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In our Fall 1997 Issue we published an article about Perez Prentice who, according to Binney's 1883 ed. at pg. 335, was born at Stonington, CT in 1773. However, an 1810 Hinsburg, Chittenden, VT census from Bill Semeyn in his letter of 30 Dec 1996, says Perez was born before 1765, and the Dickinson, Franklin, NY census of 1840 indicates he was born between 1750-60.

We discussed the possibility that Perez might be a son of Samuel Prentice and Esther Hammond: Although no such link has yet been established, all Stonington families so far traced have been traced to Samuel and Esther: (1) Binney's 1883 edition shows Samuel had a son, Jonas Prentice, b. 9 Feb 1742 for whom no marriage or death is shown. (2) For Samuel's son, John, Binney's 1883 edition shows 3 children born between 1758 and 1769, but has a gap in children listed for the 15 years between 1769 and 1784 when John's wife died at the age of about 50.

We also discussed a footnote on page 336 of the 1883 edition in which Binney quotes Samuel Edward Prentiss of Cleveland, OH expressing the opinion that Perez's son, Orange Benton Prentice was a cousin of George Denison Prentice. From that, Binney inferred Perez may be a son of Joseph Prentice (a descendant of Valentine Prentice and his wife, Mary Wheeler; that seems unlikely since Mary, born in 1701, would have been 72 when Perez was born. Perez's son, Orange Benton Prentice's letter of 1876 said he "thought" his grandfather (apparently meaning Perez's father) was Valentine Prentice and spelled his father's name as Peris. With the name Valentine, and if Orange was correct, Perez would almost certainly be a descendant of the Valentine who immigrated in 1631. The only known Valentine Prentice in a possible time frame to be Perez' father would be the Valentine Prentice born in Woobury on 16 Mar 1745/6 (pg. 418, #8) but he would not appear old enough to be Perez' father and he has no known children named Perez or Stanton (see next paragraph)..

We had also noted that in that same page 336 footnote, Binney quotes Mrs. Harriet Potter, a daughter of Perez, as saying Perez had a brother named Stanton Prentice. An unidentified Stanton Prentice, born 1760-75, appears in the 1820 Greene, Chenango Co., NY census (see John P. Prentice, page 455, above).

Might Perez be a son of Thomas Prentice of Stonington? Hard to say. It depends on Perez's birthdate and Thomas' birthdate, both of which are not known and might, or might not, overlap. If Thomas' is earlier and Perez's later, than Perez may be his son.

Also of interest is the fact that Perez is said to be a brother of Stanton Prentice whose parents are also unidentified. Particularly interesting is that Thomas may have married one Martha Stanton, after whom that Stanton Prentice may have been named.

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