Notable Pryors

Land Speculator - Norton Pryor

In 1808 Norton Pryor sold 50,000 acres to Andrew Erwin in order to form Bedford Co., TN. Andrew Jackson was his agent in the land deal. Norton was recorded as a land holder in Davidson Co., Rutherford Co., and Bedford Co.,
disappearing from records in about 1808.

While Norton Pryor owned land in Tennessee it does not appear that he ever settled in the state. He was either the same man, or the son of the Norton Pryor who listed as a taxpayer in Philadelphia in 1779 and was an orignial member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Pryor's connection to Philadelphia and Tennessee is confirmed on the Lonestar.texas.net website: McLean's Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas, Vol. 1... Col. Erwin's Reply (see above). "My first purchase of lands in this State, I believe, will be found to be those on Duck River granted by the State of North Carolina...and by David Alison mortgaged to Norton Pryor, the first day of August 1795, to secure payment of $21,800 within 90 days from that date, if not punctually paid. David Alison died in Philadelphia in 1798, leaving said note unpaid, and N. Pryor was compelled to stop payment, for the want of it. And on the 9th day of May 1800, the following agreement was entered into between N. Pryor and the honorable Joseph Anderson, then the East end of the State, for the purpose of foreclosing said mortgage, as follows:

Articles of agreement made and entered into the ninth day of May 1800, between N. Prior (sic) of the city of Philadelphia of the one part, and Joseph Anderson of the State of Tennessee, attorney at law, of the other part, witnesseth; that whereas the said Norton Pryor doth hold a mortgage given to him by David Alison for 85,000 acres of land lying upon Duck River in State of Tennessee..."











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