PrenticeNet

According to the 1851 census and information provided by Karen Madoc, Thomas Prentice was b. c. 1823, Lesmahagow. A farmer with 103 acres in the 1851 Carmichael census, he employed 3 labourers. He married Mary Scott who was b. c. 1825, Strathaven. Children (per Karen Madoc, 1851 census and GRO records):

1. Mary Prentice, chr 30 Nov 1845, Lesmahagow.
2. John Prentice, chr. 19 Mar 1849, Carmichael. . . . . . . [2]
3. Margaret Prentice, chr. 6 Jan 1851, Carmichael
4. Agnes Prentice, chr. Jul 1852, Carmichael
5. Thomas Prentice Jr., chr. 1 May 1854, Carmichael
6. James Prentice, chr. 4 Mar 1856, Carmichael
7. Grace Prentice, chr. 7 Jul 1859, Carmichael
8. Janet Prentice, chr. 3 Dec 1862, Carmichael

Also shown in the 1851 census in Thomas' household were Hugh Gall, a nephew, and Margaret and Anne Scott, called sisters-in-law.

2. John Prentice, chr. 19 Mar 1849, Carmichael. By email of 28 Feb 2003, Karen Madoc suggests that John may be the same person as the John Prentice, b. in Scotland and perhaps from a town about 20 miles from either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Note:   For purposes of this article we only tentatively assume he is the same person. Further proof is needed. ( See Footnote 1

John worked for Shacklocks and was a moulder by occupation and may have emigrated from Shacklocks as an assisted immigrant. Shacklocks were later taken over by Fisher and Paykel. They were well known for the coal ranges they used to make.

John m. Mary Michael. She is probably the Mary Ann Michael who John Prentice m. on 10 May 1884 at S. Dunedin, Otago, NZ. Mary Ann, by all accounts, had been brought up in Northern Ireland. Family tradition relates that when Mary and her brothers and sisters were little, they had hidden in the garden of their home watching their parents being murdered by the predecessors of the I.R.A.

John and Mary had 4 children, including:

1. Minnie Prentice. She m. Toby Hobson and worked at Ross and Glendennings hat factory in Stafford Street, >Dunedin. They had a son:
   1. Albert Prentice Hobson, b. c. 1927. Albert spent all his working life at Shacklocks and later Fisher and Paykel. He was married and later divorced. No children.
2. "Cis" Prentice. She m. Bill Pollock, a Scotsman and dalso a moulder at Shacklocks. and lived on Melbourne Street in Dunedin. Both are now deceased. No children.
3. William Prentice. He married "Ollie" who had a son, Edward/Eddie, by a prior marriage. William and Olllie also had a son but his name is not yet known. William is said to have died relatively young of a heart attack.
4. John Prentice, b. 13 Feb 1885, Dunedin, NZ. . . . . . . [2]

2. John Prentice was b. 13 Feb 1885, Dunedin, NZ and d. there 21 Oct 1947. He was attested to the NZ Army on 31 Oct 1906(?) and embarked to fight in WW1 on the 14 Mar 1917. He was discharged 17 Jan 1919. John was a rifleman and fought in the trenches. His regimental number was 42889. He worked at Shacklocks Foundery in Dunedin.

John m. Ada Lucy Bacon who had a prior marriage to Ian/Jack Brinsdon and a son by such prior marriage. Jack died on a hunting trip. There is a chance that John may be related to Prentices in Kaikoura, NZ in whom there is some family resemblance.

John and Ada, in the late 1930s lived in a wooden villa on Andersons Bay Road near where Methvens factory is now. John and Ada had 1 or more children, including:

1. William John Prentice, b. 22 Dec 1935, Dunedin, NZ. . . . . . [3]

3. William John Prentice, b. 22 Dec 1935, Dunedin, NZ. He m. Shirley Ann Anderson. She was b. 26 Jan 1936. Children:

1. Karen Prentice, b. 17 May 1957, aka Karen Madoc.
2. Melanie Jane Prentice. b. 8 Nov 1958.
3. John Russell Prentice, b. 26 Mar 1960.
4. Catherine Ann Prentice, b. 6 Mar 1973.

If you have any information about the folks mentioned in this article, please contact us at dewald@prenticenet.com.

I am pretty sure that the John Prentice who came out to NZ from Larnack on the Napier in 1879 is my father's grandfather. Larnack fits in with my father's memory of where they came from. John is described as a "moulder" which was our John's occupation.

A Janet Prentice also came out on that boat and I am pretty sure that she is John's sister. She was 15 at that time and there are records of them both witnessing a marriage in Dunedin.

When I was in Wellington I went to the National Library where there are lots of Scottish records on fiche. I looked in the Larnack records for people who had both a John and a Janet and tried to match the birth dates with the ages of John and Janet when they arrived in NZ.