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Subject: Re: PRESCOTT of Lancashire
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 11:34:42 EST


In NEHGR, vol 113, pp. 71-72 is the following note by John G. Hunt:

Parentage of John Prescott, who settled in 1645 at Lancaster, Mass.--At p.
238 of the July 1958 REGISTER, the Society records receipt of a Prescott
genealogy dated 1957, wherein Frederick Lewis Weis presents "eight lines of
descent of John Prescott, founder of Lancaster, Mass., 1645, from Alfred the
Great, King of England, 871-901."

The aforesaid eight lines record some of the ancestors of Ralph Prescott of
Shevington, parish of Standish, Lancashire, who died testate in 1608/9; in
his will he named his wife Elene, daughters Elene, Alice, and Cecille, and
son John.

Dr. Weis has identified the aforesaid legatee, John, with John Prescott,
settler in 1645 of Lancaster, Mass., for the following reasons:
i. Prescott is claimed to have founded Lancaster [in which case, he or
his father probably came from Lancashire].
ii. His wife in 1678 identified him with Halifax, Yorkshire, where their
children were baptized.
iii. His father's will is claimed to identify him with the Prescott
family of Standish Parish, Lancashire.

While Prescott was a founder, he should not be called "the founder" of
Lancaster, for others were associated with him in the purchase and settlement
of the town.

An identification by his wife, showing that Prescott had lived in Halifax,
cannot be held to prove association with Standish Parish, some 40 miles away
from Halifax.

A will of a testator who died in 1608/9 can hardly be held to prove any
connection with the emigrant who left England several decades afterwards, in
the absence of other factors.

The published Parish Register of Standish Parish, in Lancaster, fails to
record the baptism of a John Prescott of Shevington. However, that register
includes the following entry"

"Buried, 28 Oct. 1616, John Prescott of Shevington". In the absence of
contrary proof the preceding entry must be held to record the interment of
the legatee, John Prescott, son of Ralph Prescott, of Shevington, the above
testator. In the light of this evidence, it would seem that we who descend
from Prescott of Lancaster, Mass., must reject the parentage of Prescott,
advanced by Dr. Weis.

It is significant, that there were several persons named John Prescott in
Standish parish, as indicated by the following entries from the printed
registers:

John Prescott of Shevington, buried 20 July 1579
John Prescott buried 1563/4; John Prescott buried 1570
John Prescott buried 1585; John Prescott buried 1611
John Prescott buried 1614; John Prescott buried 1615.
John Prescott baptized in 1612, son of John.
John Prescott baptized in 1613, son of Thomas.
John Prescott had wife Margaret in July, 1628.
John Prescott had wife Grace, 26 Nov. 1637.
Cecilie, bap. 1602, and Ellen, bapt. 1607, daughters of John Prescott.
Cecilie Prescott was buried in 1628.

Further, it would seem to be highly significant that John Prescott of
Lancaster had no known issue named Ralph, Roger, Alexander, Ellen, Helen,
Cecile or Alice, which are the names one would expect to be commemorated in
the family of a descendant of the armigerous Prescotts of Shevington.
Moreover, the only son of that gentile English family would probably not have
been a blacksmith, as was our John Prescott of Lancaster.

Since the foregoing was prepared, the following records have come to my
attention: In Errington [adjoining Sowerby, Halifax Parish] one Bridget
Prescot was buried 12 July 1624 ["Heptonstall Parish registers", printed].
Chances are that she was sister or mother of John Prescott who settled in
Lancaster in 1645.

The following records are from printed Lancashire Parish registers:

Christened 27 Nov. 1606, John, son of Henry Prescot [at Prescot].
Christened 20 Apr. 1606, John Preskot, son of James [at Ornskirk].

Further wills at Chester indicate that the Prescotts were living in the early
seventeenth century in Halsall, Heskin, Ince in Makerfield, Standish, Newlon,
Upholland, Wigan, Gorton, Coppul and Sefton. The will of Robert Orrell the
elder of Wigan, dated 1623, names his cousin William Molyneux, gent, and
leaves legacies to Cicely, Jane, Agnes, and Elizabeth, daughters of John
Prescott [Chetham Soc., vol. 37 [1897], pp. 22 through 25].

In my opinion, one would have to search the registers of all the parishes
named above as well as the parishes of Lancs. that adjoin Yorkshire, before
he could venture an opinion as to who was the father of John Prescott, in
1645 of Lancaster. My own thought is that the latter John, a blacksmith, may
have been the son or nephew of Richard Prescott of Ince, Lancs., blacksmith,
whose will dated 1633, is at Chester.

There is reason to suppose that this blacksmith, Richard, lived at Ince in
Makerfield, not Ince-Blundell. Ince in Makerfield is [or was] a hamlet
adjoining Wigan lying toward Halifax from Wigan, according to an old map of
Lancashire [in the front part of Gregson's "Portfolio of Fragments"
concerning Lancashire.

Always optimistic--Dave

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