On May 11, 1745, Jacob married Dorothy Springer, the daughter of Jacob Springer and Phebe Hiobe, in Mount Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey. John Prickett, his father, filed a five-hundred dollar marriage bond to Governor George Morris, for Jacob's marriage to Dorothy. Dorothy was born about 1726, in Evesham, Burlington County, New Jersey.

In April of 1747, Jacob, along with Nathaniel Springer, David Morgan, John Snodgrass, and Pharoah Ryley congregated on the C'Capon River to await word from Lawrence Washington Esq., the brother of George Washington. They were to be informed of the terms for an expedition to the Cheat River in order to scout lands for Lawrence Washington and Co. They set out on their expedition on either the 28th or 29th of April. They explored the Tygart, the Buckhannon, and the Monongahela Rivers before returning home in August of 1747. There they gave Lawrence Washington Esq. maps and other papers drawn out by them during the expedition. Around the time of this exploration, Jacob is said to have been living near what is now Rivesville, West Virginia.

Jacob served under twenty-two year old, Colonel George Washington in the French and Indian War, and was present at Fort Necessity on July 3rd, 1754, when nine-hundred French soldiers, along with numerous Indians from the Delaware, Ottawa, Wyandot, Algonquin, Nippising, Abnaki, and Iroquois nations attacked. When Washington's forces had been reduced by half, he surrendered. The survivors were permitted to leave, with the acception of two, who were taken back to Fort Duquesne as hostages. Jacob also took part in General Braddock's campaign, seeing action on July 9th, 1755, during the march on Fort Duquesne, where the English suffered another large defeat, and the loss of General Braddock himself.

In 1759, Jacob owned and operated an Indian trading post at the mouth of Prickett's Creek. There is evidence of several major Indian villages within a few miles of Jacob's post, whom he most likey traded with, such as the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Appalachain Indians.

In 1766, Jacob settled in the area of Colonial Virginia which is present day Marion County. As indicated by Colonel William Crawford, Jacob and his family were among the first settlers in this area, along with others such as Zackquill Morgan and James Chew.

In the year 1763, as response to the complaints of land encroachment from the Iroquois and Delaware Indians, King George III decreed that all lands west of the Allegheny Mountains were Indian lands, and not for settlement. This causes Jacob to make no claim of settlement until 1772, when Samuel Hanaway surveyed three-hundred twenty-four acres of land in Monongalia County, along Prickett's Creek, including the area he made his settlement.

In 1774, Prickett's Fort was built. Tradition claims that there were eighty families living at the Prickett settlement in fear of the Indians, though at the time, there were larger settlements at Morgan's Town and Clarksburg. The fort held sixteen cabins, four of which were on each wall. Large storage bins kept the cabins seperate. They at first had earthen floors, but some were later fitted with puncheons. The stockade walls stood twelve feet, and a bastion was built at each corner of the fort, which were twenty feet high. They were strategically built, so that enemies making a lodgement against the stockade could be fired upon directly downward.

At the breakout of the American Revolution in 1775, Jacob was a captain in the Virginia Militia, as well as an active spy.

In 1776, Zackquill Morgan made a deal with John Miller to build a town, and he, along with his brother David Morgan laid out a town which they called Pleasantville. Jacob Prickett, along with the Morgans and Calder Haymond were trustees for the town. This is reputed to be the first town legally established in Virgina, west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Around the year 1780, Jacob built and operated a mill near the location of Prickett's Fort.

Jacob Prickett and David Morgan captured an Indian by shooting him with a bean. They were out of ammunition, so Jacob loaded his rifle with a bean, in which he shot the Indian in the rear. As the Indian was screaming and rolling around in pain, Jacob hit him with his fist in which he knocked him out. David and Jacob then turned the Indian in at Fort Rogers, where he was exchanged for the Ramsey boy who had been with the Indians a year.

In 1785, in one of the few clearings of "The Big Shade," Thomas Stone was killed, and scalped by Indians. Jacob Prickett found the body, and along with David Morgan, John Bunner, and Nathaniel Springer, they trailed the Indians for two days and nights, to Middle Island Creek, where the trail was lost in a rain storm.

Jacob died in 1797 at Prickett's Fort, Virginia.