John Prescott

  General Notes:

~According to Weis's Ancestoral Roots, in the early addtion, 1950, 34:43, John Prescott was the son of Ralph Prescott whose ancestoral roots can be traced back to Sir Alexander Standish Knight. The most recent version of Ancestoral Roots, published in 2006, no longer includes this line.

  Noted events in his life and other information:

• He emigrated 1638, Barbados then in 1640, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts. ^147,148

• Burial:
'Old Cemetery' there, called on his gravestone 'the founder of Lancaster.'

• He signed a will. ²³²
John Prescott, founder of Lancaster, aged about seventy-seven years; noncupative will proved Dec 20, 1681

• Grave Stone: John Prescott Desased. [The foot-stone broken.] This marks the grave of the Founder of Lancaster, Who died in 1681. ²³²
He was among a group of people who founded Lancaster.

• He worked as a Blacksmith. ¹⁴⁸

• Background Information. ³⁶⁵
In 1638, John Prescott left England to avoid religious persecution, and land in Barbadoes, where he became a landowner. In 1640, he moved to new England, and settled in Watertown, where he had large grants of land allotted to him.

John Prescott was baptized in 1604/05. He married 21 May 1629, Mary Platts of Wygan, Lancashire. John Prescott sold his lands in Shevington, and revoved to Yorkshire, residing for some time on Snoerby, in the parish of Halifax, where several of his children were born. three years after his arrival in new England he was associated with Thomas King and others in the purchase of a tract of land for a township which was to be ten miles in length and eight in breadth. An act of incorporation was petitioned for by the inhabitants, and a request made that the town might recive the name of Prescott. The General court objected, on the ground that it appeared too much like man-worship. The name Lancaster was finally given to the town in honor of Mr. Prescott, that being the name of his native country.

John Prescott was a leading spritit, and a prominent and influential man. He took the oath of fidelity in 1652, and was admitted a freeman in 1669. In Nov 1653, he received a grant of land of the inhabitants, on the condition that he would build a "corn-mill." He built the mill in season to commence grinding on the 23 May 1654. The stone used was brought from England.

The children of John and Mary Prescott were:
• Mary, m. Thomas Sawyer of Lancaster
• Martha, m. John Rugg
• John, m. Sarah of Lancaster
• Hannah, m. John Rugg
• Lydia, m. Jonas Fairbanks of Lancaster
• Jonathan
• Joseph (?)
• Jonas, m. Mary, daughter of John Loker and Mary Draper.
~Early New England people, pgs. 133 - 135

John married Mary Gawkroger (Platt), daughter of Abraham Gawkroger and Martha Riley, on 24 Jan 1629 in Sowerby, Halifax, Yorkshire, England. (Mary Gawkroger was born 15 Mar 16ll in Sowerby, Halifax, Yorkshire, England, christened 15 Mar 16ll in Sowerby, Halifax, Yorkshire, England, died on 20 Oct 1674 in Lancaster, Massachusetts and was buried in Old Cemetery, Lancaster, Massachusetts.)