| Notes |
- Database: The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33
PHINEAS PRATT
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1622 on the Sparrow
FIRST RESIDENCE: Weymouth
REMOVES: Plymouth 1623, Charlestown 1648
OCCUPATION: Joiner.
FREEMAN: In the "1633" Plymouth list of freemen ahead of those admitted on 1 January 1632/3 [PCR 1:4]. He appears immediately following Joshua Pratt on the 7 March 1636/7 list of Plymouth freemen [PCR 1:52]. In Plymouth section of 1639 list of freemen, but his name is crossed out and noted "gone," presumably when he left for Charlestown [PCR 8:174].
EDUCATION: He was author of the remarkable Declaration, which showed him to be an intelligent man with an eye for detail. He signed his will, and his inventory included 8s. in books.
OFFICES: Coroner's jury on the body of John Deacon, 2 March 1635/6 [PCR 1:39]. Plymouth petit jury, 2 October 1637 [PCR 7:7].
He appears in the Plymouth section of the 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [PCR 8:187].
ESTATE: In 1623 Plymouth land division, paired with Joshua Pratt as recipients of two acres as passengers on the Anne in 1623 [PCR 12:6]. In 1627 Plymouth cattle division, thirteenth person in company of Francis Cooke [PCR 12:9].
Assessed 9s., the minimum amount, in the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 [PCR 1:10, 27].
On 10 March 1633/4 "Phineas Prat, joiner, in the behalf of Marah his wife," exchanged thirty acres near the high cliff with Mr. Thomas Prence, for another thirty acres at Winslow's [PCR 1:26]. On 14 March 1635/6 Phineas Pratt was to have hayground "between Fr[ancis] Billington and his own house" and on 20 March 1636/7 he was granted the same hay ground he and Mr. Coomes had the last year [PCR 1:40, 56]. On 1 June 1640 Phineas Pratt was granted five acres of meadow [PCR 1:154]. On 2 November 1640 he was granted six acres in the north meadow by Joanes River [PCR 1:166]. On 5 August 1640 he joined John Combe, gentleman, in selling the acre that came to him from Godbert Godbertson in marriage to Godbertson's step-daughter [PCR 12:61]. On 26 August 1646 "Phineas Prate of Plimoth, joiner," sold to John Cooke Jr. of Plymouth, planter, "all that his house & housing and garden place and orchard ... and fifty acres of upland, two acres of meadow at Joanes River ... [and] six acres of upland meadow"; Mary, his wife, consented to this sale, as did "Samuell Cudberte" [PCR 12:137-38]. He was twenty-eighth on the list of purchasers [PCR 2:177].
On 5 June 1658 the court allowed "Phenias Prat" to look for a tract of land to accommodate himself and his posterity [PCR 3:139]. Phineas Pratt and Elder Bates (in behalf of the children of Clement Briggs) petitioned the court and the court ordered on 8 June 1664 that since Briggs and Pratt had not received their proportions of land as other "Purchasers" had, two of Briggs's sons and Pratt were to have three hundred and fifty acres granted to them [PCR 4:68]. On 7 June 1665 "Pheneas Pratt and James Lovell" were granted "a certain parcel of meadow ... lying on the westerly side of Phenias Pratt's land that was granted unto him the last June Court ... to be equally divided betwixt them" [PCR 4:97]. On 1 January 1672/3 Phineas and Mary Pratt of Charlestown sold to John Shaw Sr. of Weymouth the land granted to them by the court on 8 June 1664 and 7 June 1665 [PCLR 3:271].
On 30 June 1676 "Phineas Pratt aged eighty-one years" deposed "that the lands formerly which I did live upon and did enjoy at Plimouth ... containing twenty acres ... was granted by the Court unto Mr. John Combs" [MD 2:46, citing PLR 1:81].
On 20 May 1648 George Bunker sold to "Phinias Prat" a house and garden in Charlestown [ChBOP 99]. Phineas Pratt drew lot #54 in the 1 March 1657/8 division of wood and commons on Mystic Side [ChBOP 77]. On 21 January 1662/3, Phineas Pratt and wife Mary sold to John Smith a woodlot in Charlestown [MLR 10:136].
