By Linus Joseph Dewald Jr., Editor
Winter 2003 and Revised 19 Dec 2003
1. Josiah Prentice was b. 4 Oct 1761, is the son of Christopher Prentis and is a descendant of Valentine Prentice.
Barbara Clapps. by letter of 16 Jan 1996, and Martha (Hunt) Cardwell by email of 19 Dec 2002, provided information from a family Bible that Josiah m. Bathsheba Handee but no marriage date was given. She was b. 19 Mar 1761, Woodbury, Litvchfield, CT, dau. of David and Bethsheba Handee, and d. 1842. They had about 5 children at Bethlehem, CT, the first known childing being Garret Prentice, b. c. 1797 when Josiah was about 36 years of age.
By email of 22 Sep 2003, Martha (Hunt) Cardwell brings to our attention information from a Chatterton genealogy which says that Sarah Chatterton, b. 14 Jul 1759 and d. 1802 at the age 43, m. Josiah Prentice of Bethlehem. No marriage date is given.
In comparing the two marriages, there is an overlap; we show Bathsheba as having children during the period 1796-1802 during the same period that Sarah Chatterton is said to be Josiah's wife.
We checked our database to see if we show 2 men named Josiah Prentice living in, or near, Bethlehem in that time frame, but none appeared. Thus, we seem to be talking about the same Josiah Prentice.
It may be possible that Josiah could have m. Sarah Chatterton 1st and then divorced Sarah before marrying Bathsheba, but that would have been unusual. Or, it might be that Sarah Chatterton was a 1st wife, that some of the children were hers, and that after Sarah's death Josiah m. Bathsheba Flandee and that earlier genealogies erroneously identified Sarah's children as children of Bathsheba.
Finally, one last prehaps related matter. In our Spring 2003 issue, we had an article seeking to identify the parents of Parmelia Prentice . Parmelia may, or may not, be the daughter of Josiah Prentice who is mentioned in that article.
If you have any information about the folks mentioned in this article which would clarify the identity of Josiah Prentice's wife, or wives, and the identity of the mother of each of Josiah's children, please send your information to us at the Prentice Newsletter. Be sure to give the full title and date of this article in the Subject line of the email.
Caution: If you don't use the above email link, your email to us may be deleted as spam by our email filter.
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