PROUTY FAMILY IN AMERICA

Richard Prouty was born on September 3, 1652 in England, Gloucestershire, Rodmarton. The Scituate Genealogy webpage had his birth ca 1646. He was baptized September 30, 1652 in England, Gloucestershire, Rodmarton.

Richard came to America in 1667 when he was 14 years old. Fought in King Phillips War. From a history of Scituate, Massachusetts 1834: Richard Prouty was in Scituate 1670. His house was near the causeway over the swamp called Prouty's dam, 1680. His first son was Edward, and had a house at Margaret's Brook, on the West. His children were nine (his wife Elizabeth Howe) sons James, John, Richard, Edward, Elisha, born from 1711 to 1732. Isaac (son of Richard) married Elizabeth Merritt---sons David, John, Caleb, Adam, Job, James, Isaac, born from 1716 to 1732. Margaret Prouty, who gave the name to the brook, was an unmarried daughter of the elder Richard, and who lived to be a great age, and though single, had a son, Nehemiah born 1724. Of the above sons of Edward, Jacob, David, John, Adam, James and Isaac, removed together to the Town of Spencer, where they have respectable descendants. In Scituate and Hanover remain descendants of Caleb, and of William, another son of Richard, sen

He died September 1, 1708 at the age of 55 in Massachusetts Colony, Plymouth co., Scituate. The permanent settlement of Massachusetts with Europeans that began in 1620 at Cape Cod with the Plymouth colony began to expand during the 1630's. The first mention of “ward of Scituate” in their records was 1633/4 and in 1636 Scituate was organized as a town. The name is derived from “satuit” the Wampanoag term for cold brook. It refers to a brook that runs to the inner harbor of Scituate.

Richard Prouty, the progenitor of the Prouty family in America, is thought to have come to Scituate about 1666/67 as a boy of 14(Pope 12). His name is not mentioned in town records until the Indian conflict of 1675/6 and is missing from a 1672 list of inhabitants. Reasons given for his coming as a boy are that he would be able to bear arms at 16, but not old enough to vote or be made a “townsman” in 1672, thus his absence from the list.

In 1675/6 when the Indian conflict known as King Phillip's War was raging, Richard Prouty did a “brave defender's part in repelling the cruel foe (Pope 10). The Wampanoag chief Metacomet, called “King Phillip” by the English, ended the peace his father had with the colonists for forty years since signing a treaty in 1621 with the original Pilgrims. It was a brutal conflict, 600 colonists lost their lives, 3,000 Indians theirs. 50 to 90 English villages were attacked, many burned to the ground Scituate suffered terribly from swift attacks which burned 13 homes and killed several residents.

The details of Richard Prouty's service in the conflict were not recorded; but the Colony of Plymouth in a session of its General Court, July 21, 676, placed a list of men on its records with a note of what was owing to them. “The names of such soldiers of Scituate who desired to be satisfied in lands for such service as the performed for the country, with the sums due to them on that account, is as followeth: Fourth in he list is “Richard Prowtey....06:12:03” (six pounds, twelve shillings and three pence) (Shurtleff 206). The town voted to instruct its representatives to ask the General Court for its proper share of any lands or profit obtained during the Indian wars (Pope 10-11). Those of Scituate made their application, among them “Richard Prowtey, Corp.” (Bodge 602). A tract of land valued at 800 lbs. Was set aside and on Nov 12, 1677 the men were allowed to purchase deeds of shared. Of the thirty shares available Richard Prouty had one-quarter of a share. This he sold in 1693 to Edward Gray for 14 lbs, his wife Damaris signed with him in release of her dower in the land (Pope 11).

Colonial life was dependent wholly on one's own exertions for a living. It was slow work acquiring lands and buildings. In 1676, with the war over, married Damaris Torrey, the daughter of one of the leading men of the Township, a Magistrate and representative to the Plymouth General Court. This marriage doubtless helped to give him standing. Records show that Richard was industrious cultivating land; on December 27, 1683, the Town granted to Peter Woodelike “four or five acres of upland at the North side of the common field that Jacob Bumpas and Richard Proutie hath broken up” (Pope 13). In 1692 and 1694 twenty and fifteen acres of land respectively was granted to him on Hoop-pole Hill, one of the pleasantest sites in Scituate, where he established a homestead.. His farm was on the Northeast part of Hooppole Hill, and his house was near the causeway over the swamp, known since 1680 as Prouty's Dam. In 1698 he added five acres of upland and one of swamp to his farm.

Richard's name is found among Scituate records several more times. He was among the men chosen by the Town on September 1, 1702 to serve on the jury trials as the next inferior Court of Common Pleas held at Plymouth. He was one of four chosen for duty as a Tithing man” who kept order in church in 1704/5. He was one of those who drew ten acre lots in 1706/7 and was on the grand jury February 18, 1707/8. Richard died September 1, 1708, leaving his lands to his eldest living sone Edward Prouty (Pope 16).

See “The English Ancestry of Richard Prouty of Scituate, Plymouth Colony; being a letter to Lewis Isaac Prouty”, by Frederick Elon Thomas Prouty, May 31, 1948, n.p. 1948 17 p. Damaris Torrey and Richard Prouty were married in December 1676 in Massachusetts Colony, Plymouth Co., Scituate Damaris Torrey was born October 26, 1651 in Massachusetts Colony, Plymouth Co., Scituate. She died 1717 at the age of 66 in Massachusetts Colony, Plymouth Co., Scituate. Date from Velma Rice and “Prouty Genealogy” by C.H. Pope and Ethel Mae Prouty Castelli. See New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 4, p 320, for transcription of 5 Nov 1651 will of William Hatch, Sr., of Scituiate, Ma. Listing her as his grandaughter. William T. Davis, “Genealogical Register of Plymouth Families”, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1975 (originally published as Colony records”, p 18. Was an heir of brother, Joseph, who died unmarried and intestate. CHRISTENING: NEGHR v 6 gs MARR: New England marriages prior to 1700, C.A. Torrey, 1985, p 606.

Variations in the spelling of the name occur in colonial records of this man: Proutee, Prouty, etc.

Prouty's Dam, Scituate, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.

Deane's *History of Scituate, Massachusetts* c.1831 mentions Prouty's Dam "on the road North of Hoop-Pole Hill." (1686). The area including Prouty's Dam was a piece of land granted to (amoung others) Richard Prouty. His land was located on Hoop-Pole Hill; this land was granted to him for his service in King Philip's War. Deane also stated "[Richard Prouty] his house was near the causeway over the swamp, called Prouty's Dam. The present-day area would probably be the hill on Hollett Street near the Foyer of Charity.

Richard Prouty
Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records

Name     Richard Prouty    

Event Type     Death    

Event Date     01 Sep 1708    

Event Place     Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States    

Gender     Male

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 17 2022, 14:13:57 UTC