parish to Combs, and when he returned to his native
land many of his congregation came with him.

The chapel was then closed; one part of the flock settled at Needham
Market, the other at Stowmarket,--these churches still existing. In
Combs began the romantic period of his life. He became interested in
Deborah Denny, a child of twelve when he came to the village, who grew
up under his ministrations. Her family for centuries was famed for its
piety and was thoroughly devoted to the interests of the church. Her
training had been as strict in religious matters as Mr. Prince's. In her
eighteenth year Deborah sailed for America, with her brother Samuel, to
join another brother, who had settled here previously. Mr. Prince took
passage on the same vessel, and two years later they were married at
the house of her brother, Daniel Denny, at Leicester, by Rev. Joseph
Sewall, Mr. Prince being ten years older than his bride. He had been
urged to continue his residence abroad; but his longings for home were
too powerful for their inducements, and later in life he was known to
have regretted spending so many years away from what he then had learned
to consider his true sphere of usefulness.

He landed in Boston on a July Sunday, 1717. He notes it thus in his
journal: "The captain sent his pinnace to carry me up. I landed at Long
Wharf about three quarters of an hour before the meeting began, and by
that means escaped the crowds of people, five hundred it was said, who
came down on the wharf at noon, inquiring for me. But now, the streets
being clear, I silently went up to the Old South Meeting House, where no
one knew me but Mr. Sewall, in the pulpit." The churches of Hingham,
Bristol, and the Old South gave him urgent calls to become their pastor.
His choice fell upon the Old South, whose pastor, Mr. Sewall, was a
cherished friend and classmate.

Mrs. Grace Denny, Mrs. Prince's mother, in her letters to "daughter
Prince," regretted that she was to be subject to the temptations of a
city life, fearing it would be a snare and hindrance to her growth in
grace, and advocated the choice of Hingham as a residence. In 1719
Boston was a goodly town of only twelve thousand inhabitants, governed
with strict Puritan laws, some of which were even oppressive, giving
small opportunity to indulge in the frivolities of life, even if one
desired, and least of all to a pastoress of the Old South Church.

The church in which Mr. Prince was ordained