William Priest (Preece) was born about 1723 in York County, Pennsylvania.
Two years after David died, on June 3, 1747, William Priest married Mary Griffith, in the Hill Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Annville Township by the Rev. John Casper Stoever. (Source: Ruth Priest Dixon) Mary was a Lutheran, not a Quaker. Again, according to Ruth Priest Dixon William Penn’s colony of the late 1700’s was a diverse religious colony. Penn had a policy of religious freedom which attracted many settlers of religious faiths other than Quaker. By the late 1700’s Quakers no longer accounted for a majority of the colony. In addition, there were many defections from the Society of Friends for a variety of reasons. It is interesting that at this time Lutheran services were conducted in German, not the Welsh Prees native tongue. This suggests that Mary’s family may have been German Lutheran. Whatever the reason – love or politics – William converted to Lutheranism and his children were baptized as Lutherans, not Quakers.
He and Mary had six children: William, David (1759), Samuel (April 5, 1752), Lydia, Elisabeth, and Richard who was the youngest and was born about 1766.
To understand why William Priest moved his family to Virginia via North Carolina the French and Indian war is an important part.
The French and Indian War
The conflict between France and England took place in Pennsylvania. The woodlands of Western Pennsylvania were a focus for the worldwide struggle for power between England and France. This was the area where William Priest and his family lived.
In the early part of the eighteenth century, the trans-Appalachian region of North America remained much as it had been for the preceding centuries. Some trappers and backwoodsmen—Frenchmen from Canada and Englishmen from the British colonies—traveled through its woods and rivers, but the principal occupants of the region were Native Americans and a great diversity of wildlife. As the British colonies became more populated and prosperous, their citizens began to look towards the rich lands across the Appalachian mountains as providing new opportunities for settlement and economic growth. The French, who claimed the entire watersheds of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence Rivers—which included the Great Lakes and the Ohio River valley—became worried about British encroachments into this region and so they moved to set up a series of forts, including at Crown Point on Lake Champlain, and on the Wabash, Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The British, meanwhile, built their own forts at Oswego and Halifax, the government granted lands in the Ohio Valley to the Ohio Company and adventurous traders set up bases in the region.
In 1749 the French began actively courting the Indians, and with the arrival in Quebec of Marquis Duquesne as the new governor of New France in 1752, a strategy was decided upon. A string of forts would be built connecting Canada and Louisiana, controlling the land and blocking the English from expanding westward. Fort Presque Isle was built at the present site of Erie, and Fort Le Boeuf at present Waterford, 19 miles overland from Fort Presque Isle. Fort Le Beouf sat at the northern end of the Ohio River’s headwaters. It was here that in 1753, Virginia sent 21 year old George Washington to express concern over the French violating England’s claim. The French, of course, dismissed this, as they felt England’s claim to be wrong.
In 1754, Virginia sent a small force to build a fort at the beginning of the Ohio River, at present day Pittsburgh. (Ironically, this area was claimed by two English colonies, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as by the French.) This palisade was begun on February 17 and finished just as more than 500 French troops arrived on April 17. The French forced the Virginians to retreat, to replace their palisade with a fine fort, Fort Duquesne. Washington was leading a military force to the site when he learned of this, and also of a French force sent to challenge him. On May 28, 1754 Washington and 47 men, along with several Indians led by Tanaghrisson (the Half King), attacked the 35-man French force under Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville, east of present Uniontown, at a place now called Jumonville. (It is still unclear which side fired the first shot.) Four Virginians and fourteen French, including the French commander, were killed or wounded.
Going back to his encampment at Great Meadows, Washington hurried to complete the little palisade he had started. Poorly sited, poorly designed and poorly constructed, Washington did not plan on using it for defense. He started on his way to attack the French at Fort Duquesne, but when he heard of a large French advancement he began a retreat, making it back to his hastily-built Fort Necessity. Jumonville’s brother, Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, had ironically arrived at Fort Duquesne with over a thousand reinforcements just after news of his brother’s defeat had arrived. He set out to attack the Virginians, catching up to them at Fort Necessity. Under intense fire all day and a third of his 300 men killed or wounded, Washington agreed to surrender terms that the French surprised them with, and headed back to Virginia.
In 1755, the British sent Major General Edward Braddock and some British regulars to the colonies. George Washington was to help Braddock, but when he tried to convince Braddock not to march and fight in the traditional European formal patterns, Braddock wouldn’t hear of it. On July 9, as they approached Fort Duquesne, they were attacked by the French and Indians. The British were defeated, suffering 1,000 casualties out of the 1,300 man force, and Braddock was killed.
The British seemed to lose interest in the area until William Pitt became Prime Minister. He placed Brigadier General John Forbes in command of a powerful army assigned to attack Fort Duquesne. This attack would be mounted through Pennsylvania, using forts at Carlisle, Bedford, and Ligonier. Colonial troops were also used, Virginia’s under Col. George Washington and Pennsylvania’s under Col. John Armstrong. British Colonel Henry Bouquet took over much of the command when Forbes fell ill. As the British advanced on Fort Duquesne the French, unsuccessful at delaying the attack and greatly outnumbered, burned the fort and retreated. Forbes took over the ruins, built a new fort named after the Prime Minister, and the British rule over the area was firm.
The Priests move to south west Virginia sometime before 1776 when William Priest built a Fort. Priest’s Fort is another fort found only in the memoirs of John Redd, and of it he says: “That it was located some 5 or 6 miles above Martin’s Station and was on no water course. It was built about the same time as Mump’s Fort, and William Priest, its builder, was perhaps a Henry County, Virginia, man in the valley through Martin’s influence. Five or six miles from Martin’s Station would locate this fort between the towns of Rose Hill and Jonesville, in Lee County. This fort was evacuated at the same time as Mump’s and Martin’s, and the men from both fled to Fort Blackmore, in June, 1776, when alarmed by the outbreak of the Cherokee War.” All evidence points to the fact that it was, as Redd says, never reoccupied after the initial evacuation, as no other mention of it has been gleaned from any source.
“Virginia had an urgent need of merchants, skilled artisans, woodsmen, and a large labor force to cultivate the tobacco crops. Luring laborers to insect-ridden and swampy regions was a challenge. The English law of primogeniture preserved the estates of the landed gentry by transmitting the titles and property intact from eldest son to eldest son. Many younger sons saw Virginia as a prime opportunity. The London Company lured these people to Virginia with land. The Company agreed to give anyone who paid his way to Virginia fifty acres for his own personal adventure. Another fifty acres was offered for each person the adventurer transported at his own cost. When Virginia became a royal colony, the headright system continued. Over the next century, thousands of settlers came because of Virginia’s headright system.” See Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 3 vols. (1934; reprint, Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing County, 1983).
The Seven Original Forts
By Emory L. Hamilton
The actual military defense of Virginia’s extreme western frontier did not begin, on a large scale, until the spring prior to the outbreak of Dunmore’s War in the fall of 1774, more commonly referred to by historians as the Point Pleasant Campaign.
It has been stated by some writers that not a single palisaded fort existed along the Clinch frontier until after the circulation of Lord Dunmore’s order requesting that such be built. Those making these statements used the argument that after the end of the French and Indian War that peace existed and there was no need of palisaded forts. It is probably quite true that prior to 1774 there were no real palisaded forts, the inhabitants depending on strongly built fort-houses with port holes for warding off surprise Indian attacks. Some of these still stand today, such as the old Osborne house in Lower Castlewood and the Dickenson house on Clinch River north of Castlewood. However, those who aver that prior to 1774 peace existed between the Indians and whites need to review their frontier history.
Admittedly peace did exist on paper as the treaty of Fort Stanwix and Lochaber prove, but a paper peace meant little to many of the savages who probably had never heard of it, or to those who did not concur with it in the first place. Consider the killing of Boone’s party on Wallen’s Creek on October 10, 1773, almost a year prior to Dunmore’s circular letter regarding the erection of forts.
