Spouse: Rebecca Simpson

Child-1: John, Jr. - b: ~1784 - Madison Co., VA
                             d: Aug/1821 - Daviess Co., IN
                            m: Rhoda Broyles - 30/Sep/1814 - Jefferson Co., KY
          2: William

Biographical Details:

The surname "Pringle" is quite uncommon, but is believed to derive from a particular place located near the border of Northumberland with Scotland (Roxburghshire).¹  Alternatively, it has been suggested that the surname is in some way associated with an obsolete, small silver Scottish coin, marked by "XX", worth about a pence (prior to the adoption of a decimal monetary system within the United Kingdom), and also known as a "pringle".²  However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, usage of this term for the coin dates only to the late seventeenth century and since the surname almost certainly was already in use, there would seem to be no etymological support for any such presumed association.  Therefore, the origin and meaning of the surname remains obscure at best.

Nothing definite is known regarding John Pringle, Sr.  Indeed, his existence is merely an inference derived from the assertion that Delilah Pringle, who accompanied her uncle, William Pringle, when he settled in McDonough County, Illinois, in 1830, was the daughter of John Pringle, Jr.³

1. Patrick Hanks (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, periodically updated.
     "Scottish and English (Northumbria): habitational name from a place near Stow Roxburghshire, formerly called Hop(p)ringle, from Middle English hop 'enclosed valley' + a name of Old Norse origin composed of the byname Prjónn 'pin', 'peg' + an unidentified second element."
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2. John Simpson (chief ed.), Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, continuously updated.
      "Pringle, a small silver Scotch coin, worth about a penny, with two XX on it."
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3. Delma Rae Carpenter, Sr., "Clore-Glore Genealogy", unpublished MSS: pg. 136.
      "She (Delilah Pringle, daughter of John Pringle, Jr.) was reared in the home of her uncle William Pringle with whom she went to Illinois in 1830."  This manuscript is a typescript and update of an earlier, handwritten manuscript by Dr. Arthur Leslie Keith and is available in the Madison County Library, 402 N. Main St., Madison, Virginia.  The original of Keith's manuscript is at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois.  Moreover, according to these and other sources, Deliliah Pringle was born in Kentucky on June 20, 1817, and died near Macomb in McDonough County, Illinois, on June 5, 1867.  Concomitantly, according to archived Illinois marriage records, she married George H. Rice in McDonough County on August 1, 1835.  It is thought that he was born in Daviess County, Indiana, about 1813 and died in McDonough County before 1850.  They reportedly had four children, viz., William H. H., Clarissa, Martha Jane, and George H. Rice, Jr.
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Additional Citations:

4. Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Illinois State Archives & Illinois Genealogical Society, Springfield, IL, 2014.  ("Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900", www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases/marriage.html)

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