True Moon Travel

August 8, 2002 | Concord, MA & Minuteman NP

Paul Revere gets most of the credit, but Dr. Samuel Prescott was the one who finished the task of warning the colonists that the British were coming.

I was surprised to find that the site of Dr. Prescott’s home at 345 Lexington St. is next door to Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House at 399 Lexington St. Apple Maps indicated a memorial for Dr. Prescott, but we couldn’t find one.

On the way from Concord to Plymouth, we stopped at Paul Revere’s capture site where Dr. Prescott evaded the British soldiers and carried on the Midnight Ride alone. The site is part of the Minuteman National Park near Hanscom Air Force Base.

Samuel Prescott is my father’s 3rd cousin 8x removed. That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it? But there are some interesting family connections beyond that.

John Prescott > Capt. Jonathan Prescott > Dr. Jonathan Prescott > Abel Prescott Sr > Dr. Samuel Prescott

In other words, Dr. Prescott’s 2nd great grandfather, John Prescott, is my 11th great grandfather as follows:

John Prescott > Sarah Prescott > Isaac Wheeler > Experience Wheeler > Joseph Clark > Josiah Clark > Keziah Clark (m. Daniel Fairbanks, 3rd great grandson of Jonathan & Grace Fairbanks > Arena Fairbanks > Keziah Burrington > Virtue Hall > Evelyn Judith Gile

Besides mine, there are a few other Prescott-Fairbanks family connections that I recently discovered:

Teddy’s Roosevelt’s VPOTUS Charles Warren Fairbanks is also a descendant of both John Prescott and Jonathan Fairbanks. John Prescott’s other daughter Lydia married Jonathan Fairbanks’ son Jonas Fairbanks. (See Fairbanks House post).

This means that John & Mary Prescott and Jonathan & Grace Fairbanks were not only contemporaries and acquaintances, but also in-laws, 3-4 generations before my ancestors connected the two families again.

The great-grandparents of Presidents George H.W. Bush also connected the two families again 4-5 generations later through their marriage as follows:

Jonathan & Grace Fairbanks (my 10th great grandparents via Evelyn Gile) > Jonathan Fairbanks Jr. > Jeremiah Fairbanks > Mary Fairbanks > Timothy Bush > Obadiah Newcomb Bush > Rev. James Smith Bush > Samuel Prescott Bush > Prescott Sheldon Bush > George H.W. Bush > George W. Bush

John & Mary Prescott (my 11th great grandparents via Evelyn Gile) > Capt. Jonathan Prescott > Dr. Jonathan Prescott > Abel Prescott Sr. > Lucy Prescott > Samuel Prescott Phillips Fay > Samuel Howard Fay > Harriet Fay (m. James Smith Bush) > Samuel Prescott Bush > Prescott Sheldon Bush > George H.W. Bush > George W. Bush

As a side note, we are also related to the two Bush presidents via John Washburn, Jr. on a different side of my dad’s family:

John Washburn, Jr. & Elizabeth Mitchell Washburn (my 8th great grandparents via John Herbert Tubbs; Elizabeth was granddaughter of Francis Cooke of Mayflower fame) > Mary Washburn > Samuel Kingsley III > Silence Kingsley > Sarah Herrick > Samuel Butler > Courtland Butler > Mary Elizabeth Butler > Flora Sheldon > Prescott Sheldon Bush > George H.W. Bush > George W. Bush

I can’t begin to calculate what degree of cousins all of this makes us.