PRISCILLA (BOYDSTON) CECIL, WIFE OF BENJAMIN SOLLERS CECIL, OF MONTGOMERY CO., VA AND WAYNE CO., KY by Charles M. Ward, Jr.

Priscilla (Boydston) Cecil, wife of Benjamin Sollers Cecil, has been overlooked as a child of James Boydston in previous published accounts of the Boydston family.Her identity is revealed in an entry taken from a family record preserved by the descendants of Benjamin S. and Priscilla Cecil which states, "James Boydston Father of Priscilla Cecil died Feb 6th 1814."This entry confirms Priscilla (Boydston) Cecil's status as James Boydston's daughter.

The earliest published account dealing with Benjamin and Priscilla Cecil was in 1891 in THE GENEALOGY OF THE CECIL FAMILY OF AMERICA by Thomas M. Cecil, James B. Caddell, and J.R. Miller, in which Priscilla was listed as "Priscilla Boyeston."Still later, in a letter dated 19 Dec 1925, Judge Beatty Cecil, of New River, TN stated that his great-great grandmother was "Priscilla Boyleston."

The Boydston surname was spelled in a variety of ways in the middle and late eighteenth century with variants such as Boydstone, Boylstone, Boyleston, Boylston, Bilestone, and others.The "Boylstone" and "Boydstone" spellings were used interchangably during this period.The name came to be standardized by most descendants as "Boydston" in the early nineteenth century

A discussion of Priscilla (Boydston) Cecil would not be complete without examining the association between the Boydston and Cecil families before and after the marriage of Priscilla Boydston to Benjamin Sollers Cecil.

James Boydston, Priscilla Cecil's father, was born about 1737 and resided in Frederick Co., MD in the 1750s. James "Boylstone" can be found in Captain James Thompson's List of Tithables for the year 1772 in Montgomery Co., VA (present-day Pulaski Co., VA).Also found on this list is Samuel Cecil (1719-1786), father of Benjamin Sollers Cecil.Boydston and Cecil are also found on Stephen Trigg's List of Tithables in 1773, with James being recorded as "James Boydstone."The records of McCorkle's Store in present-day Pulaski County, beginning in 1774, indicate both James Boydstone and Samuel Cecil (1719-1786) were customers.

The following individuals are found in close proximity on a list of men swearing allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia on 12 Sep 1777 in Montgomery Co., VA:

James Boydstone Jno. Prewit Henry Prewit William Boydstone Benj. Sal. Cicil James Boydstone, Jr.

James Boydstone was said to have married Mary Prewitt and no doubt John and Henry Prewitt were her kinsmen.William Boydstone was a half-brother of James Boydstone and James Boydstone, Jr. was a son of James Boydstone.

It is probable that Benjamin Sollers Cecil had married Priscilla Boydston by 1777 when Benjamin Sollers Cecil appears on the above mentioned list with members of the Boydston and Prewitt families.Benjamin Sollers Cecil has appeared in past published accounts of the Cecil family with a birthdate listed as being about 1762/4.One unconfirmed source lists his birth as having occurred on 28 (or 23) Jan 1764.However, the 1762/4 year of birth is clearly wrong.Benjamin Sollers Cecil is found in militia records dating from 1774.Clearly, even considering the young ages of some militia men, he would not have been ten to twelve years old.It is more likely that Benjamin Sollers Cecil was between sixteen and eighteen years old in 1774, which would place his year of birth at about 1756/1758.Records would also indicate, in a reconstruction of his family, that his eldest child was born about 1779, so all these factors would tend to corroborate one another.

James Boydston assigned his rights to four hundred acres in Montgomery Co., VA to Benjamin Sollers Cecil in 1781. Boydston had originally settled this acreage in 1771 and it was adjacent to land owned by Samuel Cecil (1719-1786), the father of Benjamin Sollers Cecil.This clearly shows that Samuel Cecil, the father of Benjamin Sollers Cecil, and James Boydston, the father of Priscilla Boydston, lived adjacent to one another.So, in other words, Benjamin Sollers Cecil married "the girl next door."

Leaving Virginia, James Boydston settled in North Carolina in an area that would later become the state of TN.Later he moved to Logan Co., KY where he is said to have died.Benjamin S. and Priscilla (Boydston) Cecil honored James Boydston by naming their eldest son in his honor.

Priscilla Boydston was born about 1759 and her birth would have taken place in Frederick Co., MD.One unconfirmed source lists her birth as occurring on 22 Apr 1759.Surviving records list her name as "Priscilla" and not "Peggy" as some researchers contend.She married Benjamin Sollers Cecil during the relatively short time that her father resided in Montgomery Co., VA.Unlike other members of her family, she stayed with her husband and his family in VA when her father moved to NC and still later into KY.Years later, her husband would sell his VA land and they too would settle in KY, establishing themselves in Wayne County.Benjamin S. and Priscilla Cecil are buried at the Washington Young Cemetery in Wayne Co., KY.

In addition to the entry from the family record describing James Boydston as the father of Priscilla Cecil, there are numerous public records which testify to the close link between the Cecil and Boydston families;a link which has unfortunately been largely forgotten.I hope by publishing this article to rectify the situation.

Copyright @2000 Charles M. Ward, Jr. Copying is permitted for noncommercial, educational use by individual scholars and libraries. This message must appear on all copied material. Any other use, including electronic reproduction or distribution, requires written permission of the author.

Gedcom Sources

• https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mwgrogan/data/nti06226.html
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/82266308/priscilla-cecil
• https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/w/e/a/Christopher-D-Weaver/GENE5-0005...
• http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~abnercasey/genealogy/combined/fam000...
• https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/boydston/275/

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• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jun 14 2020, 20:56:14 UTC