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Matthew Pratt

Birth
Weymouth, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA
Death
12 Jan 1713 (aged 83)
Weymouth, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA
Burial
Weymouth, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
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Matthew Pratt of Weymouth was born 1629 and died January 13, 1713 in Weymouth.

His will was made July 30, 1711 but was probated June 4, 1713.

In the will, he gave to his wife, Sarah, his house and barn as well as the land adjoining the buildings for her to keep for the rest of her life. To his son Matthew he gave the housing and lands bought from "my cousin William Pratt". He gave his daughter Susannah (Pratt) Porter 10; to William his son he gave 20 acres "in the Perry field;" to daughter Mary (Pratt) Allen 15; to his daughter Dorothy (Pratt) Whitman 10; to his son Samuel "his dwelling barn and land adjoining lying on the southerly side of the way that goeth to Brother John Pratt's house" after his wife Sarah dies. To duaghter Sarah (Pratt) Ford 10; to daughter Dorothy (Pratt) Whitman 5; to daughter Anne (Pratt) White 13; to daughter Hannah (Pratt) Whitmarsh the land "lying near the late dwelling house of Samuel Whitmarsh in Weymouth in the Second Division." Sons Matthew, William and Samuel were the executors while his friends Stephen French Sr. and Capt. John Hunt were to be the overseers. (Suffolk Probate 18:109)

Cotton Mather, in Magnalia, Vol 1, Page 495, writes:

"One Matthew Pratt, whose religious parents had well instructed him in his minority, when he was twelve years of age became totally deaf through sickness, and so hath ever since continued. He was taught after this to write, as he had been before to read; and both his reading and his writing he remaineth perfectly, but he has almost forgotten to speak; speaking out imperfectly, and scare intelligible, and very seldom.

He is yet a very judicious Christian, and being admitted into the communion of the church, he was therein for many years behaved himself unto the extreme satisfaction of good people in the neighborhood. Sarah Prat, the wife of this man, is one also who was altogether deprevied of her hearing by sickness when she was about the third year of her age; but having utterly lost her hearing, she has utterly lost her speach also, and no doubt all rememberance of everything that refers to language.

Mr. Thatcher made an essay to teach her the use of letters, but it succeeded not; however, she discourses by signs, whereat some of her friends are so expert as to maintain a conversation with her upon any point whatever, with as much freedom and fullness as if she wanted neither tongue nor ear for conference. Her children do learn her signs from the breast, and speak sooner by her eyes and hands than by their lips. From her infancy she was very sober and modest; but she had no knowledge of a Deity, nor of anything that concerns another life and world. Nevertheless, God, of his infinite mercy, has revealed the Lord Jesus Christ, and the great mysteries of salvation by him, unto her, by a more extraordinary and immediate operation of his own spirit unto her, an account of her experience was written from her, by her husband; and the elders of the church employing her husband, with two of her sisters who are notably skilled in her way of communication, examined her strictly hereabout, and they found that she understood the unity of the divine essence, and trinity of persons in the Godhead; the personal union in our Lord, the mystical union between our Lord and his church; and that she was acquainted with the impressions of grace upon a regenerate soul. She was under great exercise of mind, about her internal and eternal state; she expressed unto her friends her desire for help; and she made use of the Bible, and other good books, and with tears remarked such passages as were suitable to her own condition. Yea, she once, in her exercise wrote with a pin upon a trencher, three times over, "Ah poor soul!" and therewith, before divers person, burst into tears. She was admitted into the church with the general approbation of the faithful,.....and her carriage is that of a grave, gracious, holy woman."

Suggested edit: Matthew Pratt was a son of Matthew (Macuth) Pratt and his wife Elizabeth, born about 07 June 1629, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England. The family emigrated to New England between 1637 and 1639.
Contributor: Larry Dean (47273079
Matthew Pratt of Weymouth was born 1629 and died January 13, 1713 in Weymouth.

His will was made July 30, 1711 but was probated June 4, 1713.

In the will, he gave to his wife, Sarah, his house and barn as well as the land adjoining the buildings for her to keep for the rest of her life. To his son Matthew he gave the housing and lands bought from "my cousin William Pratt". He gave his daughter Susannah (Pratt) Porter 10; to William his son he gave 20 acres "in the Perry field;" to daughter Mary (Pratt) Allen 15; to his daughter Dorothy (Pratt) Whitman 10; to his son Samuel "his dwelling barn and land adjoining lying on the southerly side of the way that goeth to Brother John Pratt's house" after his wife Sarah dies. To duaghter Sarah (Pratt) Ford 10; to daughter Dorothy (Pratt) Whitman 5; to daughter Anne (Pratt) White 13; to daughter Hannah (Pratt) Whitmarsh the land "lying near the late dwelling house of Samuel Whitmarsh in Weymouth in the Second Division." Sons Matthew, William and Samuel were the executors while his friends Stephen French Sr. and Capt. John Hunt were to be the overseers. (Suffolk Probate 18:109)

Cotton Mather, in Magnalia, Vol 1, Page 495, writes:

"One Matthew Pratt, whose religious parents had well instructed him in his minority, when he was twelve years of age became totally deaf through sickness, and so hath ever since continued. He was taught after this to write, as he had been before to read; and both his reading and his writing he remaineth perfectly, but he has almost forgotten to speak; speaking out imperfectly, and scare intelligible, and very seldom.

He is yet a very judicious Christian, and being admitted into the communion of the church, he was therein for many years behaved himself unto the extreme satisfaction of good people in the neighborhood. Sarah Prat, the wife of this man, is one also who was altogether deprevied of her hearing by sickness when she was about the third year of her age; but having utterly lost her hearing, she has utterly lost her speach also, and no doubt all rememberance of everything that refers to language.

Mr. Thatcher made an essay to teach her the use of letters, but it succeeded not; however, she discourses by signs, whereat some of her friends are so expert as to maintain a conversation with her upon any point whatever, with as much freedom and fullness as if she wanted neither tongue nor ear for conference. Her children do learn her signs from the breast, and speak sooner by her eyes and hands than by their lips. From her infancy she was very sober and modest; but she had no knowledge of a Deity, nor of anything that concerns another life and world. Nevertheless, God, of his infinite mercy, has revealed the Lord Jesus Christ, and the great mysteries of salvation by him, unto her, by a more extraordinary and immediate operation of his own spirit unto her, an account of her experience was written from her, by her husband; and the elders of the church employing her husband, with two of her sisters who are notably skilled in her way of communication, examined her strictly hereabout, and they found that she understood the unity of the divine essence, and trinity of persons in the Godhead; the personal union in our Lord, the mystical union between our Lord and his church; and that she was acquainted with the impressions of grace upon a regenerate soul. She was under great exercise of mind, about her internal and eternal state; she expressed unto her friends her desire for help; and she made use of the Bible, and other good books, and with tears remarked such passages as were suitable to her own condition. Yea, she once, in her exercise wrote with a pin upon a trencher, three times over, "Ah poor soul!" and therewith, before divers person, burst into tears. She was admitted into the church with the general approbation of the faithful,.....and her carriage is that of a grave, gracious, holy woman."

Suggested edit: Matthew Pratt was a son of Matthew (Macuth) Pratt and his wife Elizabeth, born about 07 June 1629, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England. The family emigrated to New England between 1637 and 1639.
Contributor: Larry Dean (47273079


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