The Prather/Prater family is, at the same time, one of best researched lines and one of the most enigmatic and frustrating lines. I believed for a long time that there were three distinct ancestries that fit my line. After much study and discussion, I have finally distilled those three lines into a single, and I think, accurate lineage.

The Prathers have been traced back as far as 1066 with a fair degree of accuracy. It is believed that the family descends from the "Norman de la Mare," or the Normans (Vikings) of the Sea. Thorold, son of Thorfinn I Einarsson, (who married Grelod Duncansdatter 941 in the Orkney Islands), traveled with his half brother, Rollo, to France. It was Rollo the Norman who received Normandy from the King of France. For my purposes, I begin several generations later with Thomas Prather.

Thomas Prather [11776] was born circa 1604 at Eaton Water, Wiltshire, England. He was a younger son of the gentry and, as such, had little expectation of an inheritance. The family estate of Nunney Castle would pass to his older brother. The Prathers had purchased Nunney Castle in the late 1500s from their cousins, the Powells. Cousins who had invested both money and self in the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.

Jamestown was a colony that should not have survived. It was in a bad location and had a mortality rate exceeding 60 percent per year. Indeed, it was abandoned briefly in 1610. It survival was due to two events. The first was the experiments by colonist John Rolfe that resulted in a superior strain of tobacco. The second was the company's decision to offer land ownership in exchange for the cultivation of tobacco; a system known today as Headrights.

Every colonist who agreed to plant and cultivate a crop of tobacco was promised 100 acres of land free and clear if successful for five years. An additional 50 acres was available for each spouse and child. A married man with three children could get 250 acres of prime land. But tobacco cultivation is hard work. There was a need for additional laborers on the "hundreds," as the original grants were called.

Laborers could be brought over from England as Indentured Servants, to work for a number of years, generally seven years. Of course, incentives had to be offered these Indenturers so they were offered headrights also; fifty acres after completion of their indenture. The transportation of laborers was expensive so existing colonists were encouraged to pay the cost of such transportation. After all, they knew friends and relatives who might be willing to come to Virginia. To compensate, the colonists were awarded additional headrights for each person they transported in.

But how were the proprietors to make any money if they gave away the land?

It was the proprietors who bought the tobacco from the planters and then sold it in England. They also created four large "corporations," called "citties" that encompassed all the developed region in Virginia. While the planters were earning title to their plantations, at the same time, they lived in company-owned regions where the company controlled the economy and levied taxes. One of these citties was Elizabeth Cittie.

Thomas Prater, being just 18, indentured himself to his cousin, John Powell, and gained passage to America where he worked with John Powell for five years before getting married to Mary (Powell or McKay?) in 1627 at which time he received his headright in Elizabeth Cittie. He died there in 1666.

He was one of three brothers who came to the colonies between 1620 and 1623. Thomas and Mary had five sons, the eldest was Jonathan Prather [5588] born circa 1630 in Elizabeth Cittie. He died before August 1, 1680, in Calvert County, Maryland. He married LYLE JANE MCKAY [5589] September 12, 1666 in Prather Hall. She was born circa. 1638 in Virginia, and died 1713 in Brookfield Pantation, Prince George, Maryland.