William Pratt

1609 - Aft 1678  (> 69 years)

• Name	William Pratt  [1, 2]
  Birth	6 Jun 1609	Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England   [3]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Aft 9 May 1678	Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut   [4, 5, 6]
  Person ID	I6042	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	15 Nov 2020

  
  

  Father	Rev. William Pratt,   b. Oct 1562, Baldock, Hertfordshire, England d. Aft Oct 1629, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England (Age ~ 67 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth   d. Aft Nov 1629
  Family ID	F5053	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth Clark,   b. Abt 1622   d. Bef 2 Apr 1695 (Age ~ 73 years)
  Marriage	Bef 1641	Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut   [1, 7]
  Children	+ 1. Lydia Pratt + 2. Elizabeth Pratt,   b. 1 Feb 1641, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut d. 1730, Norwich, New London, Connecticut (Age 88 years) + 3. Ensign John Pratt,   b. 20 Feb 1644   d. Bef 13 Jan 1726 (Age < 81 years)
  Family ID	F4414	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	1 Feb 2019

  
  

• Notes

  His name is on the Founders Monument in downtown Hartford. F. W. Chapman's The Pratt Family (1864) asserted that William and his older brother John Pratt were sons of the Rev. William Pratt of Stevenage, Hertfordshire. This conclusion was attacked in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register's review of Pratt's book the following year, which pointed out that the birthdates of the John and William known to have been the sons of the Rev. William Pratt would have made them far too young to have emigrated to New England and become prominent early citizens of Connecticut by 1636. This same criticism was repeated with great force by Donald Lines Jacobus in Hale, House and Related Families (1952; citation details below). But in 1995 Matthew J. Grow published "A Belated Reply: The English Origins of John and William Pratt of Connecticut" (NEHGR; citation details below), in which he demonstrated that the original Stevenage parish record had been rebound with pages out of order, and that a careful study of the original artifact, plus examination of the bishop's transcript (to which the original 1857 Pratt researchers, Mormon missionaries Orson Pratt and Charles Penrose, would not have had access), yielded baptismal dates for John and William Pratt that are fully consistent with the other known events of their lives. This problem solved, the other evidence (wills, marriage records, known associations, on-the-record allusions by individuals to their kinship with other individuals) adds up to a satisfactorily strong case for John and William as sons of the Rev. William. Further from Hale, House and Related Families (citation details below): William Pratt was appointed Lieutenant of the Saybrook Train Band, Oct. 1661. He was Deputy for Saybrook to the Conn. General Court or Assembly, at the sesions of Oct. 1666, Oct. 1667, Oct. 1668, May and Oct. 1669, Oct. 1670, May and Oct. 1671, May 1672, May and Oct. 1673, May and Oct. 1674, May and Oct. 1675, May and Oct. 1676, May and Oct. 1677, and May 1678. He was Commissioner (justice) for Saybrook, 1666 to 1678 inclusive. In Oct. 1670 the General Assembly granted him 100 acres in recognition of his service in the Pequot War. The length of his Deputy service qualifies him as an ancestor for the Society of Colonial Dames of America, and the Pequot War service for the Society of Colonial Wars. William Pratt received a lot in Soldier's Field, Hartford, as one of the band that went from Hartford to fight the Pequots; he sold it in 1645 and removed to Saybrook, probably about that time. He married, by 1641, Elizabeth Clark, daughter of 'Elder' John Clark, who later was a Patentee of Connecticut Colony named in the Royal Charter of 1662. This is proved by John Clark's will. William became possessed of considerable land, more than 250 acres being found on record which were acquired by grant or purchase. He was also a legatee for a large tract of land in the will of the Indian Attawanhood who was known to the English as Joshua Uncas.

  
  

• Sources

  [S2280] The Granberry Family and Allied Families, Including the Ancestry of Helen (Woodward) Granberry based on data compiled by and for Edgar Francis Waterman and compiled by Donald Lines Jacobus. Hartford, Connecticut: Edgar F. Waterman, 1945. [S3729] The New England Ancestry of Dana Converse Backus by Mary Elizabeth Backus. Salem, Massachusetts, 1949. [S1313] Matthew J. Grow, "A Belated Reply: The English Origins of John and William Pratt of Connecticut." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 149:374, October 1995. [S387] Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley by Donald Lines Jacobus and Edgar Francis Waterman. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut Historical Society, 1952., year and place only. [S1528] Moore and Allied Families: The Ancestry of William Henry Moore by L. Effingham de Forest and Anne Lawrence de Forest. The de Forest Publishing Company: New York, 1938. [S1314] The Pratt Family, or, the Descendants of Lieut. William Pratt, One of the First Settlers of Hartford and Say-Brook by F. W. Chapman. Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Company, 1864., year and place only. [S387] Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley by Donald Lines Jacobus and Edgar Francis Waterman. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut Historical Society, 1952.