Mary Prescott

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gawkroger-1

Mary Gawkroger was the daughter of Abraham Gawkroger and Martha Riley. She was baptized on 7 February 1612/3 at Sowerby, Yorkshire, England.

An early history of the family by Almira Larkin White misidentified her with her cousin Mary Gawkroger alias Platts, the daughter of James and Martha (Ainsworth) Gawkroger, baptized on 19 March 1606/7.[1] This was repeated in White's Ancestry of John Barber White.[2] However, Mary (Gawkroger) Prescott deposed she was aged 66 or thereabout in 1678, and so was not the Mary Gawkroger baptized in 1607.[3] Closer examination of the parish records revealed revealed several other possible Mary Gawkrogers; the daughter of Abraham Gawkroger and Martha Riley is the only one which fit all the known facts of John Prescott's wife including her deposed age.[4][5][6] The Mary Gawkroger who was born in 1607 was the wife of Richard Eccles, and she died 23 August 1675 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mary Gawkroger married John Prescott on 11 April 1629 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England. They had four children baptized in Sowerby, the last in 1635. The immigrated to New England in 1636 or 1637 with the earliest record of John Prescott being in June 1637. They had six more children born in New England. They initially settle in Watertown, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1652 the Prescotts helped found Lancaster, Massachusetts where the rest of their records are found.

Mary died on 20 October 1688 in Lancaster.

Name and Origins

Name: Mary Gawkroger alias Platts.[7]

The name is often found in the primary records Gawkroger, Platts, Gawkroger alias Platts, and Platts alias Gawkroger. They are all correct for this family.

Birth

Baptized: 7 February 1612/3 at Sowerby, Yorkshire, England.

Marriage and Children

Married: John Prescott on 11 April 1629 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England.

Children of John Prescott and Mary Gawkroger:

1. Mary Prescott. Baptized 24 February 1630 in Sowerby, Yorkshire, England. Married Thomas Sawyer.
2. Infant Prescott. Buried 7 March 1631 in Sowerby.
3. Martha Prescott. Baptized 11 March 1632 in Sowerby. She married John Rugg.
4. Infant Prescott. Buried 3 January 1634 in Sowerby.
5. John Prescott. Baptized 1 April 1635 in Sowerby. Died young.
6. Sarah Prescott. Born about 1637, probably in Watertown, Massachusetts. She married first Richard Wheeler; married second Joseph Rice.
7. Hannah Prescott. Born about 1639, probably in Watertown. Married John Rugg, widower of her sister Martha.
8. Lydia Prescott. Born 15 August 1641 in Watertown.
9. John Prescott. Born about 1643 (aged 35 in 1678), probably in Watertown.
10. Jonathan Prescott. Born about 1645, probably in Lancaster.
11. Jonas Prescott. Born 1647 in Lancaster.

Death

Died: 20 October 1688 in Lancaster.

Common Errors to Avoid

• Incorrect birth date: It can be found in print and often on the internet that Mary was baptized on 15 March 1611. This baptism is not found in the primary records at Sowerby.
• Incorrect birth date: It can be found in print and often on the internet that Mary was baptized on 19 March 1606/7. This is incorrect. This is the birth date of her cousin, Mary Gawkroger the daughter of James Gawkroger and Martha Ainsworth. The clue to separating the two cousins comes from a deposition Mary Prescott made in 1678 where she gave her age as 66 years or there about. She cannot have been the Mary born in 1607. This Mary Gawkroger was the wife of Richard Eccles, and she died 23 August 1675 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Incorrect parents: She was not the daughter of James Gawkroger and Martha Ainsworth as originally supposed.

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Mary traveled from England to Barbados with her husband John Prescott in 1638 and on to Massachusetts in 1640. She suffered from an indian massacre in 1676 where she lost one of her children (Ephraim) as well as other relatives and friends thru that ordeal. Mary's unusual name of "GAWKROGER" comes from a British term applied to left-handed people also called "left-handed rogers" or [gawk-rogers]. It's believed the family was supposed to have had an unusual number of left-handed members thus that label somehow evolved into their name. It's believed their real name may have been Platts, and it appears that her father and possibly her grandfather used both names of Gawkroger and Platts as their last names during their lifetime, but when she left England for America she dropped the Gawkroger name in favor of Platts. (wab)

Sources

1. White, Almira Larkin. Genealogy of the Ancestors and Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1547–1909, 4 vols. (Haverhill, 1900–9): vol. 4 pages 161-86. Caution: has incorrect parents.
2. White, Almira Larkin ed. Ancestry of John Barber White and of His Descendants. (Kansas City, 1913): pages 130-131.Caution: has incorrect parents.
3. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 95 no. 1 (January 1941): page 8.
4. Weis, Frederick Lewis. Mary Gawkroger, Wife of John Prescott of Lancaster, Massachusetts, (1959). Archive.org Link
5. Holman, Mary Lovering. Ancestry of Colonel John Stevens Harringon and His Wife Frances Helen Miller, 2 vols. (Concord, 1948–52), vol. 1 page 61.
6. The American Genealogist, vol. 40 no. 1 (January 1964): pages 22-29. "Notes on Families from the Parish of Halifax, Yorkshire: Farrer, Deane, Platts, Fairbank, Prescott", by John G. Hunt.
7. Weis, Frederick Lewis. Mary Gawkroger, Wife of John Prescott of Lancaster, Massachusetts, (1959). Archive.org Link

• Buried in Old Settlers Burying Ground. Source: 'History of the Wheeler Family in America', 1914, Albert Gallatin Wheeler, Jr., p 498. 'Ancestrial Roots of Sixty Colonists Who Came to New England between 1623 and 1650', 1969, Frederick Lewis Weis, p 34. Chuck Krause, RootsL.
• Ancestors of Mary Gawkroger (Platt)
• http://www.mybalefamily.com/FamilyTree/Prescott-p/p413.htm#i220