Prepared, on an electric typewriter, 22 July 1983 by John W. Prather, Jr., 600 Carolina Village Rd. #196, Hendersonville, NC, 28792-2825.
Retyped on a computer 25 February 1997 by John W. Prather, Jr., 600 Carolina village Rd. #196, Hendersonville, NC, 28792-2825. This is an exact copy of the original Study except for a few updates or corrections which are shown in bold type. See Addendum at end of Study for explanation of how the format of the Study was developed.
_____This paper is prepared to correct an error which exists in an abstract of George Gouldsmith's will on page 35 of THE CALENDAR OF WILLS, WILLS FROM 1635 (Earliest probated) to 1685, Volume 1 (1904), Compiled and Edited by Jane Baldwin Cotton, (Ref.1). We have all seen it written that Jane Prather wife of Jonathan Prather, b. ca. 1635/8, may be the daughter of George Gouldsmith. Eva Hampton Prather in her manuscript entitled A PRATHER FAMILY RECORD CHIEFLY OF THE JOHN SMITH PRATHERS, (1658-1945) on page 7 is found the following .... On reaching Maryland Jonathan built a plantation house on Swan Creek in Baltimore Co., Md. which he called 'Prather's Hall'. Ref. Genealogist E.S. Lillard. About 1665 he married a lady called Jane probably a daughter of George Gouldsmith of Baltimore County. They had six children, born at 'Prather's Hall', namely .... A copy of Eva's manuscript is in the Library of Congress, call number CS 72 P9 1945.
_____Ephraim Stout Lillard has written several letters to others that Jane Prather, wife of Jonathan Prather, was not the daughter of George Gouldsmith. I have a copy of these letters in my records. Ephraim wrote a letter Nov. 30 1960 to Mrs. Dorothy Prather Reed, 4529 East Taylor Street, Phoenix. Arizona. On the third page of this letter is found ...JONATHAN PRATHER I, born in Virginia, 1631, married, between 1650/58, Jane ______ , born about 1635/8 in Virginia, (name unknown), but she is of English decent, and DEFINITELY WAS NOT A GOULDSMITH, (another figment of cousin Eva's imagination), as court records prove that Jonathan and Jane were married before they came to Maryland.
_____Some time between 1652/58, they were transported by water from Virginia, up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River to Swan Creek (then) in Calvert County (now in Prince George's Co. Md.) with four men and one other woman; Alexander Forcarson, Robert Mackey & wife, William Woodrose, William Mill and William Jones (Liber Q, folio 302, Maryland Provincial Records, Land Office, Annapolis, Md.) in a small vessel owned by George Reade of Calvert Co., Md., who, according to a deposition, was about the same age as Jonathan Prather I.
Here on Swan Creek, (then in Calvert County, now in Prince George's County, Md.) Jonathan Prather I and his wife Jane built their first home in Maryland, and called it 'Prather's Hall', but did not live there long, but must have disposed of it to George Gouldsmith, who in his will of April 1566, bequeathed 'Prather's Hall' to his daughter Mary Gouldsmith (Vol. I, gage 35 Calendar of Maryland Wills, by Jane Baldwin Cotton. This 'Prather's Hall' was located near the present site of Fort Washington on the Potomac River, near present (1960) Swan Creek Road, which runs from east to west from Fort Washington Road, and is about 10 miles due south of the present Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. .... I have a copy of this letter in my files. The following errors are found in this part of Ephraim's letter. The correct document data is (Liber Q, folio 202 ---) not (Liber Q, folio 302---) and the names as listed in this document are ... Alexander Forcarson 50, Robert Mackay 100, Will: Woodrose 50, Jonath Prather 100, Will: Mill 50, Will Joanes 50. ... The numbers after each name represents acres of land. A single man got 50 acres and a married man got 100 acres. In Ref. 1 the name of the tract of land is Prater's Hall not 'Prather's Hall'.
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