Plymouth Colony Governor Thomas Prence

Line of Descent Via Daughter Mercy

Oct 26, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor

Thomas Prence was the fourth, eighth and twelfth governor of Plymouth Colony and a co-founder of Eastham, Massachusetts. Here is one Prence lineage.

Gov. Prence sired at least nine children and had family connections with the Brewster and Freeman families.

Thomas Prence, the Immigrant

Thomas Prence arrived at Plymouth the fall of 1621 aboard the ship Fortune. He was born in 1599 at Lechlade in Gloucestershire, England, the son of Thomas Prince/Prence and Elizabeth Tolderby. The most common spelling of his surname was Prince, but he used Prence.

Prence had four wives: 1) Patience Brewster (died 1634), daughter of Mayflower pilgrim William Brewster); 2) Mary Collier (died ca. 1662); 3) Apphia (Quicke) Freeman and 4) Mary Howes.

Thomas Prence, the Leader

Thomas Prence was not part of those religious dissenters who sought religious freedom in America, but he apparently sympathized with them. Perhaps not knowingly, he took two steps that led to his leadership role. He married Patience Brewster, daughter of the community’s religious leader, Elder William Brewster, and in 1627 he became one of eight colony members who assumed the pilgrims’ debt to the London merchants who had backed establishment of the colony.

Prence first became Plymouth Colony governor in 1634, was elected again in 1638, then later served between 1657 and 1673. By then he had joined other prominent Plymouth families in founding Eastham, Massachusetts. Prence died in 1673.

Line of Descent from Governor Prence

This line of descent is through Mercy Prence, daughter of Thomas and Patience (Brewster) Prence. Mercy and her sister Rebecca married brothers John Freeman and Edmund Freeman Jr.

Mercy Prence (ca. 1631-1711) married in 1649 John Freeman (1627-1719), son of Edmund Freeman Sr.
Edmund Freeman (1657- ca. 1718) and his second wife Sarah Mayo (1660-ca. 1746), daughter of Samuel and Tamsen (Lumpkin) Mayo
Sarah Freeman who in 1701 married Benjamin Higgins (1681-1760/61), son of Benjamin and Lydia (Bangs) Higgins
Zaccheus Higgins (b. 1719) married in 1738/9 Rebecca Young, daughter of Nathan and Mary (Merrick) Young
Solomon Higgins (ca. 1738-ca.1780)
Rebecca Higgins (1771-1822) married Smith Hopkins in 1789 and lived at Chatham, MA, and Mt. Desert, ME
Smith Hopkins Jr. (1792-1860) married Susan Dwelley and lived at Eden, ME, and
Prospect, ME
Andrew Wilson Hopkins (1818-1893) married Clementine Curtis and lived at Frankfort, ME
Flavyous Hopkins (1851-1925) married Cora Clark and lived at Frankfort and Prospect, ME
Sumner Reuben Hopkins (b. 1882) married Margaret Ann McIntyre in 1908; lived at Frankfort, ME and Redstone, NH
Patricia M. Hopkins (b. 1918) married B. W. Parker in 1941 and when she furnished this lineage in 1982 was living in Sandusky, Ohio

Famous Thomas Prence Descendants

There are thousands of living descendants of Thomas Prence. Famous people who descend from him include airplane inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright, singer Bing Crosby, Naval Hero Oliver Hazard Perry, unsuccessful vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.

Thomas Prence descendants whose genealogy is documented are eligible for membership in the Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors.

Companion articles describe Plymouth in 1621 and list passengers who came with Thomas Prence on the Fortune in 1621.

Sources:

Records of Patricia (Hopkins) Parker; “Thomas Prence: Fortune Passenger,” Lineage # 33, The Second Boat, Vol. 3, No. 1 (May, 1982).

The copyright of the article Plymouth Colony Governor Thomas Prence in Genealogy is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Plymouth Colony Governor Thomas Prence in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

1685 Plymouth Law Book