Person:Unknown Prentice (1)

This lady was a granddaughter of King Massosoit, the Wampanoag Indian sachem who brought the meat (5 deer) to the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth in 1621. Her given name is unknown. She is also believed to be a daughter of Metacom (King Philip) and sister of the mother of Mary (Starkweather) Stanton, Anne.

"Miss" Prentice was admitted to the Road Church in March, 1683. Long held family tradition believes she was held captive by the Indian fighter Captain Thomas Prentice and finally given her freedom with the Prentice surname. There were no laws against intermarriage although it was discouraged. Englishmen were forbidden to take up the Indian culture of their wives. Punishment included three years in a house of correction. In this case and the case of Anne, mother of Mary (Starkweather) Stanton, where descendants of King Philip married into the Stanton family, the women joined the Road Church and adopted the white man's culture.

The records of the Stonington Church list the admission of the wife of Joseph Stanton March 16, 1683. This must have been a third wife. She seems to have died childless. But Thomas had three children after 1690, and both Dr. Savage and Hon. John D. Baldwin think the children were issue by a wife named ? Prentice. Baldwin conjectures "Miss Prentice" was a fourth wife to Joseph Stanton. Savage thinks she was the third wife.

1. ↑ Researcher.

   Larry Chesebro'