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From: "Joe W. Stout" <>
Subject: [TNWEAKLE-L] PENELOPE KENT VAN PRINCESS STOUT
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 05:49:51 -0600


PENELOPE KENT VAN PRINCESS:
Penelope Stout - First Lady of Monmouth

One of the best known chapters of [Monmouth's] early history is the story
of Penelope Stout, believed to be the first white woman to set foot on
[Monmouth] county soil.

During the first half of the 17th century - the exact date is unknown - a
ship from Holland was wrecked on Sandy Hook. Among those aboard was
Penelope Van Princis, whose husband had become ill on the long sea voyage.
The passengers and crew reached shore safely, but hearing of an Indian
attack they set out on foot for New York (New Amsterdam), leaving the sick
man and his wife behind.

Penelope's story is told at the Spy House Museum Complex in Port Monmouth,
New Jersey.

Richard Stout, a son of John and Elizabeth (Bee or Gee) Stout, was born
in Nottinghamshire, England about 1715. He joined the British Navy and was
discharged at New Amsterdam, now New York, about 1640.
Richard was one of thirty nine people who founded a settlement at
Graves End, Long Island, in 1644. That year, he married Penelope (Kent)
Van Princin.
Penelope Kent was probably born about 1622 in England. Her father is
believed to have been a Puritan Baptist Separatist who was banished from
his church and who fled to Holland with his family. Penelope married a man
named Van Princin in Amsterdam.
In 1640, Penelope and her husband took ship with a group of emigrants
to America. The ship was wrecked at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Many of the
passengers traveled overland to New Amsterdam, but Penelope husband was ill
and could not travel, so they remained near the wreck site.
The little encampment was attacked by Indians, who killed Penelope's
husband and left her for dead with a fractured skull, a hacked shoulder and
a gash in her body that allowed her intestines to protrude.

TO BE CONTINUED.....................

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