The first authenticated Pruitt of the following line was Samuel Pruitt, I. He was born on April 4, 1700 and married Elizabeth Hawker about 1720. Elizabeth was born on Dec. 14, 1701 to Robert Hawker and Amy Selby.
I am indebted to Richard A. Prewitt of Des Moines Iowa "Samuel Pruitt & Elizabeth Hawker Their Descendants"; Bill Pruiett's web site "pruiett-parker.com"; Dr. Charles Raymond Dillon "PRUITT-PREWITT ANCESTORS"; Dr. Haskell Pruett "THE PRUETT-PRUITT FAMILY"; Lyndall J. Mayes "From Virginia Through the Southwest"; "HISTORY OF THE BLACK FAMILY" by Mary Elizabeth Black Leggett & from the extensive research done by LaVerne Shaw from Hobbs New Mexico. All the early information on this family came from these sources.
Another great resource was "Life of Phillip Hawker Pruett" written by his son Jess A. Pruett in the mid '30s. It describes the migration of the Pruett family from Kentucky to Arkansas about 1848, then the subsequent move to Texas in 1876, after becoming very distressed about the health of their children as they had lost four during the ten years they had been in Arkansas. They packed up their remaining four children with all their belongings and headed out in two wagons to Beebee, about 14 miles away, to catch the train. Uncle George Owen drove one wagon and Uncle Tom Pruett drove the other. It's hard to imagine today, but the loss of children was a fact of life in those days, the Hammons family lost six of their seven children before they reached adulthood.
Our Pruetts are known to have come to the US from the British Isles, believed to be English-Scotch descent.