Prince, Thomas

PRINCE, THOMAS: Congregationalist; b. at Sandwich, Mass., May 15, 1687; d. in Boston Oct. 22, 1758, He was graduated at Harvard College, 1707; visited Barbados and Madeira; preached for several years at Coombs and other places in England; returned to Boston, 1717, and in 1718 was ordained associate pastor of the Old South Church, Boston. His memory rests upon his Chronological History of New England in the Form of Annals . . . with an Introduction Containing a Brief Epitome . . . of Events Abroad from the Creation (vol. i., Boston, 1736; nos. 1, 2, 3 of vol. ii., 1755; ed. Nathan Hale, Boston, 1826; ed. S. G. Drake, 1852). The history proper begins with 1602. He intended to bring it down to 1730; but almost twenty years elapsed after the appearance of the first volume, ere he began the second; and, his death coming soon after, he brought the history down no later than Aug. 5, 1633. During the Revolutionary War many of his manuscripts, kept in the tower of the Old South Church, were destroyed, and thus a large part of his invaluable collection respecting the early history of the country has perished. Besides this, he published a number of sermons, and An Account of the Earthquakes of New England (1755), and New England Psalm Book Revised and Improved (1758). His library, including his manuscripts, was bequeathed to the Old South Church, and by it deposited in the Public Library, Boston, 1866, of which a catalogue has been published.

Bibliography: W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 304–307, New York, 1859; W. Walker, in American Church History Series, iii. 110, 264–266, 274, 1894; idem, Ten New England Leaders, pp. 38, 40, 279, 364, ib. 1901.