John McCulloch, whose father Thomas McCulloch had settled on Moccasin Creek in 1769, states that in June 1771 all of Moccasin Creek was evacuated for fear of Indians and remained so for more than a year. (1)
On June 30, 1773, Colonel Evan Shelby had a roster of 71 militiamen. (2) Captain William Russell also had four Indian scouts on patrol on the 15th of April, 1774, (3) two months prior to Dunmore’s request for forts, and again in 1773, Colonel Evan Shelby lists a group of four scouts on Clinch River, among whom was William Moore of Moore’s Fort. Does it not seem strange to aver that peace existed when we see a contingent of 71 militiamen, scouts on patrol and the massacre of five people on Wallen’s Creek?
There were seven of the original forts erected in compliance with Lord Dunmore’s order, four on the lower Clinch under Captain William Russell’s militia command, and three on the upper Clinch under the militia command of Captain Daniel Smith. These forts were erected by the local militia under the supervision of Colonel William Christian who had been sent out to the frontier by Colonel William Preston who was militia commandant for the area.
In addition there were additional small Forts built on the Clinch River and sometime before 1776 William Priest built one of these Fort. Priest’s Fort is another fort found only in the memoirs of John Redd, and of it he says: “That it was located some 5 or 6 miles above Martin’s Station and was on no water course. It was built about the same time as Mump’s Fort, and William Priest, its builder, was perhaps a Henry County, Virginia, man in the valley through Martin’s influence. Five or six miles from Martin’s Station would locate this fort between the towns of Rose Hill and Jonesville, in Lee County. This fort was evacuated at the same time as Mump’s and Martin’s, and the men from both fled to Fort Blackmore, in June, 1776, when alarmed by the outbreak of the Cherokee War.” All evidence points to the fact that it was, as Redd says, never reoccupied after the initial evacuation, as no other mention of it has been gleaned from any source.
From a letter from Louise Preece to Henry Scalf 7.2.1968
Harold told me (when I saw him last week for the first time in 23 years) that years ago Emma Preece wrote him that William Preece opened a trading post on the Cumberland Trail in North Carolina (remember the land grant information I sent on a William Preece in that state?) and that he wrote a “hot letter” to his neighbors and left. He also said that we had an ancestor, Lady Lovelace of Scotland, who left the country for political reasons, and he thinks these were on she Wilburn side. Lady Lovelace married a Cherokee chief by the name of Wilburn, who married who married a Stratton at Richmond, and that our Cherokee blood comes through the Stratton’s.
This letter explains several family stories. Family stories are always interesting. There is some truth and some fiction. There is a co-mingling of stories. Actions get attributed to the wrong persons. The fun and challenge of family stories is looking at the bits and pieces of the stories and the overall thread of many stories. It is finding that grain of truth in each story. Making them fit. Figuring out the fact and the fiction. It is great fun.
First that John Priest was part Cherokee. It is quite obvious from looking at his picture that he has some Indian blood, although he had blue eyes. John’s heritage was never openly talked about in the family. Instead there just was a “rumor.” But it was a consistent rumor in every branch of the family. Although my grandmother vehemently denied that her family had Indian blood and had marked on the back of his picture that he was a Civil War Veteran and of German descent, there were stories. Where she got the German descent I don’t know other than the Priest’s lived close to the area called German town in Floyd County. Many people who have looked at the pictures of my Grandmother and her sister Della when they were young remark on how they have Indian characteristics (although they didn’t have the high cheekbones characteristic of the Cherokee tribe). Della’s son Carroll “Gene” told his daughter Carol Hanson that the Priest line had Indian blood. Lucy Priest Carter also tells of how her aunt June Priest had high cheekbones and her husband always called her “my little Indian.” Garnet Crider remembers that supposedly the Priest’s came from Virginia and that either John Priest’s Mother or Grandmother was a Cherokee and that’s why the Priest’s moved from Virginia to the hills outside Pikesville.