In payment for his history of the early settlement entitled A Declaration of the Affairs of the English People That First Inhabited New England, the General Court on 7 May 1662 granted him three hundred acres "where it is to be had, not hindering a plantation" [MBCR 4:2:56]; on 20 October 1664 this land was laid out "east of Merremack River, near the upper end of Nacooke Brook, on the southeast of it" [MBCR 4:2:154-55]. In October 1668 Phineas Pratt again petitioned the General Court asking for further assistance [MHSC 4:4:487-88; MD 4:134-35], but this petition went unanswered. Although the General Court declined his request, the selectmen of Charlestown provided amply for him for the rest of his life [MD 4:135-36, citing Charlestown Town Orders 3:96, 100, 205, 4:2, 16, 17].
In his will, dated 8 January 1677[/8] and proved 15 June 1680, "Phinias Pratt of Charlstown ... joiner, being very aged and crazy of body," bequeathed to "my beloved wife Mary Pratt all my moveable goods and 40s. a year to be paid out of my land in Charlestowne and the use of the garden for term of her life"; "this 40s. is to be paid by my son Joseph Pratt for and in consideration of the having of my land and my wife is to have a convenient room of my son Joseph with a chimney in it to her content to live in for term of her life, without molestation or trouble, but if my son Joseph doth not perform this will that then my wife Mary Pratt shall have the one half of the land to her disposing for her best comfort; it is to be understood that the one half which the new house standeth on is given to Joseph upon the condition of providing of a convenient room for me and my wife for term of our lives and this other half for the paying of the 40s. a year"; residue at the death "of my wife it shall be equally divided among all my children" [MPR Case #12762; MD 4:139].
The inventory of the estate of "Phinias Prat of Charlstown, deceased," was taken 21 May 1680 and totalled œ40 16s. 6d., including real estate valued at œ24: "a parcel of land," œ18; and "cow common in Charlstown stinted common," œ6 [MPR Case #12762; MD 4:139-40].
The town of Charlestown supported the widow Pratt with a small annual stipend, as seen in town orders dated 5 February 1683/4 and 7 March 1686/7 [MD 4:137, citing Charlestown Town Orders 4:56, 84].
On 31 July 1738 the court's commissioners examined the estate of Phineas Pratt and determined that a share be given to each of the children, including the heirs of sons John and Peter, who were then dead. Although most of the other children were also deceased at that date, they were not so noted. The children listed were John, Samuel, Daniel, Peter, Mary, Joseph, Aaron and Mercy [MD 4:138].
BIRTH: About 1593 (deposed 30 June 1674 aged "eighty-one years or thereabouts" [MD 2:46, citing PLR 1:81], but see the inscription on his tombstone, which would make him slightly older).
DEATH: Charlestown 19 April 1680 ("Pinas Pratt [Senr.], of Charlstowne, joiner, died Apr. 19, 1680 [one of the 1st Planters in New England]" [ChVR 1:110]. The inscription on his tombstone is frequently quoted: "Fugit Hora. Here lies the body of Phinehas Pratt ag[e]d about 90 y[ea]rs dec[ease]d April the 19 1680 & was one of the first English inhabitants of the Massachusets Colony" [MHSC 4:4:476].
MARRIAGE: By about 1633 Mary Priest, daughter of DEGORY PRIEST and Sarah (Allerton) (Vincent) Priest, and step-daughter of GODBERT GODBERTSON. (On 3 August 1640 "Josuah Pratt" deposed regarding two acres of upland at Wellingsly Brook that were given by Godbert Godbertson to JOHN COOMBE, gentleman, and Phineas Pratt, in marriage with their wives, his [Godbertson's] step-daughters [PCR 1:159]. On 11 November 1633, Phineas Pratt was appointed to "take into his possession all the goods and chattels of Godbert Godbertson & Zarah, his wife, & safely to preserve them" [PCR 1:19].) She is likely the "Widow Pratt lately died" at Charlestown in July 1689 [MD 4:136, citing Charlestown Town Orders 4:93].
