyingly hard to decipher as it can be, showed a connection between testers in my line to the Childress family (see post). As I said… Hmmm.
The following is the transcription of the sworn statement for a Revolutionary War pension application that mentions a John Prior. It recounts events in 1783, about 10 years before Kentucky became a state. Hmmm, interesting tie-ins to Battle of Point Pleasant (1774) and Lord Dunmore’s War.
I saw this weekend that someone had “liked” an old Pryor post on Facebook– a post about Capt. Pryor and the Wabash Indians. I realized that I haven’t disclosed the identity of the Captain. I think it was Capt. Abner Prior. It’s always tough to ID a Pryor when we don’t have a first name. OK, you can stop laughing… yes, I know it’s hard to identify Pryors even when we DO have a first name! 