PrenticeNet

With the help of Philippa Wells (North), we are helping John North of Dunedin, NZ in tracing the family tree of his great-great-grandfather. Here is what we have so far:

A.  Unknown Prentice, b. c.1800-1816 at an unknown location. The name of his wife is not yet known. They had 2 or more children:

1. Alexander Prentice was born c.1824. . . . . [1]
2. John Prentice, born c.1844, Danse (Duns?), Berwickshire. In the 1861 Dalkeith, Midlothian, census he is shown living with his brother, Alexander. He may, or may not, be the John Prentice shown in the IGI as chr. 27 Aug 1843 in Mordington Mains, Berwickshire, Scotland, son of Robert Prentice and Mary Grieve. The IGI also shows that Robert and Mary had another son, Thomas Prentice b. 31 Mar 1845, Mordington Mains, Berwickshire. Our Yahoo map does not show either Danse or Mordington Mains, but it does show a Duns about 10 miles E. of Mordington Holdings.

1.  Alexander Prentice was born c.1824 (based on age at death) (or c.1836, per 1861 census) at an unknown location in England. (That 1836 birth date is likely an error since that would make him only 12 when he m. Marion Reed in 1848 when she was 25. He appears in the 1861 census in Dalkeith, Midlothian County, Scotland with his wife and family.)

Family tradition relates that Alexander was a "horsey" man; he was engaged in training racehorses for the Duke of Buccleuch, and at different times was a coachman for various prominent people in various parts of Scotland, and at one stage in Liverpool.

He married, on 20 Nov 1848, to Marion Reid, at St. Cuthberts, Edinburgh, Scotland (see Footnote 1). She was born c.1823 in Haddington, East Lothian (per 1861 Dalkeith census). It appears that she likely died in 1906 at age 84 (per BDM record #1906/7346). A Marion R. Prentice is buried with other family members at East Taieri Cemetery, Mosgiel, Dunedin City, Otago. It lists a birth year of 1822, and a death date of 25 Oct 1906. [findagrave.com]

It appears that in 1881 (per census), Alexander and wife, Marion, with son John A. are living at "Irearne Stables" in Beith, Ayr, Scotland. Alexander is listed as being 56 and born in England, with an occupation of coachman. Marion, wife, is listed as being 68 and born in Haddington, Haddington, Scotland. John A., son, is listed as 23 and born in Dalkeith, Edinburgh, Scotland, with an occupation of groom. (Source: FHL Film 0203592; GRO Ref, Volume 581, EnumDist 13, Page 2, [prenticenet.com].)

Alexander is thought to have emigrated to New Zealand about 1884. However, an Alexander Prentice is listed in the 17 May 1882 "The Evening Star," in Dunedin, Otago, as offering elocution classes, is this "our" Alexander Prentice? Seems likely. (newspapers.com)

Alexander died suddenly, on 9 Aug 1902, at his residence, on Church Street, Mosgiel [NZ], aged 79 years (newspapers.com(1), newspapers.com(2), indicates he was the father of Mrs. R. Sommerville, of Timaru .. who might that have been?). The BDM database lists an Alexander Prentice death in 1902, aged 78 (record #1902/5924). Assuming this is "our" Alexander, it seems he was most likely born c.1824.

Children of Alexander and Marion:

1. D. Prentice, dau., born c.1850, in Liberston, Edinburghshire. At home in Dalkeith in 1861 census.

   A Diana Prentice is buried next to Marion R. Prentice, James Reid Prentice, and Elizabeth Miller Prentice, in East Taieri Cemetery, Mosgiel, Dunedin City, Otago. Birth year of 1859, and death date 1 Jun 1943. I'd bet this is "D. Prentice." [findagrave.com]

2. Fanny Prentice, born c.1851, in Newton, Edinburghshire.

   A Fannie Prentice married, in 1905, to W Arthur Worsfold. Is this our Fanny?

3. William Prentice, born c.1854, Newton, Edinburghshire. At home in Dalkeith in 1861 census.
4. John Alexander Prentice, b. 2 May 1855, in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. At home in Dalkeith, Edinburghshire, in 1861 census. He emigrated to Canada.

   John is listed in 1881 census with his parents in Beith, Ayr, Scotland, age 23 working as a groom (see more detail, above).

