A Mayflower Mystery: Seeking The Ancestors of Hattie Pratt

It was a hot Sunday in June and I was attempting to prepare my garden for the summer season, which entailed plenty of water breaks indoors in front of the air conditioner. Once I was nestled in my comfy chair in a cool room, with a glass of ice water in hand, I checked my computer for any news updates, emails or FaceBook posts.  That Sunday I came across a post from the Boxford Historic Document Center requesting genealogical help. They posed the following on their FaceBook page.

 “I have a fun challenge for someone who has a really good Mayflower tree or a lot of time on their hands! I came across this wedding dress fragment in our collection that supposedly belonged to a Mayflower emigrant relative of Harriet “Hattie A. Pratt….Can anyone figure out which Mayflower relative this might have been?”

Now I had a decision to make….Go back to the hot garden, or stay in the cool house and build a family tree. Cool house/build tree won! In all honesty, it was not a difficult choice I really love building trees!

The Boxford Historic Document Center FaceBook page contained a few facts about Hattie. Her birth and death dates. The full name of her father. But only the first name of her mother. So first I needed to to confirm and identify both of Hattie’s parents. Hattie’s death certificate was easy to locate on FamilySearch. It confirmed her father’s name, Joshua Hall Pratt, but only listed her mother’s first name, “Elizabeth,” which matched the post from the Boxford Historic Document. I then turned to the vital records from Chelsea, which was Joshua H. Pratt’s hometown. I quickly found a marriage record, that showed Joshua married Elizabeth Pratt. Chelsea’s records had the births of all their children, including Hattie, and her birthdate also matched the Document Center’s information. Now with starting information confirmed, it was time to build a family tree!

I did not want to take a deep dive on this tree, but wanted to create one that was built quickly, building back to the generation of the person who could have owned the scrap of wedding dress fabric. This meant I needed to build Hattie’s tree back to people who were born about 1600, which was about six generations back.

Although I was moving quickly, I did not want to be careless with my research. I easily could have copied someone’s already built tree. But I knew there are a lot of trees out there that contain incorrect information. Thus, I thought it more important to start from scratch. Starting from Hattie’s parents and searching vital records, Hattie’s family tree began to grow. I also used Google searches to aid in this research. Google books had several genealogical books, written in the early 1900s, which were specific to Hattie’s family! These books were extremely helpful pointing out the next generation, and town’s vital records then confirmed each generation. Awesome find!!

As Hattie’s family tree grew, it was becoming apparent that most, if not all of her ancestors had settled in towns north of Boston. In other words, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and not in the Plymouth Colony, which was south of Boston. A Pilgrim ancestor was not becoming evident. However, two possible candidates emerged, which required further review. Both candidates were in Hattie’s Wolcott line; Joanna Emerson wife of John Wolcott (III) and Experience Walker wife of John Wolcott (V).

The book, Wolcott immigrants: and their Early Descendants (The First Six Generations) states that Joanna Emerson, who married John Wolcott (III), was a descendent of a Pilgrim. Joanna Emerson was born about 1663 (according to her age at death) in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Her parents are believed to be Nathaniel Emerson and his wife Sarah. There are no birth registrations of children in vital records for this couple, nor did Nathaniel leave behind a will, which makes it difficult to prove any children for this couple. It cannot be disregarded that Joanna is not listed as a daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah in the book The Ipswich Emersons; A.D. 1638-1900. Joanna “Hannah” married John Wolcott 4 January 1684 in Newbury, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Emerson was the son of Thomas Emerson and his wife Elizabeth Brewster. Nathaniel is a proven son; he was baptized in 1630 in the church his parents married in and he is mentioned in his father’s will. It was thought Elizabeth Brewster was the daughter of Pilgrim William Brewster. There are many books published around 1900 with this notation. However, today the Mayflower Society does not recognize that Elizabeth Brewster, wife of Thomas Emerson is the daughter of Pilgrim William Brewster.

The other possible Mayflower connection is Experience Walker, who married John Wolcott (V), the grandson of John (III) and Joanna (Emerson) Wolcott. According to the book Wolcott Immigrants: and their Early Descendants (The First Six Generations), Experience was born in 1727. The book does not provide a death date nor the names of her parents. Checking vital records for Brookfield, Massachusetts, an Experience Walker was born there in the early 1730s to Benjamin and Experience (Hayward) Walker. This is the Experience Walker many assume is the woman who married John Wolcott. Although no published genealogy or other factual source indicated this possible relationship, many family trees on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org illustrate this possible connection.

