Prescott John b. 1605 Standish, Lancashire, England, U.K. d. DEC 1681 Lancaster

1605 - 1681

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Birth 1605 Standish, Lancashire, England, U.K. [1]

Gender Male

_UPD 14 AUG 2009 23:35:30 GMT-5

Died Dec 1681 Lancaster [2]

Buried old burial field at Lancaster [2]

Person ID I4931 Alan Donald Vibber

Last Modified 08 Dec 2009

Father Prescott Ralph, b. 1572

Mother Ellen

Family ID F2062 Group Sheet

Family Platts Mary

Married 21 Jan 1629 Wygan, Lancashire, England, U.K. [1]

Children

1. Prescott Jonas, b. Jun 1648, Lancaster

, d. 31 Dec 1723

Family ID F2061 Group Sheet

Notes	John Prescott. 1605-1681. James Prescott, who married a Standish, was of Standish in Lancashire, Eng., in the time of good Queen Elizabeth. An order of Her Majesty, dated August, 1564, directs him "to keep in readiness horsemen and armor." He had six sons, the oldest of whom was Sir James Prescott, of the manor of Dryby in Lincolnshire, who married Alice Molineaux. The second son, Roger, married (1) Elizabeth and (2) Ellen Shaw of Standish. Ralph, youngest son of Roger and Ellen, born in 1572, had a wife, Ellen, and a youngest child, John Prescott, the emigrant, who was born at Standish in 1605. He married Jan. 21, 1629, at Wygan, in Lancashire, Mary Platta, "a Yorkshire girl," and removed to Sower'oy in Yorkshire, where he lived for some seven years. In 1638 he emigrated to Barbados, W. I., where he became a landowner. There does not appear to be any evidence that religious matters had anything to do with his emigration. In 1640 he migrated from the island of Barbados to the Massachusetts Bay colony in North America. He landed at Boston, and took up his residence at Watertown, which was a sort of "clearing-house" for early emigrants. He had grants of land at Watertown. In 1843 heassociated himself with Thomas King (see p. 20) and others in the purchase from Sholan, the Indian Sachem of the Nasbaway tribe, of a large tract of land, where he became one of the pioneer settlers.He was probably settled on these lands by June, 1645. In 1652 this settlement at Nashaway, of which for forty years John Prescott was the leading spirit, was incorporated and, " at the request of theinhabitants," was given the name of " Prescott" by the House of Deputies. Some of the Puritan Deputies discovered, however, after this graceful act had been performed, that, from their point of view,John Prescott was not all that he ought to be. He had maintained his liberty of conscience, which was something that they could not tolerate — especially under the sway of a John Endecott. The awful fact transpired that John Prescott had " never given public adhesion to the established church covenant;" in short, he was not a " freeman," and, therefore, not eligible for any kind of an office, andnot even a voter, so to name a whole township, and especially one where there was a good deal of " heresy," after such a man, could not be thought of. In 1653 the name of the town was changed by the House of Deputies to West Town, and, finally, as a sort of compromise, to Lancaster. Thus this town bears, at the present day, instead of one of the greatest of American family names, the name of the native county in England of the founder of that family. John Prescott is surely deserving of high honor, if for no other reason, for the stand which he took in favor of intellectual and religious liberty. He was a supnorter of Dr. Robert Child, who truthfully set forth in his petition to the Massachusetts government, in 1646, that there were "many thousands in these plantations" who were most unjustly detained from voting and from all part in the government because " they will not take these church covenants." Gov. John Winthrop, in his history of New England (II. 306), relates, with pious superstition, the ills which "a special providence of God"brought upon those who favored Child's petition. He tells how the pioneer Prescott " lost a horse and his lading in Sudbury river, and a week after, his wife and children, being upon another horse, were hardly saved from drowning." All this befell Prescott on account of his refusal to promptly bend the knee to the Puritan theocracy ! Governor Winthrop failed to note the wonderful interposition ofprovidence which saved Prescott's wife and children from a watery grave, which he would have been quick to do had it suited his purpose. John Prescott finally found it advisable to become a " freeman " in 1669, when he was about sixty-four years of age, and after the religious restrictions had been altered by instructions from the government of Charles II. In 1654 John Prescott built the first grist-mill in Lancaster, and also, later, a saw-mill. In 1667, by contract with Capt. James Parker and others, a committee of citizens of Groton, he built a grist-mill in Groton, to which a saw-mill was afterwards added, receiving, in consideration, 520 acres of land in Groton and various privileges. Ke and his family escaped the Indian massacre of 1676, whenLancaster was destroyed, and remained uninhabited for three years. He returned to Lancaster about 1679, and rebuilt his mills and houses. He brought with him to America a suit cf armor which had probably been worn by him, or some of his ancestors, in the British army. This he used sometimes to don, greatly to the terror of the Indians. He died at Lancaster in December, 1G81. Eis wife died a short time before him. In the old burial 3cd at Ijancaster the remains of this ideal pioneer man were laid. Ticre, upon a rude fragment of slate-stone, may be deciphered the words, faintly traced, "John Prescott deceased."

Sources

[S253] Who Begot Thee? Some Genealogical and Historical Notes Made in an Effort to Trace the American Progenitors of One Individual Living in America in 1903, Gilbert Oliver Bent, Gilbert Oscar Bent, (Name: Printed for private distribution, 1903;), 36 (Reliability: 3).
[S253] Who Begot Thee? Some Genealogical and Historical Notes Made in an Effort to Trace the American Progenitors of One Individual Living in America in 1903, Gilbert Oliver Bent, Gilbert Oscar Bent, (Name: Printed for private distribution, 1903;), 37 (Reliability: 3).