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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Memorial and family history of Erie County, New York
Genealogical Pub. Co., 1906

     -1-
       
       THE PRATT FAMILY.  For more than a century the PRATT family
    with which this sketch is concerned has held a place of central
    prominence in the annals of Buffalo.  In that community the dis-
    tinctions attaching to the name of PRATT are multifold, and in-
    clude the honors of which belong to pioneer hardihood, soldierly
    courage, industrial enterprise, civic service and social leader-
    ship.
       The name PRATT is derived from the Latin Pratum, a meadow, its
    etymology being referred to in the motto "Rident Florentia Prata"
    - "The flourishing meadows smile" - found in the emblazonry of
    PRATT of Ryston Hall, Norfolk, England.  With changes due to the
    differences of languages the name appears as that of several per-
    sons in France and the south of Europe, notably of one possessing
    the barony of Pratella, near Rouen, France, whose lord, in 1066,
    is found on the Roll of Battle Abbey as accompanying William the
    Conqueror at the battle of Hastings.  In 1096 Le Sire De Preaux, 
    whose arms were gules, and eagle d'or, followed Duke Robert Compte
    Hare of Normandy in the First Crusade, and John and William De
    Pratelles, brothers, were companions of Richard Coeur de Lion.
    The records of the PRATT family appear in almost every county in
    England, but are particularly identified with those of Hertford
    and Norfolk.  In the former, about 1538, lived THOMAS PRATT of
    Baldock.  His son ANDREW was the father of the Rev. WILLIAM PRATT,
    whose son JOHN was the founder of the PRATT family in America.
    The date when JOHN PRATT came to the Puritan Colonies is not 
    settled, but he was in this country
    
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    -2-
    
    as early as 1639.  He was one of the orginal proprietors of
    Hartford, Conn.; his sons were JOHN and DANIEL.  JOHN PRATT (2d),
    eldest son of JOHN and ELIZABETH PRATT, was born about 1638.  He
    was several times chosen for public office.  He was twice married,
    his first wife having been HANNAH BOOSEY, and his second wife
    HEPZIBAH WYATT.  JONATHAN PRATT, son of JOHN PRATT (2d) and 
    HEPZIABAH WYATT, was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1683, and died
    there in 1755.  AARON PRATT, son of JONATHAN and MARY (BENTON)
    PRATT, settled in Westminster, Vt.  In 1757 he married MARY CLARK,
    of East Hartford, by whom he had six children.  AARON PRATT died
    in Buffalo, February 9, 1807, and his widow died in the same city,
    November 20, 1809.
    
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