John Prescott

John Prescott, the father of Sarah (Prescott) Wheeler, was born at Shevington, Lancashire, England in 1604-5 and resided there until his marriage to Mary Platts, Jan. 21, 1628-9 when he sold his home and removed to Sowerby, Halifax Parish, Yorkshire, where most of his children were born.  For his conscience’s sake and to avoid persecution he emigrated to America going first to the Island of Barbadoes in the West Indies where the records show him to have a had property in 1638. He came to Boston in 1640 with his family and settled in Watertown.  In 1643, he, with several associates negotiated the “Nashaway Purchase,” acquiring a tract of land ten miles long and eight miles wide comprising what is now the town of Lancaster, Mass. And portions of adjoining towns.  He removed through the wilderness to that place probably in 1642 with his family who were nearly drowned while fording the Sudbury River.

            He was the first settler and the leading spirit of the enterprise and easily deserved the title that had been give him “The Founder of Lancaster”.

            He was also the first settler in Worcester County.

            It was at first proposed to call the new town established upon the “Nashaway Plantation” after its leading citizen and a petition was sent by the citizens to the General Court, asking that the town be called “Prescott,” but the wise solons of that day decided that this “smacked too much of man worship” and therefor refused the reuqest, but named the town Lancaster in compliment to John Prescott’s native county in England and appoint John Prescott, Ralph Houghton, and Thomas Sawyer as three of the six “Prudential Managers” of the new town.  This was in 1653.

            John Prescott first settled at the site of the present public buildings and Unitarian church but soon sold these lands and took up other lands near South Lancaster on the east slope of “George’s Hill” at the place now called “Maplehurst.”

            Of him the historian of Lancaster, Hon. H.S. Nourse writes: “Not one of the famous frontiers men whose figures stand out so prominently in early history was better equipped with the manly qualities that win hero worship in a new country than was the father of the Nashaway Plantation.

            Had Prescott, like Daniel Boone, been fortunate in the favor of contemporary histories to perpetuate anecdotes of his daily prowess and fertility or resource, or had he left grateful successors withal to keep his memory green, his name and romantic adventures would, like Boone’s, adorn Colonial annals.

            Persecuted for his opinions, he went out into the wilderness to found a home and for forty years thought, fought and wrought to make that home the center of a prosperous community.  Loaded from his first steps with discouragements that soon appalled every other of the original co-partners in the purchase of Nashaway from Showanon, Prescott alone held to his purpose and death found him at his post.”  (Life of John Prescott in Military Annals of Lancaster.)

            The “Book of Lands” of the Proprietors of Lancaster, has the following description of the lands of John Prescott.

            “Lotts of Jn Prescott. The ffirst Lott was the Scenter from which other Lotts may take their boundings and description North and South, is the Lott of John Prescot who is one of the first Inhabitants, he hath his Lott on the west side of the Nashaway and the North Riuers containing 20 acors in place where sometimes one Mr. Symmons and Thomas King built a trukeing house, Butting Easterly vppon the highway and westerly toward the Comons.”

            “His Entervale Lott containeth 50 Acors, Buetteh vppon the North  and Nashaway Riuers Esaterly and tendeth Westerly as it is now ffenced and one part Lying Northly of the Higway and another part Southerly from the Lott of Thomas Sawyer.”

            “That Lott of John Prescott Containing 20 acors which Lyeth on the east side of the Highway over against her former Lott Described butteth vppon the high way westerly and the Comons Easterly.”

            Prescott was a blacksmith and millwright originally, but he was also a surveyor and a builder of  roads and bridges.

            In 1648 he laid out the “Road to Connecticut by Nashaway, which avoided most of the hilly way,” and for his services received 100 acres of land near Lake Washacum in Sterling including the land upon which the Sterling Jucntion depot is now located.  Later he bought of Quannapoag, the Nashaway chieftain, 110 acres adjoining this grant including the land now known as the Methodist Camp Meeting Grounds at Sterling—the deed being dated March 22, 1669-70.

            In this deed mention is made of Fort Washakim as follows “Washakim fert being aboutt fiefteene rods from the nearest pt of this plaine”. Etc.  Chief Quanapoag’s wigwam was upon a rise of ground between the East and West Washacum Lakes.  His English name was James Wiser, and the relation between him and Prescott were always very friendly.

            Prescott took the oath of fidelity in 1652 and was made freeman May 19, 1669.

            In 1652, he entered into an agreement with the town to build a grist mill or “corn mill” as it was then called.  He completed the mill and commenced grinding March 23, 1653-4

            This mill was built upon Goodrich Brook on Water St. in Clinton, then a part of Lancaster and it was the first mill erected in Worcester County.  Before its erection the nearest mill was at Waterwon, 30 miles distant.  He also built a block house, or “Garrison House” on the hill near the mill a little southeast of the corner of High and Water Sts in Clinton and to this house he removed his family, perhaps before he had finished the mill, and here he lived thereafter.  This house and mill were the first buildings to be erected in that portion of the town of Clinton.  Pieces of the original mill stones used for grinding in Prescott’s mill are still preserved at Clinton.

