Hi,
I haven´t found parents details but found the attached text which mentions a Michael Pratt operating the mill at Cropredy.... by the date, could be a relative of joseph´s.
In 1086 there were five mills in Cropredy parish, two in the Bishop of Lincoln's demesne and three in the hands of his tenants. (fn. 212) In 1968 there were still five mill cuts along the Cherwell within the bounds of the ancient parish, though that which supplied Cropredy Upper Mill had recently been filled in. They may represent the sites of the five Domesday mills. The two demesne mills may be assigned to Cropredy township, where the bishop had two mills in 1279 and 1441. (fn. 213) Walter the miller held a yardland of the bishop in Cropredy c. 1225; (fn. 214) William at the mill of Cropredy was hanged in 1315. (fn. 215) Two mills formerly belonging to the episcopal demesne in Cropredy are mentioned in 1552, 1589, 1596, and 1606, (fn. 216) and the Upper Mill at Cropredy was leased to Richard Gostelow of Prescote in 1621. (fn. 217) The two mills of 1552–1606 are probably those mentioned in 1664. (fn. 218) Upper Mill, north of Cropredy Bridge, was sold by Sir William Boothby in 1673, (fn. 219) but seems to have gone out of use fairly soon thereafter, for in 1719 and 1774 only one mill is mentioned; (fn. 220) in 1803 the site passed to the Prescote estate. (fn. 221) The lower mill in Cropredy, south of Cropredy Bridge, was held of the Boothby estate by the Shirley family; in 1696 the Shirleys' tenancy passed (probably by marriage) to John Allen of Cropredy, miller (d. 1743), whose son was William Shirley Allen. (fn. 222) In 1774 the mill was worked by Michael Pratt. (fn. 223)
The lower mill was acquired by William Hadland of Clattercote, who made 'great additions' to it in or before 1824. (fn. 224) Hadland left the old site, however, and built a new Cropredy mill, and also Bourton House nearby, in 1831. In 1851 a Pratt still worked the new mill, (fn. 225) which is said to have been built on the site to profit from the presence of the canal. The former lower mill had stood almost on the same site, in Mill Meadow. (fn. 226) About 1892 Cropredy mill was reduced by fire and in 1905 was sold to the Oxford Canal Navigation Co., whose successors still owned the ruined mill in 1963. (fn. 227) A windmill in Cropredy was mentioned in 1719, (fn. 228) but not in a survey of 1742. (fn. 229)
From: 'Parishes: Cropredy', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 10: Banbury hundred (1972), pp. 157-175. URL:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63799&strquery=joseph+pratt Date accessed: 19 June 2011.
