John Benjamin Pryor was counted in Adams County, Mississippi on the 1850 and 1860 US Census. 2 He was a slave owner and horse trainer, employed by the prominent Mississippi politician Adam Lewis Bingaman.
By the 1861 UK Census Pryor had traveled to England, where he continued his employment as a horse trainer at Chesterfield House in Woodditton, Cambridgeshire, living with his wife Frances, sister in law Cordelia Bingaman, and 7 children.