Boston. The article is transcribed in its entirety, which includes other facts and commentary in addition to
the Bible transcript. The descendancy superscripts appear to be from Mayflower elders.
SURNAMES:
PRINCE
NELSON
LEWIS
CUSHING
WEEKS
LORING
BREWSTER
GREELEY
BLANCHARD
SWEETSER
FISHER
OAKES
SOUTHWORTH
DRINKWATER
SYLVESTER
THE PAUL PRINCE BIBLE
Communicated by Mrs. Ella G. S. Pease, of Boston
This Bible, once the property of Paul4 Prince (Benjamin3,
Thomas2, Elder John1) of North Yarmouth, Me., and containing
the record of births of his children, was printed in
Edinburgh, in 1791, by Mark and Charles Kerr. The pages
reproduced here are between the Old and New Testaments,
facing each other, and contain the following entries:
Paul Prince and Hannah his wife married (worn) Anno Domini
1743.
Paul Prince Born at Duxbury May 14th 1720.
Hannah his wife Born at Hingham May 8th 1722.
THEIR CHILDREN:
1. Sarah Prince, Born, February 29th A.D. 1744 O.S.
2. Cushing October 29th 1745 ibid
3. Rachel July 22nd 1747 ibid
4. Hannah January 20th 1749 ibid
5. Ruth April 12th 1751 ibid
6. David May 17th 1753 N.S.
7. Else February 13th 1756 ibid
8. Paul November 13th 1758 ibid
9. Pyam October 26th 1760 ibid
10. Ammi August 1st 1763 ibid
The lines were drawn with a pen, and filled in with some
brown wash, probably sepia. A slip of paper in the book,
signed "J.B. Sweetser, 1870."* says: "Written with a wild
goose quill about 100 years ago by Nicholas Hughes, who was
of Irish birth and taught school in North Yarmouth." On the
back of the leaf containing the marriage of Paul and Hannah
is written, "The property Rachel Weeks."
Paul Prince, the son of Benjamin and Abiel (Nelson) Prince,
removed to North Yarmouth with his father in 1727. He married
there, September 8, 1743, Hannah, daughter of David and Rachel
(Lewis) Cushing, who died February 6, 1814. Paul died November
25, 1809, and both are buried in Cumberland graveyard. After
his marriage he lived in the blockhouse with Solomon Loring
(who had married Alice, the elder sister of Hannah), until the
birth of his children, Sarah and Cushing, when he built a
house in that part of North Yarmouth new Cumberland, and resided
there until his death. He was a man of character and ability,
respected and valued by the community, and interested in all
public as well as private affairs.
Paul Prince's grandfather, Thomas Prince, married Ruth, daughter
of John2 Turner the elder (Humphrey1) of Seituate, by his wife
Mary3 Brewster (Johnathan2, Elder William1).
The children of Paul and Hannah all lived to rear families,
Paul, Jr., who died in 1804, at the age of 46, being the first
to break family ties; David, the last, in 1849, aged 96.
Sarah, the eldest daughter, married Eliphalet Greeley; Cushing
married Hannah Blanchard; Rachel and Else married brothers,
Salathiel and William Sweetser (John4, Benjamin3, Benjamin2,
Seth1) and, Salathiel dying, Rachel married 2d Nathaniel Weeks;
Hannah married Thomas5 Prince (Joseph4, Joseph3, Isaac2, Elder
John1); Ruth married Onesiphorous Fisher; David married Elizabeth
Oakes; Paul married Sarah Southworth; Pyam married Martha Leach
Drinkwater; and Ammi married Desire Sylvester.
Rachel, to whom the Bible descended, had, by her marriage with
Salathiel Sweetser, four sons, Mrs. Mary C.S. Quincy and Mrs. Ella
G.S. Pease, of this society, being granddaughters of her second son,
Prince, through his third son and eighth child William. Mr. Andrew
Gray Weeks, also of this society, who is the present possessor of
the Bible, is the son of Ezra Weeks, the youngest son of Rachel,
by her second husband, Nathaniel Weeks. Both Mrs. Quincy and Mr.
Weeks remember the affection of the little grandmother for the Bible,
and her pleasure in showing it to them.
*The youngest son of Prince Sweetser and grandson of Rachel, who
spent her last years in his house.
