An American Family History

Mary Davis Lewis Pratt was born on January 31, 1661/62 in Groton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Her parents were Samuel Davis and Mary Waters.

She married her first husband, Isaac Lewis of Boston on March 25, 1680. Isaac was born about 1657. His parents were John Lewis and Mary Browne.

Mary and Isaac's children were Mary Lewis Sargent (1680/81), Isaac Lewis (1683), Joseph Lewis (1685), John Lewis (1687/88), Elizabeth Lewis (1688/89) and Abraham Lewis (1691). 

Isaac Lewis died on April 6, 1691 when he was 34 years old in Malden, Massachusetts.

She married her second husband, Lieutenant Thomas Pratt, in 1691. Thomas was born in 1669 in Malden. His parents were John Pratt and Mary Andrews. Thomas was the first of the Pratt family to settle in Chelsea.

In 1695 Thomas purchased the Way-Ireland farm.

Mary and Thomas' children were Elizabeth Pratt George (1692/93), Ann Pratt (1694), Sarah Pratt Blanchard (1697, married Joshua Blanchard), Captain Thomas Pratt (1699), and Samuel Pratt (1703/04). 

In 1710 Thomas was one of those who formed the First Church of Christ in Rumney Marsh.

Thomas died in Chelsea on June 25, 1732. He is buried in Edgewood Cemetery in Malden.

When her husband died she had no property because married women could not own property. According to her husband’s will, Mary would leave the farm if she remarried and would receive an annuity of twelve pounds, but while she was a widow, the house and household items were hers. She also received two cows, two geese, two turkeys, six hens, and a pig, In addition one hundred pounds of beef, one hundred twenty pounds of pork, ten bushes of Indian corn, two of rye, two of malt six of apples, two barrels of cider and firewood cut ready for burning were to be delivered to the house. She received an annuity of ten pounds in money and was to be taken to meeting and home again as often as she desired.

from Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 3 by Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs

(I) John Lewis was an inhabitant of Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1634, when he is first found of record. He was admitted to the church there July 10, 1644, and soon after removed to Malden where he was one of the first settlers in 1635-36. He had four acres of planting land and a ten acre lot on the Mystic side in 1637. In all he was the owner of six parcels of land. He must have been a man of some means.

The name of his first wife was Marguerite, who was admitted to the church in Charlestown, July 7, 1638. She died April 10, 1649. He married (second), April 10, 1650, at Malden, Mary Browne, daughter of Abraham Browne, of Watertown. Children: John, Joseph and Mary, twins, Samuel, Elizabeth, Sarah, Abraham, Jonathan, Mary, Hannah, Isaac and Trial. He died September 16, 1657, at Malden.

(II) Isaac [Lewis], son (probably the only one) of John and Mary (Browne) Lewis, was born at Malden, Massachusetts, about 1655. He married Mary Davis, and their children were: Mary, Isaac (2), mentioned below. Joseph, John and Abraham.

(III) Isaac [Lewis] (2), eldest son of Isaac (1) and Mary (Davis) Lewis, was born about 1680, probably at Malden, Massachusetts. He lived at Rumney Marsh, now Chelsea. He married Hannah Hallett; children: Isaac, John, Hannah. William, Abijah, whose sketch follows, Mary, Nathan, of Boston, and Joseph. Nathan Lewis, who married Mary Newhall, was the grandfather of Alonzo Lewis, the historian of Lynn, Massachusetts.

Isaac[Lewis] (12) m Mar. 25. 1680, Mary Davis, b Jany 31, 1662/3, dau. of Samnel and Mary ( Waters) Davis of Groton, Mass., Suffolk Probate rec. Apr. 10, 1691, speak of Thomas Pratt and Mary Pratt, late relict and widow of Isaac Lewis. In Wyman's Genealogies it is stated that he d Apr. 6, 1691, as appears on his grave stone in Belle Rock Cemetery at Malden.

HERE LYES YE BODY
OF ISAAC—LEWIS
AGED—34— YEARS
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE-APRIL-YE-6TH
1691

(from Lewisania)

(IV) Lieutenant Thomas Pratt, son of John and Mary Pratt, was Thomas of Rumney Marsh, Chelsea, where he died June 25, 1732. It is probable that he attended church in Malden, for he contributed to the building of the meeting house there in 1704, and in 1709-10 signed a protest against building a house of worship in Rumney Marsh.

He married Widow Mary Lewis, and by her had five children, whose births recorded in Boston are as follows:
Elizabeth. January 24, 1692-93;
Ann, February 11. 1694-95;
Sarah, August 10, 1697;
Thomas. May 6, 1699;
Samuel, January 27, 1703-04.

(V) Ensign Thomas Pratt, son of Lieutenant Thomas and Mary (Lewis) Pratt, born May 6, 1699, died 1780, aged eighty-one years. He was one of the leading men of Chelsea, and with the exception of three years served as selectman from the incorporation of the town in 1739 until 1754 when he removed from the town; but in 1762 his name again appears as one of the selectmen of Chelsea. He represented the town in the general court from 1745 to 1748. four years, and again in 1766, 1771 and 1772; was chosen committeeman to the convention which met in Faneuil Hall, Boston. September 22. 1768: member of the committees to the general court 1768 and 1770 to ask relief from excessive taxation and in 1775 was a member of the committee of correspondence.

On April 27, 1721, Ensign Thomas Pratt married Mary Floyd, born Malden. March 25, 1699. died 1775. daughter of Daniel and Mary Floyd, of Malden. . .
Children of Ensign Thomas and Mary (Floyd) Pratt, born in Chelsea:
Thomas, March 9. 1722;
Daniel. February 17, 1724:
Benjamin. May 20. 1725:
John, March 26, 1726:
Edward, October 22. 1728:
Mary. March 30. 1736;
Joseph, August 26. 1738.

(from Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, Volume 3 edited by William Richard Cutter)