I am pretty convinced that Pryor and William Vest of Wilkes County, North Carolina ended up in White County, Tennessee. While the evidence may seem compelling that they may be related to Willis Vess, I haven’t been able to find any solid evidence to prove it.

1807 Wilkes County, North Carolina

In 1807, Pryor and William VEST are in trouble, both with serious court cases. Pryor Vest had been charged with assault. Who he had assaulted is unknown, but the jury had found him not guilty. It appears that William Vest was also involved, as it was ordered that the prosecutor pay for all costs and jail fees for “both cases.” I assume they were in jail and perhaps for a lengthy time, since it also mentions “12 months of good behavior;” but perhaps that meant 12 months of no other infractions. Either way, they probably had a good reason to leave town and start a new life…

1814 White County, Tennessee

In 1814, Pryor Vest obtains land in White County, Tennessee on Caney Fork.

1815-1818 White County, Tennessee

In 1815, Pryor Vest obtains more land on Caney Fork.
From 1815-1818, Pryor and William Vest are listed on the tax records.

1820 White County, Tennessee

In 1820, Peter VESS comes along on the 1820 census.

1823-1826 White County, Tennesse

From 1823-1826, the tax lists show Pryor and William VEST, but under various spellings.

1823: Pryor VEST and William VEST
1824: Prior VASSE and William VASS
1825: William VEST
1826: William VIST and Willis VIST

1830 – 1850 White County, Tennessee

In 1830, Peter VESS is listed on the 1830 census. There is also a Lucy Vess, but doesn’t seem to be listed near Peter Vess or any familiar neighbors.

In 1831, William “VESS” obtains land on the south-side of Caney Fork, which will later become Van Burren County.

Our known ancestor, Willis Vess, is shown on the 1830 census record for Franklin County, Alabama (indexed as VISS); however, in 1837, 1846, and 1849, a Willis “Vess” obtains land on Caney Fork (mountain side, which I believe per the map, the mountain side is the south side of Caney Fork). Note: The TN 1826 tax record Willis is listed as VIST. Is this our Willis Vess or a different Willis Vess??


Willis Vess in Alabama obtained numerous plots of land in Franklin Co. Alabama, who’s to say, he didn’t obtain land elsewhere?

What Ties Them All Together

The tax, land, and census records, show Pryor, William, Peter, and Willis all on Caney Fork, near the same neighbors: Plumley, Dodson, and Hodge. Incredibly, the same Hodge and Dodson family from Virginia where we find records of Samuel, William, and Peter VESS/VEST.

Later census records for Willis Vess state he was born in North Carolina and we have records of Pryor and William VEST being in Wilkes Co. NC prior to 1814.

Also, John P. Vess, who married Sarah Whitlock, believed to be the brother of Willis Vess, has an 1880 census record stating he was born in Tennessee and his parents were born in North Carolina. Interesting how that fits with Pryor and William’s history having lived in North Carolina prior to Tennessee.

Also, Willis Vess has an intriguing land record in Alabama that mentions a heir named William Vess. A person we have yet to identify; unless it is his nephew, William Vess, son of John P. Vess (not 100% confirmed). There is a William Vess on a census record for John P. Vess, but he is listed as a “step-son.”

Of course, census records are notorious for being somewhat inaccurate.

There is also the VESS name itself. Every known Vess line has earlier records with the VEST name. We can usually tell them apart from the VEST family from Virginia, but how records over a period of time end up showing various different spellings, like VESS, VISS, VIST, POST, VASS, etc. I have not seen any VEST family records have such an array of different surname spellings like our VESS family.

Time Line

Trying to fill in the blanks as I locate records…

Tax and land records are available on Familysearch.org, but it stops loading after about 20 slides and takes a long time for it to work again – so progress in searching records in a file of 1500 slides is super slow.

YEAR	Name	Record	Location
1814	Pryor Vest	Land Record	Caney Fork
1815	Pryor Vest	Land Record	Caney Fork
1815	Pryor and William Vest	Tax List	Caney Fork
1816	Pryor and William Vest	Tax List	Caney Fork
1817	Pryor and William Vest	Tax List	Caney Fork
1818	Pryor and William Vest	Tax List	Caney Fork
1819
1820	Peter Vess	Census Record	Caney Fork
1821
1822
1823	Pryor and William Vest	Tax List	Caney Fork
1824	Prior Vasse and William Vass	Tax List	Caney Fork
1825	William Vest	Tax List	Caney Fork
1826	William Vist and Willis Vist	Tax List	Caney Fork
1827
1829
1830	Peter Vess	Census Record	Caney Fork
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835