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Show Page 8 Page 8 is significant to the intellectual and spiritual perspectives inherited by their descendants. The restive William soon fell in love with the Connecticut shore and Elizabeth Clark of "Saye Brooke" - awarded a hundred acres for his service in the Pequot War, he married Elizabeth and remained in this little village at the mouth of the Connecticut. His relocation far downriver continues the pattern of his epic sojourn in the wilderness, in keeping with his formidable freedom of spirit. The wanderings of this restless family ceased temporarily at Saybrook. For over a century the descendants of William Pratt flourished, and, as late as 1864, still made up a large part of the population of that town. Joseph Pratt, the third child of William, fathered thirteen children, one of which, William, married a certain Hannah Hough, a descendant of the famous John Lathftop, pioneer New England preacher. William and Hannah Pratt were the parents of Christopher Pratt, born November 4, 1712. Christopher inherited the wandering spirit of his great-grandfather William. As wheat farming failed in Connecticut, many settlers moved else- 9 where in the 1740s. In his middle years, Christopher left the century-old homestead at Saybrook to seek a new living in the wilds. Obadiah Pratt was the second of his four sons, born September 14, 1742. Many of the Pratt 10 family began to filter out of Connecticut about this time. When Obadiah Pratt established himself in Canaan at twenty-seven, his wife Jemima was about to give birth. The first of seven sons, Jared, was born November 25, 1769. As Jared grew, his family probably began to feel the effects of post-Revolutionary economic conditions. Although agriculture underwent enormous expansion during this period, most individual farmers sank into difficulty. A devastating deflation forced many debt-ridden 11 farmers into the employ of more stable landholders - such may have been |