Hi Linda: That's great news that you are going to be able to do some in-depth research on Penelope's life in the Netherlands. And that's very interesting that Jeremy Bangs, curator of the Leiden Pilgrim Museum, thinks that Penelope's father might have been an Anabaptist. Many theories have been proposed for Penelope's history. My favorite is that she was the daughter of Rev. Mr. Prince of Burton-Joyce Parish, Nottinghamshire, England, who was banished from his church in Sheffield and lived in Holland for a time. I originally picked up this gem in Kemble Stout, "James Pindall Stout 1819-1903 and Burthena Shackelford Kemble 1824-1908" (1975), 292. It didn't take long to note that the city of Sheffield is some distance NNW of Nottinghamshire. However, adjacent to Burton-Joyce Parish in Nottinghamshire is Shelford Parish. I see that parish records for Shelford begin in 1563 but the IGI records don't begin until 1627 so probably Penelope's birth isn't readily available to us. Then I found "Some Memories of the Rev. Thomas Prince" (NEH&GR, 1851), 5:374-384. In it Rev. Thomas Prince's 1728 record of his personal ancestry leads us back to his great-grandfather "Rev. Mr. John Prince Rector of East Shefford in Barkshire in England in the Reign of King James I and King Charles I" (i.e., 1603-1649). Rev. Thomas goes on "That tho' He was one of the Conforming Puritans of those Days, who greatly long'd for a farther Reformation, & had Married Elizabeth a Daughter of Dr. Tolderbury D.D. of Oxford, by whom he had 4 Sons & 7 daughters that all grew up, Yet every one of the Children proved Conscientious Nonconformists even while their Parents lived, But without any Breach of Amity or Affection. And thus they continued pretty near together till the furious & cruel Archbishop Laud dispers'd them & drove their eldest son with many others into this Country in the Early times of the Massachusetts Colony." (William Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, imprisoned ca. 1640, executed 1645). So was our Rev. Mr. Prince actually Rev. John Prince Rector of East Shefford in Berkshire? According to John Bartholomew, "The Survey Gazetteer of the British isles," East (or Little) Shefford is a parish and village in Berkshire, 5 miles NE of Hungerford (i.e., about 20 miles SSW of Oxford). So maybe Penelope's father Rev. John Prince of East Shefford was banished to Holland in the 1630s as Jeremy Bangs has suggested. As far as I know, the first primary evidence we know naming Penelope is the 12 Sept. 1648 slander suit between Ambrose London and Thomas Applegate in which "Penelloppey Prince" was living at Thomas Applegate's home in Gravesend, Long Island, when she gave testimony (Thomas H. Streets, "The Stout Family of Delaware with the Story of Penelope Stout" [1915], 14). Gravesend had been founded in 1643 by Lady Deborah Moore, who had been driven out of Lynn, MA, by the Salem Church for her Anabaptist leanings (John E. Pomfret, "The Province of East New Jersey, 1609-1702" [1962], 43). The town charter Lady Moody received from the Dutch in New Amsterdam granted her and her followers absolute freedom of conscience and religious freedom. And finally, note that the first Baptist church meetings in Monmouth Co., NJ, were held in Richard and Penelope Stout's home. Good luck with your research and please keep us advised of developments. Regards, Bill Barton, Stamford, CT [email protected] ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.