Early Life and Education
Pryor was born near Petersburg, Virginia as the second child of Lucy Atkinson and Theodorick Bland Pryor, a minister. He had an older sister Lucy. His father was a grandson of Richard Bland and his paternal ancestors were descended from early Virginia colonists. After his mother died young, his father remarried and had several children with his second wife.
Pryor graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1845 and from the law school of the University of Virginia in 1848.
The following year, he was admitted to the bar, but abandoned law on account of ill health. He started working as a journalist before his marriage.
Read more about this topic: Roger Atkinson Pryor
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