John PRESCOTT
Husband of Mary Gawkroger PLATT.
"HERE WITH HIS CHILDREN ABOUT HIM LIES
JOHN PRESCOTT,
FOUNDER OF LANCASTER AND FIRST SETTLER
OF WORCESTER COUNTY.
BORN AT STANDISH, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND.
DIED AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS, DEC. 1681.
INSPIRED BY THE LOVE OF LIBERTY AND THE FEAR OF GOD,
THIS STOUT-HEARTED PIONEER,
FORSAKING THE PLEASANT VALES OF ENGLAND,
TOOK UP HIS ABODE IN THE UNBROKEN FOREST
AND ENCOUNTERED WILD BEAST AND SAVAGE
TO SECURE FREEDOM
FOR HIMSELF AND HIS POSTERITY.
HIS FAITH AND VIRTUES
HAVE BEEN INHERITED BY MANY DESCENDANTS
WHO IN EVERY GENERATION HAVE WELL SERVED THE
STATE IN WAR, IN LITERATURE, AT THE BAR, IN THE
PULPIT, IN PUBLIC LIFE AND IN CHRISTIAN HOMES."
"HERE WITH HIS CHILDREN ABOUT HIM LIESJOHN PRESCOTT,
FOUNDER OF LANCASTER AND FIRST SETTLER
OF WORCESTER COUNTY.
BORN AT STANDISH, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND.
DIED AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS, DEC. 1681.
INSPIRED BY THE LOVE OF LIBERTY AND THE FEAR OF GOD,
THIS STOUT-HEARTED PIONEER,
FORSAKING THE PLEASANT VALES OF ENGLAND,
TOOK UP HIS ABODE IN THE UNBROKEN FOREST
AND ENCOUNTERED WILD BEAST AND SAVAGE
TO SECURE FREEDOM
FOR HIMSELF AND HIS POSTERITY.
HIS FAITH AND VIRTUES
HAVE BEEN INHERITED BY MANY DESCENDANTS
WHO IN EVERY GENERATION HAVE WELL SERVED THE
STATE IN WAR, IN LITERATURE, AT THE BAR, IN THE
PULPIT, IN PUBLIC LIFE AND IN CHRISTIAN HOMES."
Supporters of
Lancaster's founder, John Prescott (1604–1681), wished to name the new settlement Prescottville, but the Massachusetts General Court considered such a request from a common freeman presumptuous, given that at that time, not even a governor had held the honor of naming a town after himself. Instead, they decided to use Lancaster, the name of his home town in England. (Wikipedia)Gavestones of John PRESCOTT and Mary Gawkroger PLATT
 John Prescott, Sr. was born about 1605 in England and died in Lancaster, MA in 1683. He married Mary Gawkroger [Platt] (1607-1718) on April 11, 1629 in Sowerby, Yorkshire, England. The first 5 of their children were born in England except for the fifth child Hannah who was probably born in Barbados, West Indies in 1639. Their children included: Mary (Thomas Sawyer), Martha (John Rugg), John, Jr. (Sarah), Sarah (1 Richard Wheeler, 2 Joseph Rice), Hannah (John Rugg widower of Martha), Lydia (1 Jonas Fairbanks, 2 Elias Barron, Jr.), Capt. Jonathan (1 Dorothy Heald, 2 Elizabeth Hoar, 3 Rebecca Wheeler, 4 Ruth Brown), Joseph (probable that there was no son Joseph and that his existence at all is due to a clerks error in an early history of Concord, MA), Capt. Jonas, Sr. (Mary Loker). John and Mary were in Watertown, MA in 1640 and moved from there to the Nashaway Plantation in 1643 which was later to become Lancaster. Jonas was born here before Lancaster was incorporated so his birth was registered in Groton. There may have been two other children who died in infancy in England. Mary's alias "Platts" appears to come from English lands by that name that passed down through the Gawkroger family. (The main source of this information is William Prescott's 1870 "Prescott Memorial."find a Grave Submitted by Bob Speckman.) |
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John Prescott, the father of Mary [wife of Thomas SAWYER], was the founder of Lancaster, Mass. He was born in Standish, England in 1604. He married Mary Platts at Wygan, Lancashire, January 21, 1629; he died in America in 1683. He left England to avoid persecution. In 1638 he landed at Barbadoes, where he bought land. In 1640 he came to New England and settled in Watertown. In 1643, with Thomas King and others, he purchased "Nashaway" (a part of which is now Lancaster), and became one of the earliest settlers. Nourse, in his "Annals of Lancaster" says the town would have been named "Prescott" had its founder been a freeman; but he had never given public adhesion to the established church covenant, and was therefore incapable of voting or holding office. In 1669, however, he was admitted freeman. He was a farmer, blacksmith and millwright. John Prescott was a heroic figure in the early history of Lancaster and Groton. He brought with him a metallic coat of mail, which he sometimes wore when dealing with the savages; this served to impress them, as his force, capacity and judgment did his white neighbors. Nourse calls him an "ideal pioneer" a "true builder of the nation." He distinquished himself for bravery and leadership in the Indian Wars. He served in the garrison at Lancaster and in the defense of the town against the Indians on August 21,1675 and February 10, 1676. He had a numerous family of descendants, many of whom have been persons of great ability and distinction. His great-grandson, Colonel William Prescott, was chief in command at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Another descendant was William H. Prescott, the famous historian of the "Conquest of Mexico," "Conquest of Peru." At the time of his death, in 1683, his family had become one of the wealthiest and most influential in Massachusetts. John and Mary (Platt) Prescott had eight children. Mary Prescott was born in England. At the age of eighteen she married Thomas Sawyer of Lancaster, and by him became the mother of eleven children. She survived her husband, who died on September 12, 1706. By the marriage of Mary Prescott in 1648, the name of Prescott was merged in that of Sawyer; and in 1812 the name of Sawyer was merged in that of Munsey. -------------------------------
John Prescott, a blacksmith, came from Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax, west riding of Yorkshire, where he had married Mary Platts, a :Yorkshire girl.” but he was born in Lancashire, as were Atherton and several others who settled here. He came here to stay in 1645 or 6, with the purpose of building up a town. Many children were born to him before and after he came hither. John, a blacksmith also, Jonathan and Jonas were sons. His daughter Mary married Thomas Sawyer: Sarah married Richard Wheeler; Martha married John Rugg; and Lydia married Jonas Fairbank. He took the oath of allegiance in 1652, and was admitted freeman in 1669. His family escaped from the massacre, and he returned in 1682, when the number of families was only one-third as large as seven years before…(History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts: from the first settlement ... By Abijah Perkins Marvin Thomas Sawyer, Pg. 62.)
