Mary GAWKROGER

____ - 20 Oct 1688

  • CHRISTENING: 15 Mar 1607, Sowerby, Halifax, Yorkshire, England
  • DEATH: 20 Oct 1688, Lancaster, Worcester, MA
  • BURIAL: Massachusetts
Father: Abraham GAWKROGER
Mother: Martha RILEY

Family 1 : John PRESCOTT
  • MARRIAGE: 24 Jan 1629, Sowerby, Halifax, Yorkshire, England
  1.  Mary PRESCOTT
  2.  Martha PRESCOTT
  3.  John PRESCOTT
  4.  Sarah PRESCOTT
  5.  Lydia PRESCOTT
  6.  Jonathan PRESCOTT
  7. +Jonas PRESCOTT


                                         _Richard GAWKROGER _+
                      _James GAWKROGER _|
                     |                  |_Isabella __________
 _Abraham GAWKROGER _|
|                    |                   _George FAIRBANKS __+
|                    |_Genet FAIRBANKS _|
|                                       |_Sibyl WADE ________
|
|--Mary GAWKROGER 
|
|                                        ____________________
|                     __________________|
|                    |                  |____________________
|_Martha RILEY ______|
                     |                   ____________________
                     |__________________|
                                        |____________________


[622] (Shattuck and associated family lines from a GEDCOM file posted to RootsWeb by Robert Wylie [wyliecoyote1@comcast.net]).

Also known as Gawkroger-Platts, there is some contention as to whether Mary is the
daughter of James & Martha Ainsworth or Abraham & Mary Riley. There is also
disagreement on the number of children she had and their birthdates. For lack of a
better source, I have chosen to use the children listed by Savage.

"Notes on Families of the Parish of Halifax, Yorksire"
Hunt, John G.
TAG 40:22-29 (Jan 1964)
"Mr. Torrey agreed with the present contributor that Genet or Jenet Fairbank named in his
paper [TAG, 37:68] did not die young as stated. She married, it now seems certain, James
(Richard, John, Richard, John) Platts alias Gawkroger of Sowerby. They had, with others,
Abraham Platts alias Gawkroger and James. This Abraham Platts was father of Mary who
married in 1629 John Prescott of Sowerby with whom she shortly removed to New England,
where he became principal promoter of Lancaster, Mass., which seems to have been named to
honor him."

"Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts"
Almira Larkin White
Published by Chase Bros., printers, 1909
p167: "Mary Gawkroger, bapt. Mar. 15, 1607; m. Apr. 11, 1629, John Prescott, founder of
Lancaster, Mass. They lived for a time in Sowerby, where five of their children were born, three
of whom were brought to New England, two buried in Sowerby. In 1638, they were living in the
Island of Barbadoes, owning more than ten acres of land. In 1640, in Watertown, where he had
large grants of land. In 1643 he associated himself with Thomas King and others, for the purpose
of purchasing of Sholan the Indian Sachem of the Nashaway tribe of Indians, a tract of land for a
township, which was to be ten miles long and eight in breadth, known as the "Nashaway
Plantation," afterwards, Lancaster, Mass."

"A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers
of New England, Before 1692"
James Savage
Boston, MA, 1860-1862, pp. 480-482

"New England Marriages Prior to 1700"
Clarence A. Torrey, Baltimore, MD, 1985
pp. 602-603
"PRESCOTT, John & Mary GAWKROGER; 11 Apr 1629, Halifax, Eng; Watertown/Lancaster"


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