Name: Penelope 
   Born: c1622
  Place: 
   Died: after 1705
  Place: Middleton, NJ
 Buried: 

Penelope Stout FAQ

IMPORTANT NOTE: Penelope's story may all be wrong.

It could well be said that Penelope is every descendant's favorite ancestor.

From: Howard Green
List Editor: Howard Green
Editor's Subject: Re: Reply: Penelope Stout Coin
Author's Subject: Re: Reply: Penelope Stout Coin
Date Written: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 23:50:31 -0000
Date Posted: Fri, 08 Dec 2005 18:50:31 -0500

Can you possibly tell me if and where one might be able to purchase one.

I have been looking far and wide. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated and thank you for the information you have provided.

Many Thanks,
Judy Strickland
----------

The item is a medallion sculpted by Donald DeLue, a world-known sculptor, although relatively obscure in contemporary art circles as he worked in a figurative style that the art world regarded as passe. It was commissione by the curator of the Shoal Harbor Marine Museum Gertrude Neidlinger, a neighbor and friend of DeLue. There was a companion medal commemorating whaleboat warfare from the Revolution. The two were made as fund-raisers for the museum in the 1970s and were modestly priced. They may be available on the secondary market for medallic art. They were a fine, inexpensive opportunity to own pieces done by a renowned artist.

Randall Gabrielan

The medallion is often referred to as a monument or statue and sometimes as a coin. This photograph shows us exactly what it is. Click on the photo (left) to see the article it came from. (Courtesy of Edith Norrod.)

Penelope's last name is given here in the traditional manner. It's been hotly debated whether it was her maiden name or the name of her first husband. However, she is mentioned in a Gravesend, Long Island records as Penelope Prince, suggesting that Prince, or some variant--was her first husband's surname.

Penelope's story is incredible but I can't begin to relate it—along with the inconsistencies—here. There's a terrific thread that begins with Bobbie J Chamberlain's 2005 Genforum post (see below), later with a changed subject, The Kath and Penelope Stout. Also look at Mark Valsame's Stout pages.

--quote--
PENELOPE VAN PRINCES STOUT & Her Legendary Ordeal

Posted by: Bobby J Chamberlain (ID *****2796)
Date: August 20, 2005 at 20:57:04

The life of Penelope Van Princes Stout (c1622-1732) is steeped in romantic legend. So well-known and seemingly fanciful is the traditional account of her violent ordeal and subsequent rescue that it is often not easy to ascertain what is indeed fact and what belongs more properly to the realm of fiction.

Some claim she was of Dutch origin, while others assert that she was of English stock, the daughter of a Baptist preacher from Sheffield who had fled to Holland, perhaps for reasons of religious persecution. All seem to agree, however, that she was born in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, though there is still some divergence with regard to her date of birth (1602? 1620? 1622?). The very name "Van Princes" is controversial. Variously rendered as "Van Princes," "Van Princis," "Van Princess," "Van Prinzis," "Van Prinzen," "Van Princen" and even "Prince," it is thought by some to have been her maiden name, while others assume it to be the surname of her first husband. The former, however, is sometimes identified instead as "Thompson" or "Thomson," while others insist that she was born a "Kent" or "Lent." Still others maintain that "Kent Van Princes" was instead the legal name of her ill-fated first spouse.

The facts of Penelope's life are hard to come by for another reason as well. Unlike her husband, who was a public figure and, by virtue of his gender, much more visible with regard to legal questions, Penelope Van Princes Stout, except in the matter of her fabled tribulations, appears to have been an essentially private individual. According to the subsequent accounts of family members who knew her, she always wore a scarf or headdress to cover the marks of her terrible head wound. Nonetheless, it is reported that she did not hesitate in later years to display the prominent scars she bore on her abdomen to many a family member who professed interest in her predicament.

