Thomas Prence

Thomas Prence (* around 1601 near Lechlade , Gloucestershire , England , † March 29, 1673 in Plymouth , Plymouth Colony ) was an English colonist in the Plymouth Colony. Between 1634 and 1673 he was governor of this colony three times.

Life

The exact date of birth of Thomas Prence is not known. He was the son of the carriage maker Thomas Prince and his wife Elizabeth Tolderby. He was also born under the family name Prince . He later changed that name to Prence . He spent his early years in Ratcliff , which is now part of London . In 1621 he decided to leave his homeland and emigrate to America. On board the ship Fortune he came to the Plymouth Colony, which had only been founded a year earlier, where he acquired some land (one akre of land) . The population of the colony consisted largely of supporters of the Separatists , a particularly radical group of Puritans who had arrived in their new home on the Mayflower in 1620 and who went down in history as pilgrim fathers . Thomas Prence belonged to a small group of traders who took over the debts of the other colonists and in return received certain trading privileges such as B. were granted the fur trade. He was very successful as a trader and by 1633 he was one of the colonists with the highest tax payments. The trade with the English motherland was not always successful and in the meantime Prence had to sell his house to pay off debts with English entrepreneurs. In 1644 he was one of the founders of the Eastham community on the Cape Cod peninsula , where he became one of the largest landowners. The fertile land enabled the production of food not only for its own colony, but also for neighboring English settlements, including the city of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay Colony . He lived there until 1663 before moving back to Plymouth. Prence was married four times and had ten children from those marriages. He died in Plymouth on March 29, 1673.

In addition to his professional activities, Thomas Prence was also politically active. He held several positions in the colonial administration of the Plymouth Colony. Among other things, he was temporarily responsible for finances. In the years 1634-1635, 1638-1639 and from 1657 until his death in 1673, he was the colonial governor of his home province. In addition to William Bradford and Edward Winslow , he determined the policy of the colony for decades. After Bradford's death he was undisputedly the most powerful and influential man there. He was considered fair but authoritarian. During this time there were repeated problems with colonists from neighboring colonies because of the establishment of trading posts. In this context, there were also tensions with French and Dutch colonists. He was rather friendly towards the Indians.

Web links

• Online biography
• Prence in the Familypedia
• Thomas Prence in the database of Find a Grave (English)