Thomas Prence

Thomas Prence
4th, 8th & 12th Governor of Plymouth Colony
In office 1634 – 1635 1638 – 1639 1657 – 1673
Preceded by	Edward Winslow (1634) William Bradford (1639 & 1657)
Succeeded by	William Bradford (1635 & 1639) Josiah Winslow (1673)
Personal details
Born	1599 Lechlade, Gloucestershire, England
Died	March 29, 1673 Plymouth, Massachusetts
Nationality	English
Religion	Puritan

Thomas Prence (1599 – March 29, 1673) was a co-founder of Eastham, Massachusetts, a political leader in both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, and governor of Plymouth (1634, 1638, and 1657 - 1673).

Biography

Early life

Thomas Prence was born in 1599 at Lechlade, Gloucestershire, England a son of Thomas Prence and Elizabeth Tolderby. Thomas emigrated to America in 1621 on the ship Fortune, arriving in Plymouth on November 9, 1621, just a few days after the first Thanksgiving.

Marriage and family

Prence married three times. He married as his first wife on August 5, 1624 at Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts (the ninth marriage recorded in the colony), Patience Brewster, a passenger on the Anne which arrived in Plymouth in 1623. She was born circa 1600 probably in Scrooby a small village, where her father was born, in the northern part of the English county of Nottinghamshire and died before December 12, 1634 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, of a "pestilent fever." She was a daughter of Elder William Brewster, (c. 1567 - April 10, 1644), the Pilgrim leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony and a passenger on the Mayflower.

Thomas and Patience had four children: Thomas Jr., Rebecca, Mercy, and Hannah. Rebecca married Edmund Freeman, Jr. the son of Edmund Freeman and had two children, and died in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Mercy married John Freeman, had eleven children, and settled in Eastham, Massachusetts. Hannah married Nathaniel Mayo, had six children, and died in Eastham.

Prence next married on April 1, 1635 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Mary Collier, bapt. in 1612 at St Olave's Church, in the parish of Southwark St Olave, an area of south-east London, now the London Borough of Southwark, England and died before December 1662 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She was a daughter of Jane (____) Clark and William Collier, one of the investors, or Merchant Adventurers, and an initial shareholder in the Plymouth Plantation. She was the sister of Sarah Collier, the wife of Love Brewster, a passenger on the Mayflower and the son of Elder William Brewster.

They were the parents of five children: Mary Prence, Jane Prence, Elizabeth Prence, Sarah Prence, Judith Prence. Jane Prence (November 1, 1637 - 1712) married Mark Snow the son of Nicholas Snow and Constance Hopkins, a daughter of Stephen Hopkins (born about 1582 – 1644), a tanner and merchant who was one of the passengers on the Mayflower in 1620, settling in Plymouth Colony.

Lastly, Prence married Apphia Quicke in December, 1662. It is unknown if they had any children.

Career

He was allowed to join with Bradford, Allerton and Standish as a member of the Trade Monopoly. Later, in 1644, he and several other prominent families left Plymouth for better land and founded the community of Eastham, Massachusetts. He became governor of Plymouth, for the first time, in 1634; he was elected again in 1638 and served from 1657 to 1673. After the death of Governor Bradford in 1653, he became the leader of the Plymouth Colony serving in that capacity until his death.

He was distinguished for his religious zeal, and opposed those that he believed to be heretics, particularly the Quakers. He became infamous for the banishment of those who would not conform to his specific church law, including Samuel Gorton, the first governor of Rhode Island.^{[citation needed]} He restructured the local government to secure his position and led the persecution of numerous people for offenses such as smiling in church, harboring non-church members, and tending garden during the Sabbath.^{[citation needed]} He also procured revenue for the colony's grammar schools so future generations would be better educated.

Governor Prence gave to Wamsutta and Pometacom, the sons of Massasoit, the names Alexander and Philip as a compliment to their warlike character.

Death

Prence died March 29, 1673, in Plymouth, Massachusetts and was buried on Burial Hill.

Descendants

Thomas Prence's descendants number in the thousands today. Some of his notable descendants include;

• Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby, was an American singer and actor
• Oliver La Farge, was an American writer and anthropologist, best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy.
• Sarah Palin, is an American politician, author, speaker, and political commentator who served as the Governor of Alaska from 2006 until she resigned in 2009. She was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in 2008.
• Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819) an officer in the US Navy. He served in the War of 1812 against Britain, and earned the title "Hero of Lake Erie"
• Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794–1858) was the Commodore of the U.S. Navy who compelled the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.
• Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of The New York Times and chairman of the board of its owner, The New York Times Company.
• The Wright brothers, Orville (1871–1948) and Wilbur (1867–1912), were two Americans who are generally credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane.
• Taylor Swift (born 1989) is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.

See also

• Governors of Massachusetts

External links

• Thomas Prence at MacKay family genealogy
• Prence family page