Week 11 - Fortune - Thomas Prence

Week 11: Fortune - Thomas Prence

Everyone knows about the Mayflower, but who’s heard of the name of the second Pilgrim ship to arrive in Plymouth one year later in November 1621? The group of 70 London investors didn’t put up the money to support the new colony because they were nice guys, they expected to make a profit. Hence they named the second ship, FORTUNE, to foretell the results they craved. 

While working on my family tree along my maternal grandfather’s line and among the 35 passengers on the FORTUNE, I came to a 21 year old single young man by the name of Thomas Prence (1602-1673). Much to my delight, I discovered him to be my 9th Great Grandfather. Here is a link to that passenger list: https://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/fortune.htm


While most of the Plymouth colonists were yeoman farmers, Thomas Prence was highly educated and arrived with over 100 books. He married Patience Brewster in 1624. She was the daughter of the very influential Plymouth Elder William Brewster. Patience and Thomas had four children before she died of a “pestilent fever” in 1634. He married three more times fathering a total of nine children. He was elected to three terms as Plymouth’s Colonial Governor. His first two terms were for one year each (1634 and 1638), but in his third term, he served from 1657 until his death in 1673. In 1650 he co-founded the town of Eastham in Barnstable County on Cape Cod. He died a wealthy man, having engaged in a lifetime of numerous business ventures to include fur trading and land transactions. He was well respected and highly thought of during his 52 years in Plymouth Colony. His final resting place is at the historic cemetery on Burial Hill in the town of Plymouth.

 

Governor Thomas Prence
 

The FORTUNE was one third the size of the Mayflower, displacing 55 tons. In total there were 34 healthy young men and one pregnant woman on board the FORTUNE plus a crew of about 30. The problem for the colonists in Plymouth was while they valued the labor of the new arrivals, they were in dire need of food and the investors who dispatched the FORTUNE had failed to load any supplies for them. Now the colony had 35 more mouths to feed for the winter on the same short rations they had prior to the ship’s arrival. Governor Bradford had no choice but to put everyone on half rations. A second issue was housing. Since “the general sickness” had killed half of the original 102 Pilgrims during the first winter, only seven houses and four common buildings had been completed. All the new arrivals had to be dispersed throughout the eleven existing buildings. Several common buildings, out of necessity, were made to resemble male dormitories.

The FORTUNE remained in Plymouth for three weeks loading a cargo of furs as partial repayment for the Merchant Adventurer investors in London. It departed for England on December 13th, 1621. About January 19, 1622, due to a navigation error, FORTUNE was overtaken and seized by a French warship, with those on board being held under guard in France for about a month and its cargo confiscated. The FORTUNE finally arrived back in the Thames on February 17, 1622. Bottom line for the Merchant Adventurers investment group, they lost the payment from the colonists and made nothing whatsoever to this point on the voyages of both the Mayflower and the FORTUNE. The ship FORTUNE had not lived up to its name.

 

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 22, 2021 at 12:31 PM

    Thanks for posting this. My ancestor, Stephen Deane, was also on the Fortune.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bill McLaughlinApril 13, 2021 at 6:04 AM

      Very interesting. I am sure our ancestors met on the Fortune. This indeed is a small world. Good to talk to you cousin.

      Delete
  2. UnknownJuly 20, 2021 at 10:18 AM

    Thomas Prence was my 9 th Great-grandfather on my Dad's side. On my Mom's side he was my 9th and 3 times my 10th great -grandfather.

    ReplyDelete

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