CHILDREN:
i MARY, b. about 1633 (d. Cambridge 11 February 1702[/3] "in her 70th year"); m. Cambridge 1 March 1655[/6] John Swan.
ii JOHN, b. say 1635; m. by 1664 Ann Barker (eldest child b. Kingstown, Rhode Island, 13 November 1664 [RIVR 7:70], daughter of John Barker [Macdonough-Hackstaff 425]. (See MD 3:1-7 for a discussion of the later life of this John Pratt and of his children.)
iii SAMUEL, b. say 1637; m. by 1668 Mary Barker, daughter of John Barker [Gen Adv 4:31-32]. She married as her second husband Francis Coombs, son of JOHN COOMBS.
iv DANIEL, b. say 1641; m. by about 1680 Anna _____ [MF 8:9].
v PETER, b. say 1643; m. Lyme, Connecticut, 5 August 1679 Elizabeth (Griswold) Rogers [Lyme VR 255], widow of John Rogers and daughter of Matthew and Anna (Wolcott) Griswold [MF 8:11].
vi MERCY, b. say 1645; m. by about 1665 Jeremiah Holman (eldest child Deborah m. in 1687 and had younger sibling b. 1667 [MF 8:10, 24]).
vii JOSEPH, b. say 1647; m. Charlestown 12 January 1674/5 "Dorcas Foldgier" [ChVR 1:89], daughter of Peter Folger.
viii AARON, b. about 1654 (d. 23 February 1735/6, aged eighty-one [Cohasset VR 221]; this estimated year of birth is not impossible, but the age at death may be misstated); m. (1) say 1684 Sarah Pratt, daughter of Joseph Pratt [Small Gen 910-11]; m. (2) Reading 4 September 1707 Sarah (Wright) Cummings, daughter of Joseph Wright and widow of Abraham Cummings [Parker-Ruggles 208-09].
ASSOCIATIONS: See JOSHUA PRATT for a discussion of the likelihood that he and Phineas Pratt were brothers.
COMMENTS: According to his Declaration, Phinehas Pratt was one of ten men who came to the new world on behalf of THOMAS WESTON, in the ship Sparrow in 1622. They arrived far up the coast at "Damorall's Cove" where they attempted to acquire a pilot, but none among the fishing ships there nor the Indians would assist them. Sailing down the coast, they recognized Plymouth when a round of celebratory ordnance greeted them. Two further ships with Weston's men followed and by August 1622 the settlement of Wessagusset [Weymouth] was commenced. Unfortunately, they spent their time building fortifications and were soon starving.
On learning of the intent of some Indians to wipe out the English at both Wessagussett and Plymouth, Pratt determined to travel on foot to Plymouth to warn the settlement and look for help. Pursued through the snow, he lost his way, and consequently lost his pursuers who better knew the path. Arriving nearly exhausted "running down a hill I [saw] an English man coming in the path before me. Then I sat down on a tree & rising up to salute him said, `Mr. Hamdin, I am glad to see you alive.' He said, `I am glad & full of wonder to see you alive: let us sit down, I see you are weary'" [MD 4:91-92]. Miles Standish and his company, now amply warned, set out on a preemptive attack, which warded off the anticipated danger. Phineas made his home at Plymouth for a quarter of a century thereafter.
On 5 November 1644 "Thomas Bunting, dwelling with Phineas Pratt, hath, with and by the consent of the said Phineas, put himself as a servant to dwell with John Cooke, Junior ... during the term of eight years ... the said John Cooke having paid the said Phineas for him one milch cow ... and 40s. in money and is to lead the said Phineas two loads of hay yearly during the term of seven years" [PCR 2:78].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: The full text of Phineas Pratt's remarkable narration was published in 1858 [MHSC 4:4:476].
Rodney MacDonough prepared in 1902 a com~pre~hensive biography of Phineas [MacDonough-Hackstaff 382-423; MD 4:87-98, 129-140]. The eighth volume of the Five Generations Project of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, covering the descendants of Degory Priest, includes information on the children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of Phineas Pratt; our estimation of the ages of the children of Phineas Pratt differs slightly from the estimations made in this study.
Type=Database/Book
Book/Periodical Name=The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33
Date of Research/Discovery=1 August 2000
Quality of Data=Good
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