The Person Family of Louisburg, North Carolina can be traced all the way back to the first of the Persons in North America, John Person (ca. 1630-1707).  Person emigrated from southwestern England to what is now Isle of Wright County, Virginia in 1648.  In Virginia, Person ran a plantation and had a single son, John Person Jr. (ca. 1660-1738), with his wife Frances Cook.  

John Person Jr. eventually had eight sons and three daughters; at least four of Person Jr.’s sons left Virginia for North Carolina at some point during their lives.  One of those sons, William Person, was the father of General Thomas Person (1733-1800, not to be confused with several other members of the family who were or eventually were named Thomas), an important figure in the Revolution era North Carolina.  Another one of John Person Jr.’s sons, Francis Person (ca. 1697-1758) settled in Granville County, just north of Wake County.  Francis would go on to have 12 children, one of whom was Jesse Person (1747-1806), the grandfather of Thomas Arrington Person, the father of Prudence Person and a long-term owner of the Person Place in Louisburg, North Carolina.  

Of Jesse and his wife Amy’s children, Presley Carter Person (ca. 1785-1847) was the youngest.  Presley Person was the first of the Person family members to move to Franklin County, North Carolina (Louisburg, the site of the Person Place, is situated in the center of Franklin County).  Presley Person was able to accumulate an impressive estate of over 5000 acres and 60 slaves during his life in addition to serving as both county trustee and sheriff.  Of many different plots of land Presley owned and farmed, he and his family lived on a 2258 acre plot of land in Sandy Creek, North Carolina.  Presley’s oldest child, Thomas Arrington Person (October 8, 1808-March 12, 1867) lived on that same plot of land in Sandy Creek with his wife and their six young children.  Starting in 1854, Mary and Sally Person, two of Thomas' daughters, began attending the Louisburg Female Academy.  They lived in a house (that would later become the Person Place) owned by Asher Ray, the headmaster of the Female Academy, adjacent to the school grounds.

  

Thomas A. Person was able to experience the same economic successes as his father did by farming their land and purchased Ray's home and some surrounding land in 1858.  Thomas A. Person’s primary motivation for buying Ray’s plot of land and relocating the family appears to have been to give the rest of his children, ranging from age six to twenty at the time, access to higher quality education in the form of the Louisburg Female College (renamed from the Louisburg Female Academy) and the Franklin Male Academy next door.  Thomas A. Person and his wife Abiah had a total of ten children:  five boys and five girls, all of whom appeared to have survived into adulthood.  Several of Thomas’ sons fought for the Confederates in the Civil War and two of them in particular, Jesse (the second oldest son) and Thomas Jr. (the third oldest son), lost their lives during combat.  Prudence Person (often called “Prude”), who compiled this scrapbook, was the youngest daughter of Thomas and Abiah.  She married her first cousin Willie Mangum Person, though they never had any children.  Prudence was the primary resident of the Person Place and head of household from the time of her mother’s death in 1892 until her own death in 1922 at the age of 76.