Boston, where they
would be under the guardianship of the city, and be far more accessible,
though still the property of the Old South.

Everything seemed to conspire to make the life of Thomas Prince an
exceptionally happy and fortunate one. He had remarkable opportunities
from his birth to develop all his natural capabilities, and in spite of
his Puritan surroundings he gained a liberal view of life, and
appreciated and profited by the facilities for culture that were open to
him. He traced himself the genealogy and characteristics of the Prince
family, and we find in him the modified traits of his English and
Puritan forefathers, who, though strictly religious, were not so
fanatical as many about them. His great-grandfather, the Rev. John
Prince, who lived in the reign of James I. and Charles I., was educated
at Oxford, and became rector of East Shefford, Berkshire, Eng. Thomas
Prince says of him: "Of whom there was this remarkable, that he was one
of the Puritan ministers of the Church of England who in part conformed
and who greatly longed for a further reformation. He had married a
daughter of Dr. Toldenburg, D.D., of Oxford, by whom he had four sons
and seven daughters. Every one of the children proved conscientious
non-conformists even while their parents lived, without any breach of
affection. Thus they continued pretty near together until the furious
and cruel Archbishop Laud dispersed and drove their eldest son, with
many others, to this country."

Walter Money, F.S.A., local secretary of Berks, writes of the old church
at East Shefford, of which Rev. John Prince was rector from 1620 to
1644: "The church where he preached still stands, being used only for a
mortuary chapel, a new one for use having been erected near by. The old
chapel is a most interesting building of the time of Henry VIII., and
considered worthy to be described in full in archaeological works found
in the British Museum. It contains a remarkable monument of Sir Thomas
Fettiplace and his wife Beatrice, whose old manor-house adjoined the
church. There is an exquisite view of the latter in the British Museum."

The rector's oldest son, also named John, was destined for the ministry,
and had been three years at Oxford before coming to this country. On
arriving here, thinking his preparatory work too meagre for his
profession, he devoted himself to husbandry. He settled in Hull, in
1633. His son Samuel, the father of Thomas, was born in 1649,