John Prescott Notes

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Contents 1 WikiTree Pages of Interest 2 Notes 2.1 Prescott (1870) 2.2 Bent (1903)

WikiTree Pages of Interest

John Prescott (abt.1604-bef.1681)

Notes

2022: The following lengthy extractions were removed from the profile and posted here.

Prescott (1870)

From “The Prescott Memorial, or a genealogical memoir of the Prescott families in America, in two parts” by William Prescott, MD, 1870, pp.34-40.

He is named in his father's will. He married, Jan. 21,1629, Mary Platts, at Wygan in Lancashire. Her family appears to have been subsequently of the parish of Halifax in Yorkshire, some of whom are mentioned in the will of George Fairbanks of Sowerby. dated in 1650.

Mr. P. sold his lands in Shevington, parish of Standish, in Lancashire, to Richard Prescott of Wigan, and removed into Yorkshire, residing for some time in Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax, where several of his children were born. From conscientious motives, and to avoid persecution, he left his native land, his cherished home in Yorkshire, to seek an asylum in the wilderness of America. He first landed at Barbadoes in 1638, where he became an owner of lands. In 1640 he came to New England, landed at Boston, and immediately settled in Watertown, where he had large grants of lands allotted him. But in 1643 he associated himself with Thomas King and others, for the purpose of purchasing of Sholan, the Indian Sachem of the Nashaway tribe of Indians, a tract of land for a township, which tract was to be ten miles in length and eight in breadth.

A Brief History of the Negotiation and Purchase from Sholan, Chief of the Nashaway tribe of Indians, of the territory of which the town of Lancaster, Mass., was afterward composed ; together with its subsequent settlement, and its suffering and final destruction by fire by the Indians.

" Early in the seventeenth century, some eight years before the settlement of Plymouth, many of the tribes of Massachusetts Indians had been swept over by a dreadful pestilence, reducing their numbers from many thousands to a few hundreds. In this severe affliction the Nashaway tribe suffered, though not equally with the others. The Nashaways had also been greatly reduced by the wars and incursions of the Maquas or Mohawks, a powerful and warlike tribe on the Mohawk River, N. Y. This tribe had become the scourge and terror of all the New England Indians. These circumstances induced the peaceful Sholan, the Sachem of the Nashaways, to seek the friendship and protection of the English. Sholan occasionally visited Watertowu for the purpose of trading with Mr. Thomas King, who resided there. He recommended Nashawogg as a place well suited for a plantation. He told King of the choice intervales, the woods and waters abounding in supplies, — that the Great Spirit had been very bountiful to the place, and that his people would rejoice in the presence of that great people who had come from a distant world.' "*

Finally King decides to visit the place, perilous though the undertaking might seem. He accordingly takes the journey through the wilderness, and becomes enamoured with the place and returns to Watertown. He makes such favorable report of the adaptation of the territory to agricultural and mechanical purposes, &c., that in 1643 he enters into an association and agreement with John Prescott of Watertown, Harmon Garrett of Charlestown, Thomas Skidmore of Cambridge, Stephen Day of Cambridge (the earliest printer in any of the colonies), a Mr. Simonds, and sundry others whose names have not been transmitted, for the purpose of purchasing the tract (ten miles by eight, as above stated).

According to Mr. Willard, in his elaborate address at the two-hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Lancaster, the above purchase was made, and the territory of Nashaway first "opened upon the view of the white man while the good Sholan or Shaumaun exercised a peaceful rule in this, his little empire, over the tribe of the Nashaways. His principal place of residence was on a gentle eminence, between the two lakes of the Washacum in Chocksett (a corruption or contraction of Woonksechmicksett or Woonhsechauxett), now Sterling." The purchasers entered into an agreement to appear and begin the plantation at a specified time. The deed of Sholan was sanctioned by the General Court, but there were many circumstances which combined to retard the growth of the plantation, all the associates except Mr. Prescott refusing or neglecting to fulfil their contracts, though choosing to retain their interest in the property purchased. It is stated by Mr. Willard that "one only of the associates, John Prescott the stalwart blacksmith, was ' faithful among the faithless.' He turned not back, but vigorously pursued the interests of the plantation till his exertions were crowned with success."

Mr. Prescott having chosen this for his future home, he with others petitioned for a bridge over Sudbury River. But the subject being delayed by the General Court, Mr. Prescott, nothing daunted, attempts the perilous adventure of swimming his horse across Sudbury River in the autumn of 1646, but unfortunately he lost his horse and lading in the river, escaping with his own life only. About one week later, his wife and children being upon another horse, attempted to pass the river and came near being drowned. Upon this narrow escape Mr. Willard utters the following significant reflection : " One plunge more by that last horse, or a little deeper water, and American literature would not now be graced by the brilliant classic history of Ferdinand and Isabella, of the Conquest of Mexico, and the Conquest of Peru." To which may since be added. The Life of Charles the Fifth.

