Priscilla Blount Rawlings was a resident of Martin County along with her husband James Rawlings, a church lay reader. In 1777 her husband got involved in the Gourd Patch Conspiracy and when that plot was discovered, Priscilla and the couple's five young children tried to flee with James and escape to Virginia. They were captured and while James was imprisoned in the New Bern jail, Priscilla waited in New Bern, petitioning for her husband's release and caring for their children. James later escaped from prison in September 1777 but no further records have been found about him, making it unclear whether Priscilla and the children left with him, or if they never saw him again. In 1790 she may have been living in Rutherford County with three sons and two daughters.