Patience (Brewster) Prence (abt. 1600 - bef. 1634)

Born about 1600 in Scrooby Manor, Nottinghamshire, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Thomas Prence Jr. — married 5 Aug 1624 (to 12 Dec 1634) in Plymouth Colony

Descendants

Died before 12 Dec 1634 before about age 34 in Plymouth Colony

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Patience (Brewster) Prence was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

Biography

Patience Brewster was the daughter of William Brewster and his wife Mary.^[1][2] She was likely to have been born in her parent's home, Scrooby Manor, at Nottinghamshire, England ^[3] no later than 1600, as she witnessed the betrothal banns of Anna Crackstone and Thomas Smith in Leyden, Holland on 7 December 1618^[4] and could have no longer been a minor at that time.^[5]

She arrived in Plymouth aboard the Anne around 10 July 1623 accompanied by her sister Fear and Lucretia Oldham, who would later become her sister-in-law.^[6][1] By the terms of the 1623 Division of Land, Patience received one acre of land "whose corner was by the pond."^[7] A letter written 20 December 1623 to Elder William Brewster from John Robinson noted the arrival of Patience and her sister at Plymouth, expressing his hope that "Mrs. Brewster's weak and decayed state of Body will haue some Repairing by the coming of her daughters."^[8]

The following year, on 5 August 1624, Patience Brewster married Thomas Prence.^[1][9] Prence, along with his father-in-law William Brewster and brother-in-law Isaac Allerton, became a prominent business leader in the Plymouth Colony.^[10] He also became highly involved in the political affairs of the colony and on 1 January 1633/4, at the age of 34, was elected as the fourth governor of Plymouth Colony.^[11]

There were four children from this marriage:^[12]

• Thomas Prence, b. bef. 22 May 1627^[13]
• Rebecca Prence, b. bef. 22 May 1627;^[13] m. Edmund Freeman^[13]
• Mercy Prence, b. bef. 28 Sep 1631;^[13] m. John Freeman^[13]
• Hannah Prence, b. bef. 12 Dec 1634;^[14] m(10 Nathaniel Mayo;^[13] m(2) Jonathan Sparrow;^[13] d. bef. 23 Nov 1698

Patience died sometime before12 December 1634, when Massachusett's Governor John Winthrop, writing to his son in England, mentioned that "...the pestilent feaver hath taken away some at Plimouth among others mr Prence the Govern wife and mr Allertons wife."^[15] In 1634, smallpox and influenza ravaged both the Indians and the English in the New England area. ^[16] Patience (Brewster) Prence was buried on Burial Hill at Plymouth, Barnstable County, Massachusetts.

DNA

mtDNA Results I4a The Mayflower DNA Project currently lists one matrilineal (all female line) descendant of Mary (through her daughter Patience) and states this individual falls under Haplogroup I4a. This is a relatively rare haplogroup and has been found in England & Scotland and occasionally in Finistère, Brittany, France. It supports the belief that Mary was likely from either Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire (both in northern England).

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004). pp 67, 68
2. ↑ The Division of Cattle in 1627. The Mayflower Descendant: A Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim History and Genealogy (Boston), vol. 1, pp. 150-151. (parentage indicated by her placement in the family group)
3. ↑ Merrick, Barbara Lambert. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants (2014), vol. 24 Descendants of Elder William Brewster, part 1, p. 53
4. ↑ Source: baptism, marriage and burial registerType of registration: DTB Marriage(Deed) date: 23-12-1618, Location: Leiden Details:Date of marriage: 07-12-1618, https://www.erfgoedleiden.nl/collecties/personen/zoek-op-personen/deeds/2a24b667-ea1e-eff7-3521-7a3878ed68da?person=3fad5fc9-eee9-ec43-461f-26e88b9cc24a
5. ↑ Plooij, D. and J. Rendel Harris.Leyden Documents Relating to the Pigrim Fathers. Leiden, the Netherlands (1920), p. 81.
6. ↑ Banks, Charles Edward. The Planters of the Commonwealth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1930), p. 55; cited in Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 24, part 1, p. 55
7. ↑ Merrick, Barbara Lambert. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants (2014), vol. 24 Descendants of Elder William Brewster, part 1, p. 55.
8. ↑ Plymouth Church Records 1620-1859. Baltimore (1975), vol. 1, p. 53, (Robinson's letter).
9. ↑ Prince, Thomas. Chronological History of New England in the Form of Annals. Boston: privately printed (1887) p. 229 (listed as the ninth marriage in New Plymouth), cited in: Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 24, part 1, p.53.
10. ↑ Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 24, part 1, p. 57
11. ↑ Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 24, part 1, p. 58
12. ↑ Roser, Susan E. Mayflower Increasings. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company (1995), available at ancestry by subscription.
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6} Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 24, part 1, p. 80.
14. ↑ Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 24, part 1, p. 156.
15. ↑ Letter from Gov. John Winthrop to his Son. The Mayflower Descendant: A Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim History and Genealogy (Boston), vol. 30, pp. 97-98, cited in: Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 24, part 1, p. 53.
16. ↑ Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War. NY: Viking Press (2006).

See Also:

• Bradford, William. The History of Plimoth Plantation 1620-1647. Boston (1898), p. 535.

• Freeman, Frederick. The History of Cape Cod:The Annals of the Thirteen Towns of Barnstable County. Boston: George C. Band Pub. (1858), vol. 2.

• Jones, Emma. The Brewster Genealogy 1566-1907: A Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the 'Mayflower'... New York: The Grafton Press (1908), vol. 1, p. 21.

• Lowell, D.O.S. A Munsey-Hopkins Geneaogy, Being the Ancestry of Andrew Chauncey Munsey and Mary Jane Merritt Hopins. Boston: private printing (1920), p. 77.

• The ships Anne and Little James

• Winsor, Justin. A History of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with Genealogical Registers. Boston: Crosby & Nichols (1849), pp. 234-237.

Acknowledgements

Contributors: Wilfred Vasile, Heidi Maxham, Michael Robert Warner, Pam Carter, Brian McCullough, Merryann Palmer, Tom Elliott, Mike Walton, Ellen Blackwell, George Smith, David Harrison.