Next in our ancestry was Samuel Prentice Sr. (1680 - Apr. 24, 1728), third child of Thomas Jr. and Sarah. He was born in Newton, Mass. and moved in 1709 to Stonington, Conn. where he had a large tract of land probably given to him by his grandfather Thomas Sr. before 1700. He became the ancestor of the Stonington branch of the family, from which we in New Orleans are descended.
    The only thing known about Samuel and Esther is that they had ten children, one of whom became a Congregational minister. (Most of the Prentices in our branch of the family up until this century were members of Congregational, Presbyterian, and other Protestant churches. Only after they came to New Orleans did any of them join the Catholic church.)

   Despite the lack of information about Esther, her family has been traced back farther than any other branch of our ancestry known so far.
• Esther's father was Nathaniel Hammond, a farmer in Newton, Mass. who was baptized March 12, 1643. His wife was Mary _____. Nothing is known about her.
• Her father's father was Thomas Hammond, born 1587 in England and baptized there June 9 of that year. On Nov. 12, 1623 he married Elizabeth _____, about whom nothing is known. He came across the Atlantic to Hingham, Mass. in 1636 and was made a freeman March 9, 1637. He died Sept. 3, 1685 in Cambridge, Mass.

     In about 1650 this same Thomas Hammond bought a large farm near Cambridge in partnership with one Vincent Druce. Druce later became a soldier in Captain Prentice’s troop. He was grievously wounded in a battle in 1675 (probably during the Narragansett campaign of King Philip’s War), and would have died were it not for his rescue by Capt. Prentice. Two years later, Capt. Prentice witnessed Druce’s will at his death. Thus, Thomas Hammond's son Nathaniel was well acquainted with the Prentice family because of his father’s partnership with Druce. When Capt. Prentice’s grandson Samuel asked Nathaniel for permission to marry his daughter Esther, he was probably pleased that she was marrying into a good family.
• Esther's father's father's father was Thomas Hammond of Lavenham, Suffolk County, England. On May 14, 1573 he married Rose Tripp, from the same town. They were probably born around 1550. This makes them our earliest ancestors known so far.