General Notes

b. abt. 1576 at Dorset, England
bur. 6 Jun 1614 in Upway, Dorset.

Edward was a resident of Upway, Dorset, England. Later he lived at Fordington, Dorset.

"In Prince's Chronology we read: 'Among those who arrived at Naumkeag are Ralph Sprague, with his brothers Richard and William, who with three or four more were by Governor Endicott employed to explore and take possession of the country westward. They travelled through the woods to Charlestown, on a neck of land called Mishawum, between Mystic and Charles rivers, full of Indians named Aberginians, with whom they made peace.' Hon. Edward Everett, in his address commemorative of the bi-centennial of the arrival of Winthrop at Charlestown, said: 'Ralph, Richard and William Sprague are the founders of the settlement in this place, and were persons of substance and enterprise, excellent citizens, generous public benefactors, and the head of a very large and respectable family of descendants.' Ralph Sprague was about twenty-five years of age when he came to New England. He had fours sons, John, Richard, Samuel and Phineas, and a daughter, Mary, who married, September 2, 1630, Daniel Edmands. John and Richard were born in England. Ralph was one of a jury impanled which seems to have been the first in Massachusetts. Ralph Sprague was a lieutenant in the train band. In 1631 Captain Richard Sprague commanded a company of the train band, and on Friday of each week exercises his command at a convienent place near the Indian wigwams. On February 10, 1634, the famous order creating a board of selectman, was passed and Richard and William Sprague signed the order. Richard left no posterity. His sword which is named in his brother William's will, was preserved in one of the old Sprague houses in HIngham in 1828

William Cutter, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, 1910