| Notes |
- From Great Migration Begins... JOSHUA PRATT
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1623 in Anne
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
FREEMAN: In "1633" Plymouth list of freemen prior to those admitted 1 January 1632/3 [ PCR 1:3]. In the 7 March 1636/7 list of freemen (immediately preceding Phineas Pratt) [ PCR 1:52]. In Plymouth section of 1639 Plymouth Colony list of freemen [ PCR 8:174].
EDUCATION: His inventory included "a great Latin Bible," 9s.; "a part of another Bible and other old books," 23s.; and "2 old psalm books," 1s.
OFFICES: Messenger and constable, 1 January 1633/4, 7 March 1636/7, 5 June 1638 [ PCR 1:21, 54, 86]. Constable of Plymouth, 3 January 1636/7, 6 March 1637/8, 4 December 1638 [ PCR 1:48, 80, 105]. Among those "to assess the company for the watch and other public charge," 3 March 1634/5, 1 March 1635/6 [ PCR 1:33, 38]. Committee to divide meadow ground, 1 July 1633 [ PCR 1:14]. Committee to view Morton's Hole, 14 March 1635/6 [ PCR 1:41]. Arbiter, 5 October 1636 [ PCR 1:44]. Committee to view the hay grounds (as "The Messenger"), 20 March 1636/7 [ PCR 1:55]. Sealer of weights and measures and measurer of land, 4 December 1638 [ PCR 1:105]. Committee to view planting land for the first division at Yarmouth, 5 March 1638/9 [ PCR 1:117]. Committee to view the ungranted meadows at Green's Harbor, 5 May 1640 [ PCR 1:151]. Committee to view the meadows about Edward Doty's, 5 May 1640 [ PCR 1:152]. Repeatedly viewer or layer of land, 1633-48 [ PCR 2:29, 32, 48, 128, 160].
Grand jury, 1 June 1641 [ PCR 2:16]. Jury, 1 February 1640/1, 2 March 1646/7, 7 June 1648, 6 June 1649 [ PCR 2:7, 111, 126, 140]. Petit jury, 1 April 1633 (foreman), 1 June 1647, 4 October 1648 [ PCR 1:12, 2:117, 134]. Coroner's jury on the body of Robert Wille, alias Willis, sometimes of Milbrooke, 29 June 1652 [ PCR 3:15].
In Plymouth portion of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [ PCR 8:188].
ESTATE:
In 1623 Plymouth land division, paired with Phineas Pratt as recipients of two acres as passengers on the Anne in 1623 [PCR 12:6].
In 1627 Plymouth cattle division, twelfth person in first company [PCR 12:9].
On 7 November 1636 Josuah Pratt received six acres [PCR 1:46]. With his consent, this land was granted to Mrs. Bridgitt Fuller, widow, 6 February 1636/7 [PCR 1:50].
On 7 May 1638 Josuah Pratt was granted the enlargement of a garden place [PCR 1:84].
On 26 July 1638, Josuah Pratt had four shares in the black heifer [PTR 1:4].
On 5 November 1638 Josuah Pratt was granted six acres of land at the east end of Mr. Doane's land "except the Governor make choice of it for himself" [PCR 1:102].
On 2 November 1640 Josuah Pratt was granted five acres of meadow in Colebrook Meadows [PCR 1:166].
On 16 September 1641 Josuah Pratt was granted a garden place about the house he purchased of Thomas Savory at "Squerrell" [PCR 2:27]. He was twenty-fifth on the list of the purchasers [PCR 2:177].
On 5 December 1637 "Abraham Perse" sold to "Josuah Pratt a house and a garden place in Plymouth next to Ady Webb's house" [PCR 12:24].
On 7 May 1642 "Josuah Pratt" sold to Edward Doty "one acre of upland lying at the high cliff" and to Josias Cooke "two acres of marsh meadow lying at the Wood Island" [PCR 12:81].
On 7 March 1652[/3?] Joshua Pratt was listed as holding "one whole share" in the Purchasers' Land at Acushena and Coaksett (Dartmouth) [MD 4:187, citing PCLR 2:1:107].
On 5 October 1656 administration on the estate of Joshua Pratt, deceased, was granted to Bathsheba Pratt [PCR 3:108]. The inventory of the estate of Joshua Pratt was presented at court on 6 October 1656 and totalled £18 11s. 3d., with no real estate included [PCR 3:108; PCPR 2:1:41; MD 14:113].
In a 22 March 1663 list of the owners of lots on "Puncateesett Necke" Joshua Pratt was paired with Gyles Rickard Jr. (presumably a delayed entry of a grant made during Pratt's lifetime ) [PTR 1:63].
BIRTH: By about 1605 based on estimated date of marriage.