The settlement at Nashaway was treated by the General Court with indifference and culpable neglect. They had repeatedly been denied those little helps and aids which are so essential to all new settlements. The inhabitants petitioned for an act of incorporation, and asked that it be known by the name of Prescott. The General Court objects, quibbles about a name, pretending that " it smacked too much of mannership or man-service." The question was finally settled by a compromise, and it was on the 18th day of May, old style (28th of May, new style), 1653, incorporated into a township by the name of Lancaster. This was in honor of Mr. Prescott, it being the name of his native county in England.

Mr. Prescott has the reputation of being the first settler in Nashaway, now Lancaster, although Mr. Willard remarks that Richard Linton, Lawrence Waters, his son-in-law, and John Ball, were the first inhabitants, and that they had tilled the soil and were ready to receive Mr. Prescott on his arrival. I do not see this stated by any other writer, and if correct they might be hired and sent there by Mr. Prescott and others to prepare for their own accommodation when they should remove there. The phrase that " they had tilled the soil and were ready to receive Mr. Prescott on his arrival " is significant of this fact.

At the time of the incorporation there were but nine families in the town. In one year, that is, by the spring of 1654, there were twenty families there. In answer to a petition of the inhabitants of the plantation, John Prescott, Thomas Sawyer (who married Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr. Prescott), Edward Breck, Nathaniel Hadlock, William Keiley and Ralph Houghton were appointed prudential managers of the town by the General Court.

Mr. Prescott was a genuine and influential member of the original Puritan stock of New England. Like most of the early emigrants to New England, he left his native home to escape the relentless persecutions with which the Puritans and non-conformists were harrassed. Like many of his contemporaries, he was a man of marked character, devoting his time to mechanical and agricultural pursuits, which were well calculated to fit and prepare him for the trials and hardships incident to, and inseparable from, the early settlers and pioneers of the wilderness of America. He soon became distinguished among his compeers, and had not long to wait for an opportunity to develop his genius and bravery. At a very early day he became a leading spirit, and a prominent and influential man, as very many of his descendants have been in each and every subsequent generation, and to him more than to any other is to be attributed the successful issue of that laborious and hazardous enterprise of settling on the " Nashaway " and of subduing the wilderness and converting the soil into fruitful fields and productive meadows.

Mr. Prescott was a man of strict integrity and of great energy and perseverance. Having also a commanding influence, he took an active part in all measures calculated to improve and enhance the interest and prosperity of the town. He took the oath of fidelity in 1652, and was admitted a freeman in 1669. By occupation, he was not only an agriculturist, but both a blacksmith and millwright. In Nov., 1653, he received a grant of land of the inhabitants, on condition that he would build a corn mill." He built the mill in season to commence grinding on the 23d of the next May (1654). The erection of a saw mill soon followed. " The town voted that if he would erect one he should have the grant of certain privileges and a large tract of land lying near his mill, for him and his posterity forever, and to be more exactly record d when exactly known. In consideration of these provisions ' Goodman Prescott,' forthwith erected his mill." * " Its location was on the spot where the Lancaster Manufacturing Company have extensive works. The people from all the neighboring towns came to Prescott's gristmill. The stone of this mill was brought from England, and now lies in fragments in the vicinity of the factory."*

Lancaster, in common with other frontier towns, suffered greatly by Indian depredations whenever there was a war between the mother country and France. On the 22d of Aug., 1675, eighty persons were killed at Lancaster. On the 10th of Feb., old style, 1676. early in the morning, a body of fifteen hundred Indians attacked the town in five distinct situations, completely investing it. There were at that time more than fifty families in town. Of this little band, fifty persons, if not more, were either killed or taken prisoners. One half at least were killed, and among them Richard Wheeler and Jonas Fairbanks, sons-in-law of Mr. Prescott, and Joshua Fairbanks and Ephraim Sawyer, his grandsons. The three former were killed at Wheeler's garrison, and the latter at Prescott's, which stood about thirty rods southeast of Messrs. Poignard and Plant's factory. The inhabitants, after destroying all the houses but two, left the place under the protection of Capt. Wadworth's company of soldiers. The alarm of the people was so great that the return of peace on the death of the Indian, King Philip, in August, 1676, did not restore their courage and confidence. For more than three years, Lancaster remained uninhabited. In 1679 some of the first planters (among whom were the Prescotts, Houghtons, Sawyers, and Wilders) returned, and the Carters came in soon after.

