Pray, Mary, - 1686

Mary Pray was the wife of Richard Pray, a collier in the town of Providence, Rhode Island.  Both were granted a license to operate a public house within the town limits as early as 1655 and there sold beer, wine, and spirits.  In 1667 Richard and Mary applied for a divorce, but the authorities failed to grant it.  Instead, they permitted the couple to live apart from each other.  During King Philip’s War, Richard and sons John and Ephraim remained in Providence to defend it after the evacuation of women and children, and for that service they had a share in the disposition of the Indian captives.   Albert Pray Martin, The Martin and Pray Families (Glastonbury, CT, 1976), p. 172, 178.  Gertrude Selwyn Kimball, Providence in Colonial Times (Boston, 1912), p. 126.