I do not feel it necessary here to recount in detail the facts of Penelope's shipwreck, assault, and captivity. Suffice it to say that there are a number of regional and local historians who have taken it upon themselves to do so throughout the years with varying degrees of success. Most of them, indeed, do a much better--and more thorough--job in that regard than I could hope to accomplish within the confines of this posting. Several such works are even available on line, in full or in part, as are likewise numerous websites that quote or paraphrase them. One such website is http://helpokc.com/penelope-stout.shtml [dead link]. Another is http://genealogy.patp.us/penelope.shtml [dead link, see http://genealogy.patp.us/bio/penelope_prince.aspx -Michael]. There are many, many more. Following is a tentative chronology of the life of Penelope Van Princes Stout that, I think, will at least provide an outline of the various events that have been proven to have occurred, along with those that have been attributed to her but remain undocumented. For it, I have relied heavily on on-line sources but have drawn as well from a number of published works. Admittedly, it is sometimes difficult to tell fact from fiction in any given case. Perhaps we shall never be able to do so with any degree of certainty. (A separate posting will be devoted to the life of husband Richard Stout.)

Penelope Van Princes Stout: Chronology
(c1622-1732)

• About 1622: Born, Amsterdam, Holland
• About 1640: Married; sailed with husband for the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam (later NY), but the ship was stranded at Sandy Hook, off the coast of what is now Monmouth Co., NJ; attacked by hostile Indians; husband was killed, along with the ship's crew, while some passengers managed to escape; Penelope was partially disembowled and a portion of her scalp was removed; she was left for dead but survived by taking refuge in a hollow tree for several days; found alive by passing Indians, with whom she subsequently lived for a yr. or two; befriended by her rescuer, an elderly Indian man, who had nursed her back to health; eventually taken by her captors to New Amsterdam and released, or found and ransomed by European settlers who had heard of her plight and resolved to save her from captivity
• 1644/1645: Married Englishman Richard Stout, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1645: Birth of son John, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1645/1646: Birth of son Richard, Jr., Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam (10 Mar.)
• 1648: Birth of son James, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1648: A "Pennelloppey Prince" mentioned in conjuction with the household of one Thos. Applegate (Sep., Gravesend Town Bk., vol. 1); this is also the yr. when some sources claim that Richard, Penelope, and children were among those who made an early (but ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to colonize the NJ coast
• 1649/1650: Birth of daughter Mary, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1651/1654: Birth of daughter Alice Deliverance, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1654: Birth of son Peter, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1655: Received a furtive visit from her elderly Indian friend who warned her to flee with her family immediately to the safety of the New Amsterdam fort as there were plans for an impending Indian attack on the outlying settlement where they lived (mid-Sep.; this account is offered particularly by those who claim that the Stouts had been part of an earlier attempt [about 1648] at colonizing the NJ coast, which most instead put at the later date of 1663/1664)
• 1656: Birth of daughter Sarah, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1660: Birth of son Jonathan, Gravesend, Long Isl., New Amsterdam
• 1663/1664: Moved with husband and children from Gravesend to what is today Monmouth Co., NJ, where, with others, they founded the first permanent European settlement at Middletown
• 1667: Birth of son David, Middletown, Monmouth Co., NJ
• 1668: With husband and others, met to organize the first Baptist church in NJ
• 1669: Birth of son Benjamin, Middletown, Monmouth Co., NJ
• 1690: Lot on Hop River, Monmouth Co., deeded by husband Richard to son Benjamin "for the Joynture of my Loving wife Penelope" (30 Aug.)
• 1732: Died, Middletown, Monmouth Co., NJ

--endquote--

The following theory regarding Penelope's parentage is gathering steam. But I'm not familiar enough with the evidence to know how well is stacks up. It should be pointed out that other researchers disagree. In any event, mtDNA results--should anyone agree to test--could determine her true heritage.

Parents of Penelope Stout

Posted by: Florence Mumford (ID *****8562)
Date: January 17, 2004 at 07:29:23

There is little doubt that Penelope was the daughter of Rev. Mr. Prince, who was banished from his church in Sheffield, England and who lived for a time in Holland, where Penelope was born in about 1622, in Amsterdam. According to popular legend, Penelope may have been married to a young Hollander who name was unknown.

Here's something more about this man at http://www.kamakurapens.com/Archive/PrinceProteanPen.html.

MINISTER INVENTED
THE FOUNTAIN PEN
It was a New England clergyman, Rev. Newell Anderson Prince, a Congregational minister of exceptional ability and rare mental attainments, who conceived, invented, and had patented the first fountain pen. Mr. Prince was a direct descendant of Rev. John Prince, an Oxford scholar and church of England clergyman of East Sheffield, England, who was the ancestor of Rev. Thomas Prince, who came to America in 1623, and became first pastor of the Old South church in Boston. He was the son of Paul and Abigail (Reed) Prince and one of three sons, all of whom were graduates of the North Yarmouth academy and of Bowdoin college.

