The Children of Jonathan Prather (d. 1680) and Lyle Jane McKay (d. 1713)
I was recently contacted by a distant Prater cousin - one of thousands most likely - and it pulled me back to that side of my tree. The lineage following my paternal surname is not as clear or as sturdy as I would like. Part of the problem is pedigree collapse and endogamy, another is missing records. But several genealogists have worked on the family for quite some time and the earliest Prater in my line to be born in America was most likely Jonathan Prather.
Jonathan Prather had a Prather Coat of Arms that he used in Maryland about 1650 that was registered with the College of Heraldry in association with the Prater family of Eaton Water, Wiltshire, England. According to extensive research by a genealogist, Jonathan Prather (or Prater, Praetor, Prator, Prether, Praither)1 was born about 1630 in Virginia to Thomas and Mary Prater. He traveled up the Potomac to Maryland in the late 1650s.
Jonathan married Lyle Jane McKay/Mackall about 1660 in Calvert Co., Maryland, though some purport they married before 1658 and traveled up the Potomac together. In 1670, they were living at “Resurrection Manor”.2
He died in 1680 in Calvert Co., Maryland. He left his widow in poverty, but she married 2nd the wealthy planter John Smith (d. 1707) of Mattapany. She died December 7, 1713, at her home in Brooke Wood, Prince George’s Co., Maryland, where she was likely buried.
Many of the original records have been lost, so dates for their children are unclear. Much of the currently known information is based on family records compiled over the decades by various researchers within the family.
Jonathan and Jane are thought to have had the following children:
1. Jane born presumably about 1662 in Maryland. She married James Mulliken, Jr. (~1662-1718) about 1680 in Prince George Co., Maryland, and had several children. She apparently died before 1710, when her mother’s will skipped to her daughter Mary as the beneficiary. They were ancestors of Jim Bowie of Alamo fame.
2. Jonathan (Jr. or II) born before 1666 in Calvert Co., Maryland. He married Elizabeth Bigger by 1690 in Maryland. They are thought to have had 9 children. He died in March 1736, and his widow Elizabeth died April 1737, in Prince George Co., Maryland.
3. George born about 1668 in Calvert Co., Maryland. He married Mary Bignell (b. ~1672) about 1688 in Maryland. He died in 1698 in Prince George Co., Maryland, naming his siblings and wife’s family in his will.
4. William (“William Nathan Prather”) born presumably about 1670 in Maryland. He married Anne Yate/Yates (b. ~1672), daughter of George Yates and Mary (Wells) Stockett Yates about 1695 in Prince George Co., Maryland. He is said to have died in 1747 in Prince George Co., Maryland.
5. Thomas (“Thomas MacKay Prather”) born presumably about 1671/3 in Calvert Co., Maryland. He married Martha Sprigg (b. ~1677) about 1695 in Maryland. He was a Colonel in the Frederick Co., Maryland, militia. Col. Thomas died in 1712 in Prince George’s Co., Maryland.
One of their children was Thomas Sprigg Prather.
6. John born about 1676 in Calvert Co., Maryland. He possibly married (1st) Catherine Brasshear (b. ~1680) about 1700, but in 1703 he married Katherine Swearingen (b. ~1683, family was from the Netherlands) and had children. Based on the other Prather/Prater researcher’s work he likely died December 20, 1718, in Prince George’s Co., Maryland.
7. Elizabeth born about 1678/1680 in Calvert Co., Maryland. She is not listed in her parents’ wills, and her existence is based on work by genealogist Ephrim Stout Lillard. She apparently married Phillip Gittings about 1700 in Maryland. However, not being listed in the wills may mean she died in infancy and it was a different Elizabeth Prather that Lillard found.
The ancestral English surname is spelled “Prater”, and Jonathan signed his name that way. However, Colonial documents spelled his name many different ways, and a few generations ended up with the “h”.
Apparently it was torn down in 2002.
Hi Alicia, thank you for this post. My wife is a Prather descendant (Alethia Prather (1781-1841, daughter of Zephaniah and Rachel (Wheat) Prather, married Benjamin Pickrell) - Alethia's 3rd great-grandmother.