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Aaron Prather (aka Prater, Prator) was born in 1710 at the "Orphans' Gift" plantation in Prince George's County, in the English province (colony) of Maryland. He was the youngest child of Col. Thomas Prather[1] and his wife Martha (Sprigg) Prather. The family were gentry-level landowners and social leaders in colonial Maryland. Unfortunately, Aaron's father passed away when he was under 2 years old and his mother remarried shortly thereafter. Thus he was brought up by relatives.
On October 10, 1738, on his 28th birthday, Aaron Prather married his first-cousin, Jane Prather, b: 1710 in Calvert Co., Maryland. She was the daughter of Jonathan Prather and his wife Elizabeth (Bigger) Prather of Anne Arundel County. The two were married in All Hallows Parish (Anglican), Anne Arundel Co., MD; the Rev. William Brogden performed the Ceremony. Maryland's royal Governor, Samuel Ogle, had issued the marriage license (a special dispensation was necessary for this marriage of first cousins); this demonstrates the family's social standing at the time. In the marriage document, Aaron Prather is called "Allen Prather," an apparent clerk's error.[2]
Aaron and Jane (Prather) Prather had 12 children:[3]
Originally settled on a tobacco plantation in Prince George's county, in around 1742 Aaron and Jane Prather moved some 50 miles north-west to a frontier area that in 1748 was separated from Prince George's County and named Frederick County, Maryland. His land was near the present-day town of Rockville, Maryland. That area is now in Montgomery County, Maryland (founded 1776).
Aaron Prather died on 14 February 1777, on his plantation, near today's Rockville, Montgomery Co. (as of 1776), Maryland. His estate was inventoried in Montgomery County on 7 March 1777. [4] [5]
His wife, Jane (Prater) Prather, also passed away on their Montgomery County, property. A RootsWeb biography says she died in 1779. However, as she is never mentioned in Aaron Prather's 1777 estate papers (which include a listing of his children & mention of "Orphan's Court" as his 2 youngest daughters were not 21 years old when he died, it can be assumed that she pre-deceased her husband. This is what the Prather Genealogy web site states ("Jane Prather died: pre-1777"). No Find A Grave memorial has been found for her. [3] [2]
File File: Media Format: jpg. Aaron Prather.
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Featured National Park champion connections: Aaron is 13 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 17 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 14 degrees from George Catlin, 11 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 18 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 15 degrees from George Grinnell, 23 degrees from Anton Kröller, 15 degrees from Stephen Mather, 18 degrees from Kara McKean, 14 degrees from John Muir, 14 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 20 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
Categories: Common Genome of Descendants of Francis Bird
"Maryland Register of Wills Records, 1629-1999," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TBG-ZGG?cc=1803986&wc=SNYH-82W%3A146535001%2C146535002 : 20 May 2014), Montgomery > Accounts, inventories, wills 1777-1780 vol A > image 59 of 202; Hall of Records, Annapolis.
Suggests that perhaps Aaron passed away before March 1777? NOTE: Children named, in order, on p 98 (Image 74) of same document.
edited by Carole (Kirch) Bannes