Penelope, An Ancestor

Baer, Mabel V. D. "Richard Stout and Some Descendants". National Genealogical Society Quarterly, vol. 52, 1964, pages 86-94.

Friend, Maurie L. "The Perils of Penelope Kent". Drumbeat, vol. 45, no. 2, Fall 1966, pages 4-5.

Hornor, William S.. "Penelope VanPrinces". This Old Monmouth of Ours, Moreau Brothers, Freehold, NJ, 1932, pages 146-148.

Hornor, William S.. "Richard Stout". This Old Monmouth of Ours, Moreau Brothers, Freehold, NJ, 1932, page 181.

McFarlane, Jim. "Penelope: A Novel of New Amsterdam". Greer, SC: Twisted Cedar Press, 2012. 371 pages. The ISBN is 9780985112202 See external links below.

Salter, Edwin. "Stout". A History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, E. Gardner & Son, Bayonne, NJ, 1890, pages lvi-lvii.

Schott, Penelope S. Penelope: The Story of the Half-Scalped Woman, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 1999, 64 pages.

Stockton, Frank R. "The Story of Penelope Stout". Stories of New Jersey, Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 1961, pages 57-68.

Stout, Herald F. Some of the Descendants of Richard Stout of New Jersey, Glendale, CA, 1940, 92 pages.

Stout, Herald F. "Family History..Richard Stout". Stauden Blatter, vol. 5, no. 4, Winter 1964-65, pages 2-8.

Stout, Herald F. Stout and Allied Families, San Diego, CA, 3rd edition, vol. 1, 1986, 800 pages.

Stout, J. D. Stout and Allied Families, Chariton, IA, 1991, pages 1-4.

Stout, Kemble. James Pindall Stout 1819-1903 and Burthena Shackelford Kemble 1824-1908, 1975, 353 pages.

Stout, Wayne D. Genealogy of the Sagers, Fisk, and Stout Families, Salt Lake City, UT, 1960, 583 pages.

External links

Monmouth County Historical Association

many non-copyrighted source documents

author page for Penelope: A Novel of New Amsterdam

a blog trying to separate truth from fiction about Penelope

Facebook page entitled Penelope Stout Descendants

Facebook page entitled Stout Families

Penelope Stout (van Princis), The Mother of Middletown

Nicknames: "Penelope van Printzen", "Penelope Kent (Lent) Van Princess", "Penelope /Thompson/", "Penelope Kent /Prncis/", "Penelope /Van Princen/", "Kent / lent"

Birthplace: Amsterdam, (Present Noord-Holland), Holland, Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden (present The Netherlands)

Death: Died 1732 in Middletown, Monmouth County, Province of New Jersey, (Present USA)

Further Sources:

From Benedicts History of Baptists: Penelope's first husband was hurt in boat wreck when they were stranded in Sandy Hook, NJ and she stayed with him. Indians came and killed them and stripped them to skin but Penelope came to even though her skull was fractured and left shoulder hacked. She was cut across the abdomen and her bowels appeared and she kept them in with her hand. She continued in this condition for 7 days, taking shelter in a hollow tree and eating the excresence of it. Then saw a deer with arrows sticking out and 2 Indians appeared, whom she hoped would put her out of her misery. One went to knock her on the head but the other, an elderly man, prevented him and throwing his matchcoat about her carried her to his wigwam and cured her of her wounds and bruises. After this the Indian took her to New York and made a present of her to her countrymen, viz. an Indian present, expecting 10 times the value in return. In NY Richard Stout married her. He was a native of England and of a good family and Penelope was now in her 22nd year and he in his 40th. She bore him 7 sons and 3 daughters.

Birth dates seem to vary. Some say that dates should be 20 years later i.e. birth 1622 and death 1732. Some stories state that her 1st husband's name was Van Princen born in late 1500's in Holland and died in 1620 (or 1640). Various records regarding Penelope's father. One states that he is Rev. Prince who was banished from his church in Sheffield, England and moved to Holland where Penelope was born. Others say he was Baron Van Princis. Penelope's maiden name was Kent.

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http://womenhistory.blogspot.com/2007/11/penelope-van-princis-stout.html

http://www.johnpratt.com/gen/a/0/9.penelope.html

Penelope Kent was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1622. She married a Mr. Van Princen in 1642 and they set off to make their fortune in the New World. The ship bringing them wrecked just off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, in 1643. Her husband had been very ill on the journey, and was seriously injured in their attempt to reach land. When they did reach land, those who had survived feared an Indian attack. They decided to hasten to New Amsterdam, but Mr. Van Prince was in no condition to travel, so the group left Penelope and her husband behind to fare for themselves. Soon afterward in the woods the dreaded attack materialized and both of them were hacked up and left for dead. Penelope survived, having had her skull fractured, and left shoulder so badly cut that she never regained full use of her arm. Her abdomen was also slit open so that her intestines appeared, so she held them in with hand. She took shelter in a hollow tree, trying to recover. After seven days, she saw a deer with arrows sticking in it, and soon two Indians appeared. The younger was going to kill her, but the other more elderly man prevented him. He carried her to his wigwam and cured her of her wounds. Then he took her to New Amsterdam, and returned her, collecting a reward for her.

The young widow met Richard Stout in New Amsterdam and they were married in 1644. Later she prevailed on him to move to Middleton, New Jersey in 1648. They had ten children, and she lived to be 110 years old and lived to see 502 total offspring before she died in 1732.