I had always questioned John having Indian blood. First the blue eyes, but more importantly if it wasn’t socially acceptable in Appalachia back in the 1800’s or even in the first half of the 19th century to be of mixed blood. Why then would the Jameses, who were a fairly prominent family, let they daughter marry someone who was part Indian? Socially that would be very unacceptable. They did not leave Floyd County. They stayed and lived in the community. They may have been somewhat below the radar screen, but they were part of the community. It is clear through Mahala’s Widows Pension Application that she went to the old Floyd County families for affidavits. She and John were accepted. That question is answered in Louise Preece’s letter. John’s maternal grandmother (who the Indian blood came through) was Nancy Stratton Giddens and the Strattons were one of the founding families of Floyd County, were large landowner, and were probably more prominent than the Jameses. It all makes sense.
Another story is that the Priest’s had to leave Virginia. Again, the answer could be in Louise Preece’s letter. “Harold told me (when I saw him last week for the first time in 23 years) that years ago Emma Preece wrote him that William Preece opened a trading post on the Cumberland Trail in North Carolina (remember the land grant information I sent on a William Preece in that state?) and that he wrote a “hot letter” to his neighbors and left.” Although I don’t think he moved to Kentucky. He moved north to the Clintwood area in Russell County.
We know William owned property in Russell County and that he died there about 1801.
Will of William Preece, 1791 Russell County, Virginia
“In the name of God, Amen. I William Preece of Russell County, in the State of Virginia being a man of considerable age and calling to mind the Mortality of my body. Knowing that it is appointed for all men to die and being in perfect health and memory at this time thanks to Almighty God, for his mercies. I do make and ordain this my last will and testament, that is to say principally and first of all I recommend my soul in to the hands of God who gave it to me and my body to the discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall receive the same again by the Mighty power of God. And as touching such worldly estate where with it has pleased God to bless me with I give and bequeath in the following manner,
” Item 1. First of all my just debts to be paid out of my estate.
“Item 2. I give to my married children the sum of 20 shillings to be levied out of my estate.
“Item 3. I leave to my beloved wife Mary Preece a horse, saddle and Bridle bed and furniture and her wearing Clothes to be her personal Estate. Likewise to have her third of the profits arising from my estate during her life or widowhood, likewise two Cows and Calves.
“Item 4. I leave to my youngest son Richard Preece all my land and tenements and all the farming (sic) Eutenshols belonging to said lands, and all my Stock of horses and cattle that shall be left after paying my just debts and the legacies before left.
Furthermore, I do constitute and ordain my well beloved wife Mary Preece and Richard my beloved son to be my trusty Executors and Administrators to act as I should do and to have the power in the same ? I would have myself and I do here by utterly disallow, revoke and disannul all and every other former testament wills and legacies and Executors by me in any wise before mentioned named willed and bequeathed. Ratifying and Confirming this to and no other to be my last will and testament.
“Whereunto I have set my hand and seal this 15th day of March one thousand seven hundred and ninety one.
William Preece (Seal)
“Signed, Sealed and Confirmed in the presence of us.
Sam’l Robinson
George McConnel
William Preece
Two years after William died in 1803 Mary sold her property to George Hoke and Charles Crumwell. Shortly thereafter she and Richard Lincoln moved to Floyd County? Floyd County is not very far from Russell County. It is just over the hills or mountains as they call them in Kentucky. By this time there must have been several trails through the Appalachian Mountains. It had been thirty years since Daniel Boone and the opening of the Cumberland Gap. I wonder why they moved? They owned land in Russell County. Did Richard Lincoln Priest follow in his Father’s footsteps. Did he have problems with his neighbors and have to leave, or did he get the itch to move on for new adventures? Or, since he had been living in Tazewell County (since Mary (Polly) was born there in 1798 and the article by Rev. T. M. Burris states that Richard was from Tazewell County), was he unhappy he had to move back to Russell County when his Father died to take care of his property and then decided he wanted to move to Floyd County?