John Benjamin Pryor son of Luke and Ann Batte Pryor

by Vanessa Wood

Recently I found an American Pryor on the 1871 Census in Cambridgeshire, England.  John Benjamin Pryor born in about 1810 in Virginia.  He was living with his wife Frances and six children born in Mississippi, the youngest child born in England.  Also living with the family was Cordelia Bingmom, Frances' sister.  Mr. Pryor listed his occupation as horse trainer.  My curiosity was peaked and I started searching the US Census records to see if this Pryor could be placed with his American ancestry.  

The oldest of the Pryor children was William who was 22 in 1871.  I searched the 1850 Census records hoping to find a John Pryor, wife Frances and a young son named William.  I found none.  I tried searching for initials and misspellings, abbreviations, and all variations of the Pryor surname.  I finally had a turn of luck when I found a Benjamin Pryor aged 39, born in VA and living in Adams County, MS.  I was surprised to find Benjamin counted alone; no wife or child.  Without a wife and child I wasn't sure that this was the even the correct John Benjamin Pryor. 

A J. B. Prior was recorded on the 1860 Census living near Natchez in Adams Co., MS.  His age was 48 and his place of birth was recorded as Tennessee.  Again he was counted as a single man.   I searched the Ancestry.com Family trees and found that there was a John Benjamin Pryor born after 1808 listed as a son of Luke Pryor and Ann Batte. I wondered if this was the same person and was optimistic since the youngest son on the 1871 UK Census was named Luke.  Where was John's wife and children in 1850 and in 1860?   

Believing that the family was probably in England in 1870 I wasn't surprised to find the family missing from the US census of that year.  I proceeded to search the 1880 US Census and found John B. Pryor, occupation horse trainer, born in VA.  He and his children who were counted on the earlier UK Census were living in Monmouth County, NJ.  The US Census yielded a clue that was absent from the 1850 and the 1871 records. In 1880 John Benjamin Pryor was recorded as "white" and his children were "mulatto." 

I searched the 1900 US census to find the birth month and year or Luke Pryor, hoping to get a better idea of how long the Pryor family was in England.  In 1900 Luke was still living in Monmouth County and stated his birth as November 1861, shortly after the US Civil War began  

From these records it's reasonable to surmise that John Benjamin Pryor was a white man and that his wife Frances was an African American.  The 1860 Slave Schedules revealed that J. B. Prior in Adams Co., MS had 27 individuals counted as slaves.  Four of the children were recorded as Mulatto, however their ages do not correctly correspond with the ages of Pryor's known children, nor do the records correspond with the ages of Frances Pryor or her sister Cordelia Bingmom.  It can not be determined if Pryor's wife, sister in law and children were counted as slaves in his household in 1860, although it is the most likely explanation for their absence from the census schedule.