Here I need to give a special tribute to Ruth Priest Dixon. I stumbled onto the fact Ruth had written a book “Mijamin Priest and his Family – from William Penn’s Colony to East Texas 1684 to 1884”. Excitedly I sent for her book and had great hopes of being able to share information with her. Her husband Roger emailed me that unfortunately she was very sick with cancer. I didn’t know how sick. He was so kind to send me a copy of her book right away even though I know that he was spending a great deal of time with her. When I got the book I was so excited, it was wonderful. Here was the Priest family history documented by a professional genealogist. What a find. And after reading it I felt like I knew Ruth and that she was a wonderful person. Unfortunately, she died about the same time I got the book. I will be forever grateful that she did the research and took the time to put it down in writing. I hope that someday I can create a document, like Ruth has, that is such a wonderful combination of genealogy and history. It allows you to feel like you know your ancestors and what they were going through. Thank you Ruth for the gift you have left us with. Much of what I have about the Priest family from Rees Prees to William Priest Jr. comes from Ruth’s wonderful research.

Rees Prees the original Priest that came to the United States sometime before 1688. Note: all of the genealogy information about the Priest family before Richard Lincoln Priest (John Priest’s grandfather) I have gotten from other sources which I have not verified.

To put this in some historical context the pilgrims landed in the Mayflower in 1620-21. So the first Rees Prees came to the United States from Wales just some sixty years later. It still must have been a pretty rugged country.

Rees Prees came to the United States in 1684. From Ruth Dixon Priest we know that he immigrated from Radnorshire, Wales to William Penn’s colony in Pennsylvania with his wife Ann and their five children: Mary, Sarah, Phebe, Richard, and John. What a voyage it must have been. They departed from Doly Serre near Dolgules on the Vine of Liverpool sometime in May 1684 with William Presson as the captain. They arrived in Philadelphia on July 17, 1684. The link to the transcription of the passengers is http://www.immigrantships.net/v3/1600v3/vine16840717.html.

He went to the Philadelphia area where he married Elizabeth Williams December 20, 1688 in Radnor, Pennsylvania. The had six children of which one was David Priest (Preece) born in 1698 in Conestoga, Pennsylvania.

According to Gary Glen Price in 1718 David was an older-than-21, unmarried freeman and the land on which he settled was approximately 9 miles south-southwest of the present-day courthouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. David appeared on the first Conestoga Township tax list in 1718; but, by some reports, he had arrived in 1716. David’s father, Rees, and brother, Thomas, followed him to the Conestoga Valley in 1721, jointly settling 1,000 acres located 1.2 miles northwest of David’s land. Something occasioned both brothers to sever their ties to the Conestoga valley in the same year – 1737; perhaps it was the death of Rees Preecs. David moved in 1737 to land in Pennsborough Township, near the point where Yellow Breeches Creek flows into the Susquehanna River (south of present-day Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and on the west back of the Susquehanna River). He married Susannah and they had at least four children of which one was William Priest (Preece) who was born about 1723 in York County, Pennsylvania.