Mr. Prescott lived to see the town rebuilt and in a fair way to a prosperous condition. He died in 1683. But subsequently to this the town suffered severely at sundry times from the incursion of hostile Indians. In 1702 the war between England and France was renewed, and 1704 was a period of great distress and suffering from Indian depredations. They made an attack on Lancaster in July of that year, and, after defeating the soldiers and driving them into their garrisons, they burned the church and six houses, and destroyed much live stock and other property. In 1705 Thomas Sawyer, Jr., and his son Elias,grandson and great grandson of John Prescott, senior, together with John Biglo (now written Bigelow), were taken prisoners and carried to Canada. Thomas Sawyer, on arrival of the party at Montreal, offered to build a saw mill on the Chamblee river, provided the French governor would obtain a release of all the captives. This he promised, if possible, to do. The son Elias and Biglo were easily ransomed, but the Indians determined to put the father to death by a lingering torture. His deliverance was finally effected by the timely appearance of a friar, who told the Indians that he held the keys of Purgatory in his hand, and that unless they immediately released their prisoner he would unlock the gates and cast them in headlong. Their superstitious fears prevailed. They unbound Sawyer from the stake and delivered him to the governor. Sawyer finished the mill in a year and was sent home. Whitney says this was the first saw mill erected in Canada.

John Prescott and family being so conspicuously identified with these Indian depredations upon Lancaster, is our only apology for these lengthened remarks concerning them in this connection. Mr. Prescott had in his possession, and which he brought with him from England, a coat of mail, armor and habiliments complete, such as were worn by warriors of that and preceding ages ; hence it is inferred that some of his ancestors had been warriors, and probably, had received the order of knighthood. It has been stated and believed that John had himself served under Cromwell.

Of this armor and its owner the following anecdotes are related: " Mr. Prescott, being a strong athletic man and of a stern countenance, whenever he had any difficulty with the Indians, would clothe himself with his coat of mail, helmet, cutlass and gorget, which gave him a fierce and frightful appearance. The Indians at one time having stolen from him a horse, he put on his armor and pursued them, and in a short time overtook them. They were surprised that lie should venture to pursue them alone, and a chief approached him with uplifted tomahawk. Mr. Prescott told him to strike, which he did, and finding the blow made no impression on his cap, was greatly astonished, and asked Mr. P. to let him put on, and then strike it while on his head, as he had done when on Mr. Prescott's head. The helmet being too small for the head of the chief, the stroke settled the helmet down to his ears, scraping off the skin on both sides of his head. They then gave him up his horse, supposing him to be something more than human."

" At another time the Indians set fire to his barn. Old John put on his armor, rushed out, drove them off and let out his cattle and horses from the burning stable."

" Again the Indians set fire to his saw mill. 'The old hero, armed cap-a-pie, as before, drove them off and extinguished the fire. At another time they attacked his house. He had several muskets but no one in the house, save his wife, to assist him. She loaded the guns and he discharged them with fatal effect. The contest continued for nearly half an hour, Mr. Prescott all the while giving orders as if to soldiers, so loud that the Indians could hear him, to load their muskets, though he had no soldiers but his wife. At length they withdrew carrying off several of their dead or wounded."*

On another occasion, as is related of him, sundry Indians made their appearance at his old mill, and hoisted the water gate, when he, Prescott, took his favorite gun, which he brought with him from England, heavily loaded, and started toward the mill, when the Indians retired to the hills near by. Having shut down the gate and fixed the mill, Mr, Prescott concluded it prudent to retire to his house or garrison, but did so backward, with his eye upon the foe until he reached his home, when the Indians gave a whoop, such as none but Indians can give ; when Mr. Prescott concluded to give them a specimen of his sharp-shooting, upon which (to use a new coined term) they skedadled. Upon afterward visiting the place, blood was plainly seen upon the ground.

"The old favorite Gun," above alluded to, was given by Mr. Prescott, to his oldest son, John Prescott, Jr., who in his turn gave it to his oldest son, John 3d, who gave it to his daughter Tabitha, who married first Aaron Sawyer and for a second husband Silas Brigham. She in her old age gave it to her grandson, Prescott Brigham (274-4), Brig. Gen., who was born in 1770, settled in Shrewsbury, and in 1738 removed to Sauk County, Wis., where he died. Before his death he gave the "gun" to the Wisconsin Historical Society, whose property it now is, and where it will be carefully preserved unless consumed by fire.

Bent (1903)

From “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” By Gilbert O. Bent, 1903, 36--37.

John Prescott, the emigrant, who was born at Standish in 1605. He married Jan. 21, 1629, at Wygan, in Lancaslnre, Mary Platts, "a Yorkshire girl," and removed to Sowerby 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 1643 he associated himself with Thomas King and others in the purchase from Sholan, the Indian Sachem of the Nashaway 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 the inhabitants," 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, and not 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 supporter 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 of providence 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. He and his family escaped the Indian massacre of 1676, when Lancaster 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 of 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, 1681. His wife died a short time before him. In the old burial field at Lancaster the remains of this ideal pioneer man were laid. There, upon a rude fragment of slate-stone, may be deciphered the words, faintly traced, " John Prescott deceased."