He worked on his father's farm and from age 18 and taught district school.
In 1843, he was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Onondaga County, a post he held until he was legislated out of office in July 1847.
Afterwards he resumed the practice of law in partnership with D. J. Mitchell and Wilber M. Brown in Syracuse.
The Onondaga Historical Association Museum in Syracuse has a portrait of his son George Comstock Pratt (1842–1853).
[1] His widow Augusta J. Pratt was one of the heirs to the $100,000,000 worth Townley English estate in 1885.