The Children of Thomas MacKay Prather and Martha Sprigg of Maryland

Thomas MacKay Prather was born Thomas Prather but is known by the longer name to differentiate him from many Thomas’ in the family. His parents were Jonathan Prather and Lyle Jane McKay.

Thomas was born presumably about 1671/3 in Calvert Co., Maryland. He married Martha Sprigg (b. ~1677) about 1695 in Maryland. Thomas was a Colonel in the Frederick Co., Maryland, militia. He died in 1712 in Prince George’s Co., Maryland, and was buried at Orphan’s Gift, his step-father’s property that his elder brother Jonathan inherited a portion of.

Thomas and Martha had the following children of record:

1. Eleanor born about 1697 in Prince George Co., Maryland. She is thought to have married Thomas Williams (~1693-1749) about 1716 in Queen Anne’s Parish, Maryland, and had at least two children. She is said to have died about 1732 in Maryland.

2. Philip (“Philomen Gittings Prather, Sr.”) born about 1698/1707 depending on the source. He was given 166 acres of Sprigg’s Request in his father’s will in 1711, which he sold in 1740 to Richard Duckett and moved to Concoheague Manor. In 1756, he moved to Orange Co., North Carolina, where he lived until at least 1765.

He married (1^st) Catherine Hunt (~1710~1736) about 1724/5 in Prince George Co., Maryland, and had several children. He married (2^nd) her sister/cousin Margery/Margaret Hunt (~1716~1758) about 1737 in Prince George Co., Maryland, and had several more children. He married (3^rd) the widowed sister of his son-in-law Jesse Brashear, Henrietta (Brashear) Mayfield (b. ~1736), about 1758 in Orange Co., North Carolina. He died in September 1767 in Laurens Co., South Carolina.

3. Thomas (“Thomas Sprigg Prather”) born August 20, 1702, in Prince George Co., Maryland. Thomas earned Colonel status in the French and Indian War and the Frederick Co. militia, and he led the county forces in the Revolutionary War. He is even said to have entertained General Washington at his home in Maryland. He had 16 children, most of them with his first wife Elizabeth Clagett (1708~1747), who he married in 1725.

Thomas served as Justice of the Peace in Prince George’s Co. until 1747, when he sold Sprigg’s Request and moved to Conococheague Plantation (His Lordship’s Manor) in Frederick Co., where he served as Justice of the Peace 1748-1775. He was High Sherriff of Frederick Co. in 1762. He married (2^nd) Sarah (Beall) Odell by October 31, 1754, and helped administer her late husband’s estate. He married (3^rd) Jeanette Smiley (b. ~1740) in 1768 and had at least two more children.

Col. Thomas died in 1785 at his plantation in Washington Co., Maryland.

4. John Smith born about 1706 in Prince George Co., Maryland. He married his cousin Elizabeth Nutwell/Nuthall (1710-1776) February 17, 1725/6, in Prince George’s Co., Maryland, and had several children. He was a constable in Frederick Co., Maryland, in 1733 and a justice in 1748. He served in the Lower House of the Legislature for Frederick Co. 1749-1751. He died in 1763 in Prince George’s Co., Maryland.

5. Rachel born presumably about 1708 in Maryland. She is said to have married (1^st) William Pottenger (~1704-1728) in 1728 in Prince George’s Co., Maryland, and (2^nd) James Simms.

6. Aaron born about 1710 in Prince George’s Co., Maryland. He married his cousin Jane Prather December 10, 1738, in Anne Arundel, Maryland. They had several children. He died in 1777 in Montgomery Co., Maryland.

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Full references are available in My Lineage from the Roots Up, vol. 2.