            In 1657 Prescott was appointed by the Government as a member of the committee to build bridges “at Billirriky and Misticke” and in 1658 he surveyed the Davenport lands, comprising 650 acres, the western part of which included the central part of the village of West Boylston.

            In 1659, he built a saw mill above his “corn mill,” probably on the location now occupied by the Bigelow Carpet mill.

            In 1667 he contracted with the town of Groton to build a corn mill in that town and did so receiving as a bonus 520 acres of land free from taxation for twenty years. The site of this mill is now within the town limits of Harvard about one mile north of the center.  He put his son Jonas in charge of the mill and afterward gave him both mill and lands.

            Prescott was a soldier and had probably seen service under Cromwell in England.

            He had a helmet and a coat of mail which were the terror of the superstitious Indians and many anecdotes of his skill and prowess are related.  His block house, although attacked by the Indians when the town was destoryed, was not captured, but in common with all the other inhabitants he was forced to temporarily abandon the town after the massacre and his house was then burned by the Indians.

            He returned, however, probably in 1679 and lived there until his death in 1681.

            His will, proved in Dec. 1681, counseled his wife and children to “labor and endeavor to preserue love and unitied among themselves and the vpholding of church and Commonwealth.” His son John succeeded to his father’s business at Lancaster.

            Before conveying to his son Jonas the property at Groton (Harvard) Prescott owned upwards of 1200 acres of land situated as follows:  In Lancaster about 100 acres extending from Georges Hill to the Nashua River near the old cemetery; in Clinton about 300 acres comprising what is now the central part of Clinton and extending from the B.& M. R.R. to the Nashua River; In sterling about 300 acres south of and bordering upon the Washacum lakes, and in Groton (Harvard) 520 acres.  John Prescott was great grandfather of Col. Wm. Prescott who commanded the American forces at Bunker Hill; and of Capt John. Prescott who commanded a portion of the Massachusetts troops at the seige of Carthagena, South America by the English in 1740 and great-great grandfather of Wm. H. Prescott, the historian.

            John Prescott’s grave is in the old cemetery near the “Rivers meeting” at Lancaster and a rude stone, bearing his name and the date 1681 marks his last resting place.

            On the 250^th anniversary of the found of Lancaster the town erected at his grave a memorial stone bearing the following inscription:

HERE

WITH HIS CHILDREN ABOUT HIS LIES

JOHN PRESCOTT

FOUNDER OF LANCASTER AND FIRST SETTLER

OF WORCESTER COUNTY

BORN AT STANDMILL LANCASHIRE ENGLAND

DIED AT LANCATSER MASSACHUSETTS DEC. 1681

INSPIRED BY THE LOVE OF LIBERTY AND THE FEAR OF GOD

THIS STOUT HEARTED PIONEER

FORSAKING THE PLEASANT VALES OF ENGLAND

TOOK UP HIS ABODE IN THE UNBROKEN FOREST

AND ENCOUNTERED WILD BEAST AND SAVAGE

TO SECURE FREEDOM

FOR HIMSELF AND HIS POSTERITY

HIS FAITH AND VIRTUES

HAVE BEEN INHERITED BY MANY DESCENDANTS

WHO IN EVERY GENERATION HAVE WELL SERVED THE STATE

IN WAR, IN LITERATURE, AT THE BAR, IN THE PULPIT, IN PUBLIC LIFE,

AND IN CHRISTIAN HOMES

            At the semi-centennial celebration of the organization of the town of

Clinton in June 1900 two bronze tablets were erected by the town to mark the

Sites of John Prescott’s house and mill.

They are inscribed at follows:

1654                                                                                                                                1900

NEAR THIS SPOT STOOD

THE HOUSE BUILT BY

JOHN PRESCOTT IN 1654

BURNED BY THE INDIANS

IN 1676.

Tablet on Otterson Place, Clinton

1654                                                                                                                                1900

THIS TABLET MARKS THE SITE

OF THE FIRST GRIST MILL

IN WORCESTER COUNTY,

BUILT BY

JOHN PRESCOTT IN 1654.

Tablet upon Mill in Water St., Clinton

Of Mary Platts, wife of John Prescott, the Hon. Henry Nourse, historian of Lancaster, says, “Of Prescott’s wife we know only her name; but her daughters were sought for in marriage by men of whom he know nothing that is not praiseworthy; and her sons all honored their mother’s memory by useful and unblemished lives.”  (Life of John Prescott in Military Annals of Lancaster, p 344.)

(taken from Wheeler Family of Ruthland, MA by Daniel M. Wheeler, Pittsfield, MA 1924.)