John Pratt (abt. 1608 - 1655)

Born about 1608 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 Jul 1655 at about age 47 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut

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John Pratt migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 3, p. 1507) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Disputed Origin

According to the Great Migration Begins page 1510 these parents have still not been proven and are therefore marked as uncertain.

Biography

John Pratt was born in Hertfordshire, England.

John Pratt was born in England about 1608. His approximate date of birth was estimated from his being 25 at his marriage about 1633. He was at least 21 in 1634 when he became a freeman^[1], thus implying he was born before 1613. His father may have been Rev. William Pratt of Stevenage, Hertforshire. He passed away at Hartford, Connecticut about July 8, 1655.^[1]. John Pratt had a brother William Pratt, who migrated with him, and later settled at Saybrook, Connecticut. John married, apparently while still in England, a woman whose first name was Elizabeth.

John and Elizabeth Pratt had two sons,

1. John Pratt]], b. say 1633; m. (1) Hannah Boosey; m. 2 Hepsibah Wyatt^[1][2]
2. Daniel Pratt, b. say 1635; m. about 1660 Hannah Warner.^[1][2]

It is known that John Pratt was associated with Rev. Thomas Hooker. He may have emigrated to America in 1633 or 1634. He first resided at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He probably made the long journey overland to Hartford, Connecticut with Hooker's party.

This is a web site describing the overland route probably taken by the early settlers of Connecticut: [The Old Connecticut Path]

While still in Massachusetts, John Pratt served on the committee to layout land in 1635/6. In Connecticut, he was a deputy to the Connecticut General Court and served on jurys. He was also in charge of the prison house in 1655.^[1] He was a farmer and owned five parcels of land in Hartford. He left a will naming both sons and his wife. ^[3] His estate inventory including land was worth over 500 £. A street in central downtown Hartford is named "Pratt Street" after John Pratt's family. It is about two city blocks from the site of Rev. Hooker's church.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Anderson: Great Migration Begins p 1507-9
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Bailey: Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut
3. ↑ The Pratt family: or, The descendants of Lieut. William Pratt, ... Chapman, F. W. (Frederick William), 1806-1876 Page 309

• Robert Charles Anderson, "John Pratt",The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol III, Boston, New England Historic Genelogical Society 1995. p. 1507 - 1510.
• Savage, Joseph, Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1981, Originally Published: Boston, 1860-1862. p. 472
• Barbour, Lucius Barnes, 1977, Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut, Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., Baltimore, Maryland and Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc., Glastonbury, Connecticut pp.465-457.
• [The Old Connecticut Path]
• Pratt, Walter Wilcox. The Ancestry and the Descendants of John Pratt of Hartford, Conn. (Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1900) Page 10
• Starr, Frank. Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut (Hartford, Conn., 1915) Vol. 1, Page 1-9