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John Prescott. He was one of the leading men of the town all his life. There were only five full-fledged freeman in Lancaster in 1654 -- Edward Breck, Richard Smith, William Kerley, John Whitcomb and Thomas Sawyer [son-in-law]. He was a prominent member of the church, and held many town offices. The settlement increased and they lived in peace with the Indians for about twenty years, the Indians being useful in preparing and establishing homes. There appeared a warcloud in the distance....King Philip enlisted the help of other Indian tribes and on February 10, 1675 he entered Lancaster with a band of 1500 warriors. Thomas Sawyer, whose house was in the most central part of the Indian raid, seems to have escaped with all his numerous family, with the exception of his son Ephraim, who was killed at the house of his grandfather, John Prescott. Lancaster was abandoned for some three years. After the re-building of Lancaster Thomas Sawyer took a conspicuous part in the growth and prosperity of the town during the next 30 years.
In 1705 a war broke out between England and France. The French enlisted a band of 700 French half-breeds to raid the Brithish colonies. The Colonists had anticipated trouble and procured a company of Government troops called the "Flower of Essex" for their protection, and were building a stockade for their defense, intending to winter there. They had grain in Deerfield which they wished to procure, and sent teams for the purpose, and also sent the company of soldiers to protect the teams. The grain was loaded and started for home, with the soldiers protecting them. Going through a swamp near a brook they fell into an ambush by the Indians. The soldiers and teamsters were all killed, except one soldier and one teamster, who escaped to Hadley and carried the news. The brook where the massacre took place has always been known since as "Bloody Brook." After the massacre at Bloody Brook, 500 French & Indians went to Lancaster and after their arrival, Lancaster again became the scene of a bloody massacre. Thomas Sawyer's house again proved a safe defense against the Indians. Many of the French and Indians died in Lancaster, including a high ranking officer. His gravestone in the old settlers' buring ground at Lancaster read: "Thomas Sawyer died Sept. 12, 1706, about the 90th year of his age."
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…Beginning at the cross-road in south Lancaster, the first lot belonged to John Prescott, [1]. His lots were in two ranges, one on either side of the road. The lots in the east range were forty rods wide, north and South, and eighty rods long, extending from the road between the North river and south Lancaster, to the intervale east of the railroad. The lots in the western range were twenty rods wide, and one hundred and sixty rods long, extending from the road on the east, to another parallel road up the side of George hill, perhaps fifty rods west of the present road. The lots were made thus narrow that the settlers might be kept in close proximity. Prescott had a lot in each range. On the east side of the road running north and south, and north side of the road running east and west, his lot was forty rods wide and eighty rods long. The double line on the map will show his bounds on the west. Next north was the lot of John Moor, [6,] of the same measurement. But between the two was a road one rod wide. This was the way “betwixt John Moor’s lot and Prescott’s rye field.” …South of Prescott and across the road were the lots of Thomas Sawyer, E [shown on map], Jacob Farrar,[3,] and John Rigby, [4,] of similar dimensions. (History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts: from the first settlement ... By Abijah Perkins Marvin Thomas Sawyer, pg 70.)
The first meeting of the commissioners was held, on the nineteenth of September, 1657, at the house of John Prescott. Their first act was to choose five men, residents of the town, and proprietors, and two if not three of them freemen, to do the work of selectmen. The entry on the Records read thus: “That master John Tinker, William Kerley, sen., John Prescott, Ralph Honghton and Thomas Sawyer, shall be, and are hereby empowered to order and manage the prudential affairs of the said town, for this year next ensuing, and until such others be allowed and confirmed by the commissioners in their stead and place.” (History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts: from the first settlement ... By Abijah Perkins Marvin Thomas Sawyer, pg 77.)
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