Madness Monday: John Pratt ca. 1760-bef. 1826

My 5th great-grandfather, John Pratt, was born about 1760.  All I can be sure of is that he married Martha Archibald, the daughter of Samuel and Eleanor (Taylor) Archibald about 1785 or so in Londonderry, Nova Scotia.  By 1790, he was in Stewiacke, where he is taxed and calls for a minister.  He was dead by 8 July 1826 when his son John takes his livestock mark and calls his father "late. Where did he come from?  Was he from the colonies, a loyalist?  Was he Scottish or Scots-Irish and a new arrival?  Certainly, he married such a person.  He appears in the following works, much of which are based on each other: Stewiacke: The Centenary Celebration(Truro, NS, 1902, reprint 1973); Planters and Pioneers Nova Scotia 1749 to 1775 by Esther Clark Wright;History of Colchester County by Thomas Miller (1873); Janet Fisher Archibald in Nova Scotia by Margaret Janet Hart.  Deeds give no indication of a previous whereabout.  He leaves no probate.  There is no newspaper or vital record of his death giving his age.  And just last week I received some really bad news.  I received the research of a Stewiacke genealogist who notes that there are no gravestones for John or Martha (nor for the next generation down in my line).  This makes the task of figuring out ages difficult if not impossible.  

Because his name is John and the Pratt name is more common than I knew, I'll probably never find his parents.  So, of the big four surnames of my grandparents, Pratt has turned out to be the toughest to research.