Historical records matching Aaron Pratt
view all 28
Immediate Family
-
daughter -
wife
-
son -
son -
son
-
son
-
son
-
wife -
daughter
-
daughter
-
son -
About Aaron Pratt
Sarah Pratt was Aaron Pratt's 1st cousin. According to the Phineas Pratt book , her father, Joseph, was Aaron’s uncle (his father’s brother).
---------------------------
Aaron Pratt became a resident of Hingham about 1683 at which time he purchased a tract of land in the sec. pre. of Captain Joshua Hobart.
He was twice married: first to Sarah Pratt, his cousin, who was a daughter of Joseph Pratt and Sarah Judkins of Weymouth. She died 22 July 1706 bat 42 years of age.
For his second wife he married (pub Aug 9, 1707) Mrs. Sarah (Wright) Cummings of Charelstown. She died 13 Dec 1752, abt 84 years.
Aaron died 23 Feb 1735-36 aet 87 years. Will dated 1 June 1730 proved 9 March 1736. "Farmer". Constable 1706. Resided in the sec. pre., on what is now South Main Street.
Aaron Pratt and both of his wives are buried in the Cohasset Central Cemetery of Hingham.
----------------------------
Aaron Pratt was raised in Charleston where his father was a joiner. His older brother Samuel was killed by by Indians at Pawtucket in 1676.
Aaron became an independent yeoman farmer when he moved to the new settlement of Hingham of Plymouth Colony. IN 1683 Aaron Pratt purchased lot number thirty-seven from Joshua Hobart. The land stretched from the bay shore a mile into the woods toward Scituate Pond. The lot consisted of 18 acres of upland from the water and was 200 feet wide, with part of it on South Main Street. Aaron built a house two stories high with a gable roof, the lower story was of stone, and upper of wood. The windows were of a small diamond pattern of glass known as "quarrels" -- inserted in leaden sashes. His son Aaron Jr. inherited the farm, which had grown to 1000 acres in Hingham. The farm has remained in the family aver 200 years, at least until Robert B. Pratt. The original house was standing until the very late 19th century. The address was on South Main St. in Cohasset.
Aaron Pratt had two spinning wheels to make yarn of the fleeces of Cohasset sheep to clothe the people of Hingham.
Sheep as well as swine and cattle was the mainstay of the first settlers. The cutting of cord and timber to be shipped to England was another substantial industry.
About 1850 was the peak of the era of the Great Sea Captains of the maritime trade, which became a hallmark of the region because Cohasset is located on the "corner" of the South Shore, where greater Boston Harbor ends and Massachusetts Bay begins. The name means in Algonquin indian language, "Where the Sea lashes the Rock."
Cohasset was first seen by Europeans in 1614, when Captain John Smith explored the coast of New England. The area of Cohasset was first settled in 1670 and became a town separate from Hingham in 1770. The people of Cohasset had to pay taxes to HInghma for a meeting house (church) and school, but Hingham was too far away to attend either very often. When Cohasset became big enough they built their own church and school.
For nearly 50 years from the time the land was divided, the people of Cohasset suffered hardship because of their far separation from the mother village of Hingham.
Because of the early sheep, the early Cohasset town was beset with wolves. Wolves were so plentiful and so deadly to sheep and calves that a bounty of several shillings was paid upon their heads. There were two wolf pits (live wolf traps) within the town: one in back of Town Hill in the wood of Samuel James, and the other in Beechwood on the land of Aaron Pratt. These were wolf pits covered with branches to capture the wolves if they tried to kill the sheep.
n 1711, Aaron Pratt was taxed on the basis of 2 polls, 1 house, 4 meadows, (not farmed) 30 pastures, 1 horse, 4 oxen, 4 cows, 20 sheep and 1 pig. His son, Aaron Jr. also had 1 house but no animals. There were only 22 houses and 35 taxpayers in Cohasset who collectively were taxed on 48 oxen, 78 cows, 31 horse, 213 sheep, and 14 pigs. The total payment Cohasset was taxed by Hingham was about 180 dollars and the thirty-six tax polls, at 10 shillings each, made about 90 dollars more.
However, these settlers were developing the solid nucleus of a business community. At the harbor of Cohasset, they began going about the business of shipbuilding. The first vessel built in the cove was in 1708.
Cohasset man, blacksmith Mordecai Lincoln, invented a trip hammer to better forge smelted iron needed for many thing, including ships. (Mordecai Lincoln is the direct ancestor of President Abraham Lincoln.) which made an ironworks possible and thus the local shipbuilding trade. David Lincoln, Aaron Pratt and four other men of Cohasset invested in and participated in the iron forge enterprise, which soon attracted more settlers.
---------------------------
Inventory of Aaron Pratt:
----------------------------
Aaron Pratt was a distant cousin of Jared Pratt who was one of the first 12 Apostles of the Mormon Church
VIDEO of the Mormon Pratt Family: http://jared.pratt-family.org/general_histories/pratt-family-in-eng...
This Pratt line originated with Reverend Henry Pratt who was a Puritan imprisoned and persecuted in England. His son, Phineas Pratt sailed to America on the Sparrow with the Great Migration of Puritans to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Jared Pratt, a descendant of Reverend William Pratt, who was a first cousin of our Phineas through Reverend Henry Pratt, and also a Puritan. Our cousin Jared Pratt became the father of four of the founders of the Mormon Church. Two Pratt sons were two of the first Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church.
This is what was written to describe the Pratt men:
"They were men of sound hearts, firm and fixed resolution, and persevering effort. Their faith in God never wavered. They kept constantly in view the grand design of their coming to this wilderness. Their notions of religious liberty were far from being mere speculations. Their views were intelligent and rational. Their purposes were strong, their aims high. Their principles were not to be shaken by any temporal consideration; their consciences were not to be swayed by flatteries of frowns. They were determined to obey God rather than men."
view all 17
Aaron Pratt's Timeline
| 1654 |
February 24, 1654
|
Charlestown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony
|
|
| 1685 |
June 5, 1685
|
Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, American Colonies
|
|
| 1688 |
February 2, 1688
|
Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusett, United States
|
|
| 1690 |
1690
|
Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, American Colonies
|
|
| 1694 |
March 4, 1694
|
Hingham, Suffolk County, Province of Massachusetts
|
|
| 1699 |
December 31, 1699
|
Hingham, Plymouth Co., MA
|
|
| 1703 |
December 6, 1703
|
Hingham, Norfolk, Massachusetts
|
|
| 1708 |
August 4, 1708
|
Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, American Colonies
|