PrenticeNet

For additional information on possible English connections, see the Prentice Newsletter article The Prentices of the Colnes, Essex County, England.

The New England Historical and Genealogical Register
Volume CXLIII, January 1989, Number 569

The Genealogical Notes section, on p.24, contains a brief article titled, "Possible English Origin of Henry Prentice of Cambridge, Massachusetts." This article was contributed by John Brooks Threlfall, of Madison, Wisconsin. The following contains the highlights of this article:

Henry Prentice's first wife, Elizabeth, died at Cambridge, 13 May 1643. Two possible English origins for this couple are proposed.

• The first is the marriage of a Henry Prentice and Elizabeth White, married at Stewkley, Buckinghamshire, on 26 Nov. 1638.
• The second possibility is the marriage of a Henry Prentice and Elizabeth Fosdick, at Bures Saint Mary, Suffolk, on 2 Aug. 1628.

The second marriage appears more attractive, due to the fact that many New England colonists who settled in Cambridge came from Bures Saint Mary and surrounding communities, while none are known to have come from Stewkley. The only Prentice records in the Bures Saint Mary parish (and nearby parishes) are the following: Thomas Prentice buried 10 July 1579; Daniel, son of Richard Prentice, bapt. 23 Oct. 1586.