Rootweb Notes of Thomas Prence
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THOMAS PRENCE ORIGIN: All Saints Barking, London [EIHC 17:103-04] MIGRATION: 1621 on Fortune FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth REMOVES: Duxbury by 1637, Eastham 1644, Plymouth by 1665 FREEMAN: In the "1633" Plymouth list of freemen Thomas Prence was justafter the councillors, and ahead of those admitted on 1 January 1632/3[PCR 1:3]. "Thomas Prence, gen.," is in the 7 March 1636/7 list ofPlymouth freemen [MBCR 1:52]. In the list of assistants at the head ofthe "1639" list of Plymouth Colony freemen, but as this list was revisedand annotated his name was included in the "Nawsett" portion of the list[PCR 8:173, 177]. In Eastham section of 1658 list of Plymouth freemen,and in Plymouth section of list of 29 May 1670 [PCR 5:274, 8:201] EDUCATION: His inventory included a long list of books valued at £14 2d.,including two great Bibles and "100 of psalm books." OFFICES: Plymouth Governor, 1634, 1638, 1657-72 [MA Civil List 35].Assistant, Plymouth Colony, 1632-33, 1635-37, 1639-56 [PCR 1:32, 36, 48,116, 140, 2:8, 15, 33, 40, 52, 56, 71, 83, 115; MA Civil List 37-38].Treasurer, 1637 [PCR 1:48; MA Civil List 36]. Council of War, 1637 [PCR1:60, PTR 1:16]. Commissioner for the United Colonies, 1645, 1650,1653-58, 1661-63, 1670-72 [MA Civil List 28-29]. In Plymouth section of1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [PCR 8:188]. COMMENTS: For many years it was believed that Prence had married onlythree times and that his last wife was "Mary" Freeman, but this wasstraightened out in 1904 by Ella Florence Elliott, who divided theerroneous construct into its proper wholes, revealing divorcee ApphiaFreeman and widow Mary Howes as Prence's last two of four wives [MD6:230-35]. Establishing the probable date of marriage for Apphia and Thomas Prencehas significant implications for the parentage of Prence's last threechildren. Apphia is last seen as a Freeman 1 July 1644, about a yearbefore the birth of Prence's seventh child, and at the end of a six- yearhiatus in the birthdates of his children. She is called "Mrs. Freeman" aslate as 15 October 1646 in a deed where she appears as an abutter, butthis does not necessarily imply that she had not remarried by this date,since it was not unusual for archaic bounds to be used in this sort ofdescription [SLR 1:78]. In a letter dated at Plymouth 8 June 1647, Thomas Prence wrote to JohnWinthrop that "since my parting company [with you] I have almost met withJacob's trial in his travel between Bethel and Ephrath: God's having beenheavy upon my wife and that for diverse months and is not yet removed"[WP 5:169]. In Genesis 35:16-19 Jacob's favorite wife Rachel died betweenBethel and Ephrath after giving birth to a son she named Benoni, but hecalled Benjamin. Prence here is referring to the birth of his owndaughter Elizabeth, apparently a difficult childbirth. On 6 March 1637/8, having been elected governor, Thomas Prence wasexcused from the requirement that the governor live in Plymouth, and waspermitted to retain his residence in Duxbury [PCR 1:79]. When he wasagain elected governor, in 1657, he was allowed to maintain his residencein Eastham, but in 1663 the court ordered that the governor's house atPlymouth be enlarged, and by 1665 Prence again became a resident ofPlymouth [Dawes-Gates 2:684]. SOURCE: The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33 |