Further research on the family of Benjamin and Experience (Hayward) Walker, identifies that Experience Hayward has a confirmed genealogy to a Mayflower ancestor. She is listed in the “Silver Books” a published series by General Society of Mayflower Descendants containing the approved lineages for Mayflower families. She was the daughter of George Hayward (1673-1725), granddaughter of Anna White (1649-1712), and great-granddaughter of Resolved White (1615-1687), who came to Plymouth with his parents William and Susanna (Jackson) White. However, according to Brookfield vital records, Benjamin and Experience (Hayward) Walker’s daughter Experience died in 1738 at the age of nine. She cannot be the wife of John Wolcott (V).

It appears that both Joanna Emerson and Experience Walker are dead ends, and unlikely to be the descendants of a Mayflower ancestor who owned the scrap of fabric that was thought to be part of a Pilgrim wedding dress.

However, an interesting notation in The Ipswich Emersons; A.D. 1638-1900 regarding Elizabeth (Fuller) King, granddaughter of Thomas and Elizabeth [Brewster] Emerson, who owned a similar scrap of linen fabric, which the family preserved as an heirloom caught my attention. It tells how Elizabeth (Brewster) Emerson’s had descended from a respectable English family, and her mother had been given a piece of linen by Queen Elizabeth, (who reigned from 1558 to 1603), which the family had passed down as an heirloom. Could it be possible the Boxford Historic Document Center’s scrap of fabric is not from a Pilgrim’s wedding dress but from that original piece of linen?

It appears Harriet A. Pratt does not have a Mayflower ancestor, but when she was alive and for several decades after her death, it was believed her ancestor Elizabeth (Brewster) Emerson, was the daughter of the Pilgrim William Brewster.

The notion of having a special dress to get married in did not develop until the mid-1800s, so this scrap of fabric may not have come from a wedding dress. The scrap of fabric, that is part of the collection of the Boxford Historic Document Center, appears to be linen with a damask pattern. A piece of linen is documented in the Emerson Genealogy, that was gifted to the family from Queen Elizabeth I, as having come through Elizabeth (Brewster) Emerson, and is noted the family considers it an heirloom. It is very possible the piece of linen was cut into smaller pieces so several branches of the family could each have a piece of this heirloom, and Hattie was the person who ended up with her branch’s piece.

In summary, I believe that Hattie Pratt does not have a Mayflower ancestor and it is highly likely this scrap of fabric is from the gift of Queen Elizabeth to Elizabeth (Brewster) Emerson.

Mystery solved.

Bibliography:

• Appleton, William Sumner. Record of the Descendants of William Sumner, of Dorchester, Mass., 1636. Boston (MA): David Clapp & Son, Printer, 1879.
• Bond, Henry. Family Memorials and Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts. Boston (MA): Little, Brown, and Company, 1885.
• Cox, John Hosmer. New England Cox Families: A Series of Genealogical Papers, Vol. 5. Lexington (MA): 1890.
• Chamberlain, George Walter. The Spragues of Malden, Massachusetts. Boston (MA): Privately printed, 1923.
• Chamberlain, George Walter (ed). “Early Settlers Before 1665,” Proceedings of the Hundred Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of Malden, Massachusetts, 1924.
• Emerson, Benjamin Kendall. The Ipswich Emersons; A.D. 1638-1900. Boston (MA): David Clapp & Son, 1900.
• Fuller, Arthur Buckminister. Historical Notes of Thomas Fuller and his Descendants: With A Genealogy of the Fuller Family, 1638-1902. Cambridge (MA): 1902.
• Garrity, Robert M. “Concord’s First Settlers, 1636-1640,” yankeeancestry.tripod.com. Acton, Massachusetts: 2006. accessed 20 jun 2020
• Sewall, Samuel. The History of Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, “Genealogical Notices of the Earliest Inhabitants of Woburn, and Their Families” Boston (MA): Wiggin & Lunt Publishers, 1868.
• Wakefield, Robert S. (ed). Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: William White, third edition, Vol 13. Plymouth (MA): General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2006.
• Wolcott, John Benjamin, Charles V. Wald. Wolcott immigrants: and their Early Descendants (The First Six Generations). Rochester: Gorham Printing, 2002.