Her Children Sign from the Breast

Cover of Increase Mather’s treatise, 1684

In a 1684 treatise with a title far too long to include here, Increase Mather, a noted Puritan minister, set out to describe instances where God had intervened in the world in remarkable and miraculous ways. Among the “illustrious providences” he recounted was the story of my nine times great-grandparents Matthew and Sarah (Hunt) Pratt, both of whom were hearing and speech impaired but who were also respected members of the church and community in 17th century Weymouth, Massachusetts (Carty, MacReady, and Sayers 2009).

Matthew Pratt was born June 7, 1629, in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England. In 1639, his family immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and settled in Weymouth. A few years later, when he was about twelve years old, Matthew lost his hearing to an illness. He could speak, but as Mather explained, “[H]is Speech is very broken, and imperfect, not easily intelligible; he maketh use of it more seldom” (Mather 1684). Matthew was also literate, as was common among the Puritan colonists, which allowed him to communicate in writing (Fischer 1989).

Sarah Hunt was born July 4, 1640, in Weymouth, where her father had settled and married when he left England after the death of his first wife. Sarah lost her hearing to an illness when she was only three years old and was not able to speak. She also lost her parents quite young. Her father went back to England for reasons unclear and died there in 1647. Her mother remarried and then died in 1652, when Sarah was 12 years old, leaving her in the care of Thomas Thacher, the minister of the church at Weymouth

Portrait of minister Thomas Thacher from The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 47, 1916, page 414, reproduced from a painting in the Museum of the Old South Church Association

Thacher seems to have been a forward-thinking individual. Trained in medicine as well as theology, in 1678, he published and distributed a pamphlet addressing the causes and treatment of smallpox, the first medical publication in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Carty, MacReady, and Sayers 2009). For Sarah, the choice of guardian may have proven providential. As Mather explained, Thacher “laboured with design to teach her to understand Speech or Language by Writing” (Mather 1684). Without these efforts, Sarah would have been unlikely to have led the life she did.

Matthew and Sarah married in 1661, when she was 21 and he was 32. They resided in Weymouth throughout their lives—Matthew lived to be 82 years old, dying in 1713, and Sarah lived to be 89 years old, dying in 1729. Matthew was clearly a successful farmer and an accepted member of the community. In 1663, only a few years after their marriage, Matthew is shown in the town records as owning 16 acres of land, and he is listed with his father and brothers among the men who made an oath of allegiance to the king in 1678 (Weymouth Historical Society 1923). At the time of his death, Matthew’s estate was valued at £1,300 (more than $350,000 today), and he was able to leave land to all three of his sons, as well as cash bequests to each of his daughters.

Matthew and Sarah had nine children—three sons and six daughters—who lived to adulthood, married, and had children of their own. Because their deafness was due to illness, their children were all hearing but communicated with their parents in sign language. As Mather explained, speaking of Sarah:

[S]he discourseth altogether by signs, they that are able to discourse with her in that way, will communicate any matter much more speedily (and as full) as can be by Speech, and she to them. Her Children sign from the Breast, and learn to speak by their eyes and fingers sooner than by their tongues. (Mather 1684).

Birth record for William Pratt, second son of Matthew and Sarah and my eight times great-grandfather, 1673 (5th line from top)

Perhaps the strongest indicator of Matthew and Sarah’s position in their community is the fact of their church membership. Joining the church was an important step in Puritan communities, as it was a mark of status and gave men the right to vote on community matters. Church membership was not a simple matter, however, and involved an intensive enquiry into the applicant’s theological knowledge and experience of personal salvation (Fischer 1989). This process can be seen in Mather’s description of Sarah’s admission to the church:

An account of her Experiences was taken from her in writing by her Husband; upon which she was Examined by the Elders of the Church, they improving her Husband and two of her Sisters, intelligent persons, and notably skill'd in her artificial Language; by whose help they attained good satisfaction, that she understandeth all the Principles of Religion (Mather 1684).

Looking at Matthew and Sarah, Increase Mather saw a miraculous divine intervention. I, on the other hand, see two people who were able to live full and meaningful lives regardless of disability. I also see a society where a minister taught a deaf girl to read, and a community that was willing to accept a deaf couple as neighbors and fellow citizens. Mather said of Matthew that he “hath approved himself unto good satisfaction therein, in all wayes of Church Communion, both in publick and private” (Mather 1684). That’s a long way from the tendency of many societies, even our own, to exclude individuals with disabilities and to discount the contributions these individuals can make to the world.

Works Cited

Carty, Breda, Susannah Macready, and Edna Edith Sayers. 2009. “’A Grave and Gracious Woman’: Deaf People and Signed Language in Colonial New England.” Sign Language Studies 9(3): 287-323.

Fischer, David Hackett. 1989. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mather, Increase. 1684. An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences. Boston, MA.

Weymouth Historical Society. 1923. History of Weymouth Massachusetts, in Four Volumes. Vol 1. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Co.