If they married ca. 1794, Michael was then nearly 40 years old, which argues for him having had an even earlier wife — and additional children.  Sullivan is a burned county, so there are no early records for the county.

1.  Byron Sistler & Barbara Sistler.  1987.  Early East Tennessee Marriages.  Byron Sistler & Assoc., Inc., Nashville, TN (includes all extant ante-bellum marriage records from eastern Tennessee, including Claiborne Co.):  not found.

2.  Census Index:  Colonial America, 1607-1789 (Broderbund CD-310):  There are John and Michael BOWYERs and BOYERs in PA and VA, but without some other clues as to his location, it's difficult to know which, if any, might be our subject.

3.  Census Index:  U.S. Selected Counties, 1790 (Broderbund CD-311):  there was no 1790 census in TN (it was not yet a state).

1796 Tax List	Bowyer, Michal	TN	Sullivan Co.
1797 Tax List	Bowyer, Michal	TN	Sullivan Co.

I checked the William & Sarah (BOYERS) LEWIS record in the 1850 census, and it says Sarah was born in Tennessee and was 53 years old (i.e., born in 1796 or 97), which agrees with the tax rolls showing that the family was in TN from at least 1796 onwards.

4.  Census Index:  U.S. Selected Counties, 1800 (Broderbund CD-312):  not found, but there are no Sullivan Co., TN, records on the CD.  There are records for Grainger and Hawkins Cos., from which Claiborne Co. was later formed, which supports our expectation that our subjects were still in Sullivan Co.

5.  Census Index:  U.S. Selected Counties, 1810 (Broderbund CD-313):  not found, but the 1810 TN census was lost, except for Rutherford, Grainger, and part of Union Cos.

6.  Census Index:  U.S. Selected Counties, 1820 (Broderbund CD-314):  not found, but the 1820 census of Claiborne Co., TN, was lost.

7a.  Census Index:  U.S. Selected Counties, 1830 (Broderbund CD-315):

1830	Boyers, Michael	TN	Claiborne Co.	p. 24
1832	Boyers, Michael	TN	Claiborne Co.

7b.  1830 Census Index/Images (online at Ancestry.com; Image #40 of 97; extracted by Diana Gale Matthiesen):¤-

1830

TN

Claiborne Co.

Roll 18

p. 124

Line

Michael Boyers

000 110 000 100 - 000 220 000 000

no slaves

These data indicate:

No. & Sex	Age Class	Therefore Born	Individuals Inferred
1 male	15-19	1810-1815	= Son A
1 male	20-29	1800-1810	= Joseph (b. ca. 1800)
1 male	70-79	1750-1760	= Michael (b. 1756)
2 females	15-19	1810-1815	= Rebecca (b. ca. 1813) = Susanna (b. 1812)
2 females	20-29	1800-1810	= Mary (b. 1807) = Catharine (b. 1804)

8.  Gale William Bamman & Debbie W. Spero.  c1985. Tennessee Divorces, 1797-1858.  Self-published (P.O. Box 8161, Nashville, TN 37207).
Divorce Record, 1 Oct 1829, Claiborne Co., TN:

To the honourable the general Assembly of the state of Tennessee now in session at Nashville, greetings. Your homble petitioner Michal Boyers of Clayburn County state of Tennessee showeth to your honourable body that about seven years past my wife Margaret absconded and left me without any just cause and is at this time and for a long time past been living with another man while I have continued in a lonesome state destitute of her assistance which constrains me to lay before your Honourable body my situation praying your body to take the same in consideration and grant your Humble petitioner a bill of divorcement. My case is well know to some of your Body and to the under signers of this petition.

9.  WorldConnect / Ancestry World Trees (online at RootsWeb.com/Ancestry.com).

10.  Archives of the CUPP-L mailing list (online at RootsWeb.com).