6. Conclusions. Based on records of property, land and personal property taxes, revolutionary war pension records, court and local records, and information about the locations of our Priests - we can draw the following conclusions:
Chronological List of Priest References in Culpeper County Records
Introduction To Culpeper County Priest References. Culpeper Priest references are posted below by year, so that what is known can be assessed year by year. Thus far, it seems that our Priests were markedly absent from probate and marriage records in the region – and the 1790 and 1800 Virginia censuses were lost, as were some of the parish records (which probably included marriage records) – so reliance on the other records shown below increases their importance to be able to draw any conclusions.
It can be gleaned from these records that the patriarch of the family was William Priest (Sr.), and that he had at least five children – William Jr., John, Jeremiah, Stanley, and an unnamed daughter mentioned by William Jr. in his pension record. Given the absence of probate records, it seems that William disappeared from records here in the mid-1790’s, and Stanley disappeared ca 1804, although since there were no personal property tax records until 1811, it could have been any time during that seven year period of the absence of tax records. The first Priests of the third known generation, William Priest Sr.’s grandchildren, started appearing in Culpeper records in the 1790’s.
One of those next generation Priests, James Priest, was a likely son of John born ca 1777. Interestingly, in Ohio records, it appears he had a son named Strother Priest. James was married twice, and the surname of his first wife is unknown, and he likely married her in Virginia. It is quite possible he married a Strother, although it is also a possibility that it was just a popular name in the area – even picked up from the name of the local family and Chapel. These are the research guessing games that result when there are no marriage records to fall back on. [There are various Strother references. The Salt Lake City library contains “The Strother Family: 300 years from Virginia to Louisiana”, by Edward L. Strother, published in 2002 by Gateway Press in Baltimore - reference 929.273 St89 seL. It is helpful on the early Strother generations, but does not answer the question about the link to the Priests.]
It appears that Jeremiah and his family left after 1793, William Jr. and his family left before the 1810 census, and John Sr. and the remaining members of his family left about 1811 or 1812. The last known reference was in a tax record to a William Priest ca 1813, and that was most likely John’s son William.
The one other confusing issue in looking at these records is the question of which William was being referred to in each record. The patriarch of our Priests was William Priest, who first appeared in a record in 1763 and last appeared about 1794. William Priest, the son of the patriarch and brother of John and Jeremiah, first appeared during the revolutionary war and left ca 1810. A William Priest, the son of John, was the last Priest of our branch in a Culpeper County record when he sold his property there in 1812.
It is possible that when his father the patriarch died, his son William became known as William Priest Sr., and John’s son William became William Jr. John Priest, son of the original William and brother of William Jr., named his oldest son William – the one who I just referred to, he being born ca 1772 and first appearing in a Culpeper personal property tax record in 1791 – indicating he had come of age about this time. Culpeper records mention William Sr. and William Jr. in many records – yet the death of the elder William in the 1790’s could have confused this. In the final 1812 deed, William Jr. was named as such. This third William is named in some property records as William, son of John. But there is confusion between these Williams in some records, and it is exacerbated by the fact that at least two – if not all three – have wives named Elizabeth.
There were also a few other Priests in Culpeper around the time of our Priests. Rodham Priest was mentioned in probate records – and was in Bourbon County, Kentucky at the same time as Jeremiah. He is thought to have been a son of John Priest and Elizabeth Brown, and that John is confused with our John in some research. Peter and George Priest were in Culpeper at the time that our last Priests died or left – and continued in tax records after there were no Priests from our line. But almost all references in Culpeper in the fifty years after 1763 were with our Priests.
Additionally, listed in the chronology is the birth year of children of John, William, and Jeremiah. These birthdates are based on their future lives in Ohio. Knowing that they were the children of one of these Priest siblings, with a birthdate established by a census or tombstone in Ohio, and shown as born in Virginia - it leads to their listing with their birth year.
The Chronology of the Priests in Culpeper County - 1750-1812
Culpeper County Record Priest Mentions by Year. 1750. John Priest states in his 1833 pension statement that he was born this year in Prince William County. Prince William County is not far, but not adjacent to Culpeper County. It was formed in 1731.
1754. William Priest’s pension statement of July 1818 indicates he would be sixty-four years old the coming December, which would place his birth in December 1754.
1757-58. William Priest states in his pension statement of July 1818 that he was in the company of his widowed sister, who was about sixty years of age. That would place her birth about 1757 or 1758, wherever the family was living at the time.
1758-59. Jeremiah Priest was born. His 1832 pension statement states he was 73 or 74, indicating a birth year of 1758 or 1759. He states he was born in Shenandoah County, which was not created until 1772, and was known previously as Dunmore County. In William Priest’s pension file, a statement by Jeremiah indicates that he and William were brothers, so it connects William’s 1754 birth – to whatever location where they lived together. Jeremiah’s tombstone also states that he died in 1840 at age 85 years, which would place his birth about 1755 rather than what he stated in his pension record.
[On the subject of Jeremiah's birthplace as claimed in the pension request, Margaret Lester Hill stated in a 1995 letter that "several of us who conduct Priest research think it strange that Jeremiah claimed to have been born in Shenandoah County, VA (At the time of his birth, 1755, the county was still named Dunmore County. The name change did not occur until 1778.) Almost all Priest men born in the mid-18th century claimed birth in either Prince William or Fauquier counties. We presume they were born in the western reaches of Prince William that became Fauquier in 1759. Prince William is a 'burned-record' county, which has made research very frustrating."]
1760. William’s pension includes references to his widowed sister, stating that she was about sixty years of age – in a statement given in 1820. That means his sister was born ca 1760 wherever the family was living at that time.
1761. On October 15, 1761 Edward Watts of Orange County and Elizabeth his wife sold 265 acres of land to William Johnston of Culpeper County for thirty pounds. Witnesses were Benjamin Davis, William Prestridge, and Jeremiah Sims. This was shown in Culpeper County Deed book C, pp. 611-4. [There is no indication that William Prestridge’s surname morphed into William Priest, but I have listed that in case this becomes a consideration. There is a John Prestridge in early Virginia records as well – and William Prestridge is also listed in earlier Virginia Tax Records. There is a Prestridge in Orange County records at the time of the Revolutionary War - indicating that these were not part of our Priest line.]
1763-64. The first records for William Priest Sr. are shown in Culpeper County, Virginia in this period. A record shown in the Culpeper Minute Book 1, pp. 19-20, states that in a 1763-64 court record a plea of duress in John Boots vs. Francis Walle (Nalle) “plea of duress on defendant at house of William Priest in Culpeper County”. Joseph Jones (Jens? – there is a Joseph Jones in Culpeper tax records about this period) is named as the attorney. The record states that the defendant was “drunk and intoxicated and prevailed on the said defendant . . .” That record is posted as the header on this web page, and just below. [NOTE: In future tax records, there is a Francis Nalle listed, in the same area as the tax records for the Priests. There are also variations of Butts and Botts.]