DEATH: Plymouth after 29 June 1652 (when he served on a coroner's jury [PCR 3:15]) and before 5 October 1656 (date of administration).
MARRIAGE: By about 1630 Bathsheba _____ (assuming she was the mother of all his children); she married (2) Plymouth 29 August 1667 "John Doged [Doggett] of Martha's Vineyard" [ MD 8:31] (see JOHN DOGGETT ).
CHILDREN:
i BENAJAH, b. say 1630; m. Plymouth 29 November 1655 Persis Dunham [ MD 8:17], daughter of JOHN DUNHAM [ TAG 30:145]. (The death record for Benajah Pratt, as published, reads "Benajah Prat, March, 17: in his s[worn]" [ PChR 249], entered in a place that would make the date 17 March 1682/3. This might be supposed to mean that he was sixty years old or more, which would place his birth about 1622. Were this true he would be a full decade older than his siblings and he should be accounted for in the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle. The more likely explanation is that the worn entry has been misread and the word that has been read as beginning with "s" actually begins with "f" for some age in the fifties.)
ii HANNAH, b. say 1632; m. Plymouth 18 March 1651[/2?] William Spooner [MD 8:13] (as his second wife [PCR 8:5]).
iii JONATHAN, b. say 1637; m. (1) Plymouth 2 November 1664 Abigail Wood [PCR 8:25]; m. (2) Taunton 3 March 1689/90 Elizabeth (White) Hall [ NEHGR 13:252], daughter of Nicholas White and widow of Samuel Hall (on 29 October 1698 Elizabeth Pratt, widow, of Taunton, receipted for her legacy from the estate of her father, Nicholas White [BrPR 2:11; TAG 17:196]).
iv BATHSHEBA, b. about 1639 (deposed in 1661 aged 22 [ Wyman 773, apparently citing Middlesex Court Files]); m. Charlestown [blank] December 1662 "Josua Ris" [ChVR 1:42; Wyman 773, 808], son of ROBERT ROICE .
ASSOCIATIONS:
Joshua Pratt and PHINEAS PRATT have many times been called brothers. Though there is no direct evidence of this relationship, much circumstantial evid ence points in that direction. They received joint grants in the 1623 Plymouth division of land, and they were listed consecutively in the 1639 Plymouth list of freemen. Bathsheba, the daughter of Joshua, married in Charlestown, where her uncle Phineas Pratt was living at the time; she may have been placed in his household after her father's death.
Since we know that Phineas Pratt came in 1622 as one of THOMAS WESTON 's men, and not in 1623 on the Anne as indicated in the 1623 land division, we might wonder whether Joshua also came in 1622 in the same manner. Although this is possible, it seems unlikely, for otherwise we would expect that Phineas, in his narrative of his trials and tribulations that first winter in New England, would have made mention of his brother.
COMMENTS:
On the assumption that Joshua Pratt married in Plymouth, the range of families which might have supplied his wife Bathsheba is quite limited. There is no Bathsheba in any family listed in the 1627 Plymouth cattle division, yet Joshua was married by about 1630. This suggests strongly that his wife was a member of one of the families that arrived in Plymouth in late 1629 and early 1630, many of which had come from Leiden. Joshua's elder son Benajah married the daughter of JOHN DUNHAM , one of these late arrivals from Leiden, and Dunham had named a younger son Benajah, some years after the birth of Benajah Pratt, but more than fifteen years before the marriage of Benajah Pratt to Persis Dunham. Jonathan is apparently another name used by both Dunham and Pratt.
Some sources claim that Joshua Pratt's wife was named Bathsheba Fay. There is no evidence for this, and no Fay family in Plymouth who might have supplied such a wife. This false claim apparently arises from the misinterpretation of the marriage in Marlborough, Massachusetts, of John Pratt and Bathsheba Fay on 4 January 1715/6.
On 5 November 1638, for some unseen offence, Josuah Pratt of Plymouth, yeoman, was fined £10 and was "released" [PCR 1:101].
On 3 August 1640 Josuah Pratt deposed regarding two acres of upland at Wellingsly Brook that were given by Godbert Godbertson to John Combe, gentleman, and Phineas Pratt, in marriage with their wives (Godbertson's stepdaughters) [ PCR 1:159].
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From FindaGrave:
Born by about 1605 based on estimated date of marriage. Came to Plymouth Colony in 1623 on the "Anne." Died in Plymouth after 29 June 1652 (when he served on a coroner's jury) and before 5 October 1656 (date of administration).
Married Bathsheba _____ by about 1630 (assuming she was the mother of all his children). She married (2) Plymouth 29 August 1667 "John Doged [Doggett] of Martha's Vineyard."
Their 4 children: Benajah, Hannah Spooner, Jonathan, and Bathsheba Roice.
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1593 - 1656 (63 years)