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See Thomas H. Street's "Story of Penelope Stout." (pages scanned)

information from (p. 1, footnote 1) Stout and Allied Families: Volume One, 1951, Harold F. Stout, The Eagle Press, Dover, Ohio

Below from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brookefamily/vanprincispenolope.htm

The story of the Stout family and Penelope Van Princes, as handed down in the Stout family, is that Richard Stout, the first of the name in America, came from Nottinghamshire, England, a son of John. Richard served for some years in the English navy and was finally discharged at the port of New Amsterdam, N. Y. About this time a ship from Holland, with many Dutch immigrants, was driven ashore during a severe storm, on the Jersey coast near Middletown, Monmouth Co. The crew and passengers reached shore safely, but were soon attacked by a band of Indians, who it is said, massacred the entire party. Among the passengers was Penelope Van Princes and her husband. The husband was killed outright, and Penelope, badly bruised, ripped open and unconscious, was left for dead. Recovering consciousness she crawled to a hollow tree for some protection and seclusion where she was discovered by a friendly Indian. Compassionately he carried her to his wigwam, nursed her back to life and eventually carried her in his canoe to New Amsterdam and sold her to the Dutch. Later, Penelope met and married Richard Stout in 1663, in N. Y. City, and settled in Monmouth County, N. J. The name of Penelope's father was Van Princes; her husband's name uncertain. (First publication of the story was in "Proceeds," 1st Series, vol. 1:162-3, pub. 1845-6.)

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Newspaper article - Newspaper name and time of publicatio n unknown, author was John T. Cunningham

------------ THE STORY OF PENELOPE STOUT -----------

There is cause to dispute the traditional claim that Penelope vanPrincis Stout of Monmouth County lived to a mature 110 years before she died in 1712, but no one can deny that for indomitable will to live and in number of descendants Penelope has had few equals.

Penelopes's story is obscured slightly by discrepancies in the dates of her birth and other occurrences in her life, but consider first the narrative as it is usually told.

Born in Holland (in 1602 according to the usual version,) Penelope vanPrincis joined her young husband and other Dutch settlers headed for New Amsterdam in 1620. Violent storms caught their ship, drove it off course and finally wrecked it off Sandy Hook.

--- ON THE BEACH ---

All survived, and the passengers and crew set off for New Amsterdam on foot, leaving Penelope on the beach to nurse her desperately ill husband (whose name was never recorded by Penelope and all of the large brood she would later rear.) Indians found the Dutch couple on the beach, killed the husband and left Penelope viciously hacked.

The young widow lay unconscious, her skull fractured, her left arm so mangled that it would never again be normal and her abdomen slashed open. Somehow she revived and crawled into a hollow tree, where two Indians found her several days later.

---- SHE PRAYED ---

Penelope prayed that they might end her misery and the younger Indian was willing to oblige. The older Indian dissented, carried her over his shoulder to camp, and there nursed her back to health. She stayed with the Indians , working, learning their language and their ways.

Some of her shipwrecked friends returned after a tim e and asked the Indians to give her up. Penelope's Indian benefactor said he would let the young woman decide for h erself. Penelope decided to leave, "very much to the surpr ise of this good Indian," according to Frank Stocktons's ve rsion.

About two years later Penelope met Richard Stout who h ad left Nottingham, England, because of parental disapprova l of his love affair with a girl they considered socially i nferior. He enlisted in the navy, served for seven years a nd left ship in New Amsterdam when his enlistment ended.

Penelope vanPrincis and Richard Stout were married in 1624 (according to tradition), when she was 22 and Richar d was 40. Some time after, they moved to Middletown, wher e through the years their family grew and prospered.

Several years after the Stouts came to Middletown, Penelope's old Indian benefactor called on her to warn of an impending attack by his tribe. Penelope and her children fl ed in a canoe, but Richard Stout and his neighbors stood u p to the Indians and argued them out of an attack. So the Stouts lived on into the 18th century.

Dr. Thomas Hale Streets questioned the time sequence in a study he made of the Delaware branch of the Stout family in 1915.

He said that all dates in recorded accounts were abou t 20 years too early, thus making the date of the shipwrec k about 1640 rather than 1620 and making the date of the ma rriage to Richard Stout about 1644 rather than 1624. This logic seems sound.

For example, there was no New Amsterdam in 1620 and ce rtainly there was no Middletown at the time when the Stou t allegedly moved over. Advancing all dates 20 years, howev er, makes New Amsterdam, Middletown and all else fall in line.

His most telling rebuttal hinged on the known birh date of Penelope's 10th and last child, David, born in 1669. That would have made Mrs. Stout a mother at age 67 and R ichard a father at 85. Speaking of the mother, Dr. Street s commented drily:

"No medical man, it is safe to say, ever knew of suc h a case."

Penelope vanPrincis Stout died in 1712, either at the age of 110, if you believe traditional accounts, or at the age of 90 if Dr. Streets is correct.

Before dying, Mrs. Stout saw her seven sons and three daughters multiplied into 492 other descendants.

One son, Jonathan, bought a large tract of land at Hopewell in 1706 and quickly the number of Stout descendants in and near Hopewell became almost as numerous as those in Monmouth. Today huge numbers of Stout descendants cherish a noble name; they recognize that without Penelope vanPrincis, a stout-hearted woman if ever there was one, they wouldn't be here at all.