Thomas Prence (c. 1601 – March 29, 1673) was a New England colonist who arrived in the colony of Plymouth in November 1621 on the ship Fortune.

[2] The Prince family moved to the London parish of All Hallows Barking, near Tower Hill, where Thomas' father was a carriage maker.

By 1626, however, it was clear that the colony was unlikely to yield significant profits, and the merchant adventurers sought to divest themselves of their obligations.

A few years later, they were forced to sell some land to satisfy the pledge; Prence sold his house to pay his share.

The Puritans arriving at Boston and other new communities to the north created a demand for Plymouth's agricultural output, which had until then been primarily used for local consumption.

[19] Discontented colonists from the neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony settled in the same area 1634, seeking to escape what they perceived as the harsh rule of "King [John] Winthrop".

[20] Although Jonathan Brewster, head of the Matianuck post, gave some assistance to the needy Massachusetts colonists, the Plymouth government protested that the settlers were occupying land that they had rightly acquired from the local natives.

The matter was also bound to a conflict between the two English provinces over the Maine fur trade and became further complicated by the outbreak of the Pequot War.

[21][22] Prence was also involved in an unsuccessful attempt to gain Massachusetts assistance in the recovery of the Pentagoet trading post in Maine.

[5] New England was then dealing with the aftereffects of the Antinomian Controversy, a religious dispute that resulted in the banishment of several people (notably Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright) from the neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony, and occasioned significant debate in Plymouth as well.

Another persona non grata in Massachusetts was Samuel Gorton, who arrived in Boston, and not finding its religious practices to his liking, settled in Plymouth.

The charges he used to achieve this stemmed from a violation by Gorton of law against harboring strangers without permission, which had until then been only weakly enforced.

[26] During his 1638 term, Prence presided over a significant criminal case over the murder of a Native American man named Penowanyanquis.

[30] The petition had broad support within the colony, but was opposed by the conservative leadership, including Prence, Governor Bradford, and Edward Winslow.

As commissioner of the United Colonies, Prence helped negotiate boundaries between Connecticut and New Netherland in the 1650 Treaty of Hartford.

[33] Dutch claims to the Connecticut River were coming under increasing pressure from the rapid growth of the English colonies, and both sides sought to avoid military conflict on the matter.

Massachusetts issued a call to the United Colonies for concerted action against them, and would ultimately take the hardest line against them, hanging four of them for repeated violations of banishment.

[41] The matter of the Quakers came before Plymouth's general court shortly after Prence took office in 1657, and in June that year it passed a series of laws designed to punish or drive them out.

Ships bringing Quakers into the colony would be charged 20 shillings per day as long as the offensive individuals remained, and voting was restricted to exclude them.

Humphrey Norton, arrested for returning after banishment, took Prence to task during his trial, calling him "a malicious man" and saying, "Thou art like a scolding woman, and thy clamorous tongue I regard no more than the dust under my feet.

"[47] James Cudworth, a Scituate resident and United Colonies commissioner, refused to sign a letter of protest addressed to Rhode Island (which tolerated the Quaker presence), and became an outspoken opponent of the harsh policies.

Josiah Winslow sent a constable to a Quaker meeting at Arthur Howland's house in Marshfield to arrest the leader.

[52] Their presence was tolerated as long as they did not disrupt religious services, and they were denied any possibility of voting or other participation in civic affairs.

[53] In 1661 Prence presided over the court during Plymouth's first witchcraft trial and it was reported that he handled the situation in a reasonable way.

Although it was stated that the Dutch and French were the common enemies, the Indian situation was also in mind, with King Philip's War coming in 1675.

Missionary Thomas Mayhew described him as "gentle and kind" with them and during his time as governor, Prence agreed to a seven-year embargo on the sale of Indian land.

He named his wife Mary, seven surviving daughters, Jane, the wife of Mark Snow; Mary Tracy; Sarah Howes; Elizabeth Howland; Judith Barker; Hannah; and Mercy; his grandson Theophilus Mayo; his granddaughter Susanna Prence, the daughter of his deceased son Thomas; his son-in-law John Freeman; Lydia Sturtevant; and his brother Thomas Clarke.