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GEN: OCCU
GEN: PLAC Blacksmith and MillerJOHN PRESCOTT, founder of Lancaster, Mass., was b. circa 1604, in Standish Parish, Lancashire,
GEN:  England; d. Dec. 1681. His baptism is not found on the records, there being a break in them from 1602 to 1610, but we find his
GEN:  name in the will of his father, Ralph PRESCOTT, in 1808. John PRESCOTT lived in Sowerby, where five of his children were b.,
GEN:  three of whom he brought to New England, while two were buried in Sowerby. In 1638 he was living in the Island of Barbadoes,
GEN:  owning more than ten acres of land on the island, as proved by an old record recently found there. In 1640, they came to New
GEN:  England, and settled for a time in Watertown, where he had large grants of land allotted to him. In 1643, he associated
GEN:  himself with Thomas KING and others, for the purpose of purchasing from Sholam, the Indian Sachem of the Nashaway tribe of
GEN:  Indians, a tract of land for a township, which was to be ten miles long and eight miles in breadth, known as “Nashaway
GEN:  Plantation,” afterwards Lancaster, Mass., of which he was one of the original settlers and is considered the founder. The town
GEN:  received its name 18th May, 1653; and the name, it is said, was given in honor of Mr. PRESCOTT, it being the name of his
GEN:  native county in England. After the completion of his corn-mill, in 1654, he took up his residence near it, and the site of
GEN:  the garrison house has been noted as near the southeast corner of High and Water Strects, Clinton, Mass. At the time of his
GEN:  death, he was possessed of about seven hundred acres of land, and had given lands and a mill at Nonaicoiacus (now Ayer) to his
GEN:  son Jonas. Three hundred acres of this estate lay about the Washacum Ponds, including the Sterling camp-grounds. He owned
GEN:  nearly all the land upon which the manufactories and most densely peopled streets of Clinton are located, and one hundred
GEN:  acres in South Lancaster, stretching from the summit of George Hill to the meeting of the river. m. 11th Apr. 1629, in Halifax
GEN:  Parish, Yorkshire, England, Mary GAWKROGER or PLATTS, d. 1674. We find that “Gawkroger” meant “lefthanded” or “left-handed
GEN:  Roger.” There was probably a Roger PLATTS, who was left-handed or “gawky.” We do not wonder that Mary and other members of the
GEN:  family, when they came to New England, left the name of gawky or left-handed Roger behind.

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