PRATT
There were Pratt families in Trunch in the 1560s but most appeared in the 1700s. Robert married Sarah Platten of Roughton in 1725 and they had 4 children, with sons John and Samuel going on to have families in Trunch. John (1726-1793) married twice and had 3 children including Robert (1756-1838) who married Ann Alexander in Trunch and had 4 children including Samuel (1784-1815) who died at the young age of 31 but married and had 3 children including 2 with the unusual second name of Flowerdew.
Samuel (1736-1805) also married in Trunch and had several children, 3 of whom died in infancy. His eldest son Shiloh (1772-1798) married Sarah Pull in Trunch and tragically both he and Sarah died within days of each other in their twenties leaving 2 young sons. Of those it seems likely that Samuel was either a shoemaker married to Martha in Trunch or that he married a Sarah and farmed in Antingham before his death in 1850. And William became a shoe-maker and later a letter carrier in Mundesley where he lived with his family. His eldest son John became a coastguard, living in Felixstowe and Lowestoft in Suffolk before settling in Mundesley.
There were also Pratt families in the nearby village of Antingham and some of them married Trunch girls and then settled here. Several of the family served in the military; a Pratt was on the militia list for Trunch in 1765 and George born in 1829 in Trunch served as a soldier from 1845-1852. William from Thorpe Market also married twice in Trunch and had a son John who served as a soldier in Kent for a few years.
The Pratts are a complex mix of families and some of the supposed facts on the internet are a bit muddled. One confusion relates to a certain Jonathan who had a troubled life. He was baptised in Sidestrand on May 19th. 1822, with father William, a husbandman, and mother Ann Howes (although the entry is very blurred).
The next information I have is in 1843 when he served a month in prison for larceny, then he was sent to Sheringham Workhouse. In 1844 he assaulted the governor of the Gimingham Workhouse "Mr. Rix reported that a person of the name of Jonathan Pratt, one of the inmates of the house, had assaulted him by striking a blow on the breast while endeavouring to put him in the dungeon for misbehaviour". He was sent to the justices and spent 14 days hard labour at the Walsingham Bridewell.
Later he refused to work and absconded with clothes belonging to the Union. The 1851 census records him as a 28 year old fisherman born in Sidestrand and living in the West Beckham Workhouse.
The next information I have is in 1843 when he served a month in prison for larceny, then he was sent to Sheringham Workhouse. In 1844 he assaulted the governor of the Gimingham Workhouse "Mr. Rix reported that a person of the name of Jonathan Pratt, one of the inmates of the house, had assaulted him by striking a blow on the breast while endeavouring to put him in the dungeon for misbehaviour". He was sent to the justices and spent 14 days hard labour at the Walsingham Bridewell.
Later he refused to work and absconded with clothes belonging to the Union. The 1851 census records him as a 28 year old fisherman born in Sidestrand and living in the West Beckham Workhouse.
A PUZZLE to be solved.
This record is available and some people think it is Jonathan and indeed it does say that he was born in Sidestrand, was a fisherman and resided in Trunch but the birth date is incorrect. Attached to the merchant navy record it says that he served until 1854 but our Jonathan was in the workhouse in 1851. And I have been unable to find a Jonathan born in Sidestrand on that date. Did he falsify his birth date for some reason and leave the navy before 1851?
Whatever happened our Jonathan was back in Trunch by 1861 lodging in Back Street and working as an agricultural labourer. Beyond that I have drawn a blank.
This record is available and some people think it is Jonathan and indeed it does say that he was born in Sidestrand, was a fisherman and resided in Trunch but the birth date is incorrect. Attached to the merchant navy record it says that he served until 1854 but our Jonathan was in the workhouse in 1851. And I have been unable to find a Jonathan born in Sidestrand on that date. Did he falsify his birth date for some reason and leave the navy before 1851?
Whatever happened our Jonathan was back in Trunch by 1861 lodging in Back Street and working as an agricultural labourer. Beyond that I have drawn a blank.