And here's another accounting of Rev. John Prince:

Copied from http://news.rootsweb.com/th/read/STOUT/2001-03/0984001352

From: William W Barton
Subject: Penelope
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 16:42:32 EST

Hi Linda:

That's great news that you are going to be able to do some in-depth research on Penelope's life in the Netherlands. And that's very interesting that Jeremy Bangs, curator of the Leiden Pilgrim Museum, thinks that Penelope's father might have been an Anabaptist.

Many theories have been proposed for Penelope's history. My favorite is that she was the daughter of Rev. Mr. Prince of Burton-Joyce Parish, Nottinghamshire, England, who was banished from his church in Sheffield and lived in Holland for a time. I originally picked up this gem in Kemble Stout, "James Pindall Stout 1819-1903 and Burthena Shackelford Kemble 1824-1908" (1975), 292. It didn't take long to note that the city of Sheffield is some distance NNW of Nottinghamshire. However, adjacent to Burton-Joyce Parish in Nottinghamshire is Shelford Parish. I see that parish records for Shelford begin in 1563 but the IGI records don't begin until 1627 so probably Penelope's birth isn't readily available to us. Then I found "Some Memories of the Rev. Thomas Prince" (NEH&GR, 1851), 5:374-384. In it Rev. Thomas Prince's 1728 record of his personal ancestry leads us back to his great-grandfather "Rev. Mr. John Prince Rector of East Shefford in Barkshire in England in the Reign of King James I and King Charles I" (i.e., 1603-1649). Rev. Thomas goes on "That tho' He was one of the Conforming Puritans of those Days, who greatly long'd for a farther Reformation, & had Married Elizabeth a Daughter of Dr. Tolderbury D.D. of Oxford, by whom he had 4 Sons & 7 daughters that all grew up, Yet every one of the Children proved Conscientious Nonconformists even while their Parents lived, But without any Breach of Amity or Affection. And thus they continued pretty near together till the furious & cruel Archbishop Laud dispers'd them & drove their eldest son with many others into this Country in the Early times of the Massachusetts Colony." (William Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, imprisoned ca. 1640, executed 1645).

So was our Rev. Mr. Prince actually Rev. John Prince Rector of East Shefford in Berkshire? According to John Bartholomew, "The Survey Gazetteer of the British isles," East (or Little) Shefford is a parish and village in Berkshire, 5 miles NE of Hungerford (i.e., about 20 miles SSW of Oxford). So maybe Penelope's father Rev. John Prince of East Shefford was banished to Holland in the 1630s as Jeremy Bangs has suggested.

As far as I know, the first primary evidence we know naming Penelope is the 12 Sept. 1648 slander suit between Ambrose London and Thomas Applegate in which "Penelloppey Prince" was living at Thomas Applegate's home in Gravesend, Long Island, when she gave testimony (Thomas H. Streets, "The Stout Family of Delaware with the Story of Penelope Stout" [1915], 14). Gravesend had been founded in 1643 by Lady Deborah Moore, who had been driven out of Lynn, MA, by the Salem Church for her Anabaptist leanings (John E. Pomfret, "The Province of East New Jersey, 1609-1702" [1962], 43). The town charter Lady Moody received from the Dutch in New Amsterdam granted her and her followers absolute freedom of conscience and religious freedom. And finally, note that the first Baptist church meetings in Monmouth Co., NJ, were held in Richard and Penelope Stout's home.

Good luck with your research and please keep us advised of developments.

Regards,

Bill Barton, Stamford, CT

And now one wonders if Penelope might have married a son or other relationship of Rev Prince.

Matrilineal Descendants of Penelope Stout

A person of matrilineal descendant can be described as the child of a mother's mother's mother's mother, etc--someone, in other words, who is descended from a given woman directly through the maternal line. People having the same matrilineal descent from an individual share the same mitochondrial DNA. If several living mtDNA descendants of Penelope's were to test, we would know the makeup of her mtDNA and might be able to determine to which part of Europe her heritage belongs. But since mtDNA works best for deep ancestry, it may not be possible to know just which country she was born in. It would, however, be a worthy endeavor. Please contact me if you believe you're a likely candidate for testing.

Click on a name to see my notes for that person: