force, whether physical, mental or moral.  Not only was he of commanding stature, stern of mien and strong of limb, but he had a heart devoid of fear, great physical endurance and an unbending will.  These qualities his savage neighbors early recognized and bowed before in deep respect, and because of these no Lancaster enterprise but claimed him as its leader.  His manual skill and dexterity must have been great, his mental capacity and business energy remarkable, for we find him not only a farmer, trader, blacksmith and hunter, but a surveyor and builder of roads, bridges and mills.  The records of the town show that he was seldom free from the conduct of some public labor.  The greatest of his benefactions to his neighbors were:  His corn-mill erected in 1654, and his saw-mill in 1659.  The arrival of the first millstone in Lancaster must have been an event of matchless interest to every man, woman and child in the plantation.  Till that began its tireless turning, the grain for every loaf of bread had to be carried to Watertown mill, or ground laboriously in a hand quern, or parched and brayed in a mortar, Indian fashion.  Before the starting of his saw-mill, the rude houses must have been of logs, stone, and clay, for it was an impossibility to bring from the lower towns on the existing “Bay road” and with the primitive tumbril any large amount of sawn lumber.

Of Prescott’s wife we know only her name:  Mary Platts.  But her daughters were sought for in marriage by men of whom we learn nothing that is not praiseworthy, and her sons all honored their mother’s memory, by useful and unblemished lives.  John Prescott was the youngest son of Ralph and Ellen of Shevington, Lancashire, England.  He was baptized in the Parish of Standish in 1604-5 and married Mary Platts at Wigan, Lancashire, January 21, 1629.  He was a land owner in Shevington, but sold his possessions there and took up his residence in Halifax Parish, Sowerby, in Yorkshire.  Leaving England to avoid religions persecutions, his first haven was Barbadoes, where he is found a land owner in 1638.  In 1640 he landed in Boston, and immediately selected his home in Watertown, where he became the possessor of six lots of land, aggregating one hundred and twenty-six acres.  In 1643, his name is found in association with Thomas King of Watertown, Henry Symonds of Boston, and others, the first proprietors of the Nashaway purchase.  His children were eight in number and all were married in due season.  They were as follows: 

1.  Mary, baptized at Halifax Parish February 24, 1630, married Thomas Sawyer in 1648.  The young couple selected their home lot adjoining Prescott’s in Lancaster and there eleven sons and daughters were born to them.

2.  Martha, baptized at Halifax Parish March 11, 1632, married John Rugg in 1655; and these twain began life together in sight of her paternal home in Lancaster.  She died with her twin babes in January 1656.

3.  John, baptized at Halifax Parish April 1, 1635, married Sarah Hayward at Lancaster, November 11, 1668, and had five children.  He was a farmer and blacksmith, lived with his father, and succeeded him at the mills.