Gerard Pratt

CHILDREN: Sarah Pratt, Roxanna Pratt, Philota Barlow (born Pratt), Tabitha Bancroft (born Pratt), Rhoda Barlow (born Pratt), Hiram Pratt, Betty Hunsdon (born Pratt)

From the Memoirs of Hubert Howe Bancroft, grandson of Gerard Pratt and Samuel Bancroft:

In the book entitled "A Golden Wedding", my father says: "My recollections of my grandfather [Samuel Bancroft] are vivid and pleasant. He was a tall, thin, voluble old gentleman, fond of company, jokes, and anecdotes. He served in the French and Indian war, and afterward in the Revolutionary war with the rank of lieutenant. He was paid off in continental money, receiving it in sheets, which he never cut apart. He was very fond of relating incidents of the war, and was never happier than when surrounded by old comrades and neighbors, talking over different campaigns, with a mug of cider warming before the fire. "Slim-legs" he was called by the soldiers. He married Elizabeth Spelman, and died January 2, 1820.

From my grandfather, Azariah Bancroft, who married Tabitha, daughter of Gerard Pratt, and from the wife of the latter, sometime called Dorcas Ashley, my father derived his name Azariah Ashley.

This Gerard Pratt was quite a character, and displayed enough peculiarities, which were not affected, to entitle his name to be placed on the roll of great men or men of genius.

Gerard Pratt loved sermons, analyzed them, was a avid reader in his free time, and he kept a diary commenting on the content of the sermons.

Gerard, in season and out of season wore his Puritan hat, a broad-brimmed quakerish-looking affair, although he was no quaker. His hat was the last article of apparel to be removed at night, when he placed it on the bedpost, the first to be put on in the morning when he arose, and it was removed during the day only when he asked the blessing at table, which was done standing, our of respect, and during that time he held it in his hand, replacing it before beginning to eat.

Half a mile from the old town of Granville, Massachusetts, lived these great-grand-parents of mine, on two acres of good garden land, with a small orchard in which were six famous seek-no-farther apple-trees, reserved from the old family farm, afterward owned by their son-in-law, James Barlow. They were aged and infirm when my father, then a small boy, came every year to help his...

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Gerard Pratt Bancroft was the grandson of this Gerard Pratt (and first cousin of Hubert Howe Bancroft who wrote the memoir above of their common grandfather, Gerard Pratt.)

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VIDEO of the Pratt Family progenitor in England: 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. Jared Pratt became the father of four of the founders of the Mormon Church. Two of the sons were two of the first Quorum of the 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."