5. James Reid Prentice, born 24 Jun 1857, in Coylton Ayrshire, Scotland. . . . . . [2]
6. Sarah Prentice, born 11 Oct 1859, in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. At home in Dalkeith in 1861 census. Immigrated to NZ, when? She married, before 1888 to R. (Robert?) Somerville, in New Zealand(?). Children:
   1. Robina Taylor Somerville, b. Jul 1888, NZ; d. 5 Feb 1889, Otago, NZ.
   2. Robert Taylor Sommerville, b. 1890, NZ.
   3. Mary Robina Reid Sommerville, b. 1892, NZ.
   4. Ellen Morrison Sommerville, b. 1896, NZ.
   5. Bob Somerville. In c.1900 family photo. Is this "Robert" above?
   6. Maisie Somerville. In c.1900 family photo. A Maisie Frances Maera Somerville married, in 1931, to Oliver Gordon Vial.
   7. Gavin Somerville. Recollection of family member.
7. Elizabeth Guthrie Prentice, born 15 Feb 1862, in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. She m. on 31 Jan 1890, to Stuart Langlands Peters, at Gowanlea, Mosgiel, NZ (newspapers.com). She died in 1949 (per BMD records). Also see [findagrave.com]. Known children:
   1. Stuart Peters, b. 1890.
   2. Elizabeth Guthrie Peters, b. 1892 in New Zealand; m. in 1918, to Reginald Henry Baigent (1892-1954); d. 5 Apr 1935 in Saint Clair, Dunedin City, Otago, New Zealand. Known children:
      1. Douglas Henry Baigent, b. 1919 in New Zealand; d. 4 Feb 1956, in Australia(?)
      2. Robert Stewart Baigent, b. 1923, in New Zealand; d. 8 Jan 1981
8. William Prentice.

Lizzie, Maggie, and Willie Prentice are among the students listed in this 18 Dec 1896 issue of "The Evening Star," Dunedin, Otago (newspapers.com (1896)). Margaret Prentice and William Prentice are among the students listed in this 21 Dec 1899 issue of "The Evening Star," Dunedin, Otago (newspapers.com (1899)). Are these Alexander's children?

2.  James Reid Prentice, born 24 Jun 1857, in Coylton, Ayrshire, Scotland, and died on 25 Feb 1936, in East Taieri, New Zealand. Coylton lies about 5-6 miles ESE of the coastal town of Ayr and is about 30-40 miles SW of Glasgow.

He married, on 31 Dec 1883, to Donaldina Sutherland, in East Taieri, Otago, New Zealand. She was born c.1858, East Taieri, NZ, dau. of John Sutherland (b. c.1816 in Caithness, Scotland and d. c.1893, East Taieri, NZ), and she died on 31 May 1943, in Mosgiel, Otago, New Zealand. Daughters Elizabeth Miller Prentice and Mabel Reid Prentice were the executrixes of Donaldina's will.

James was "presenter" or conductor of the choir of East Taieri Presbyterian Church. His baton is in the Otago Early Settlers Museum with other family memorabilia. (Black, maybe ebony, with a silver worked knob. ) It was presented to him by the choir in appreciation of his musical service and leadership, on 24 Dec 1913.

A James R. Prentice, with an address of 60 Vermont Street, Ponsonby, Auckland, is listed in the 1931 issue of, The New Zealand Gazette, No. 8, p.203 [library.victoria.ac.nz (PDF)]. REGISTER OF PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTS OF NEW ZEALAND. Date of registration: 14 June, 1912; Certificate No. 966. I'm thinking this is a different James R. Prentice.

Children of James and Donaldina:

1. Elizabeth "Beth" Miller Prentice, born in 1884, in Mosgiel, Otago, New Zealand; She died in 1952, in Mosgiel, aged 68 years.

   Elizabeth attended the Presbyterian Women’s Training Institute in Dunedin (Deaconess College) in 1907 – 1908, where she trained to be a deaconess, before gaining additional nursing training to assist her in her role as a missionary nurse.

   Photos of Sr.[Sister] Elizabeth M. Prentice are available on the Presbyterian Research Centre, Archives. Elizabeth was a nurse who spent many years at the Mission in Canton, China. She apparently returned to Mosgiel in 1923, due to ill health.

   Elizabeth Prentice, residing at Mansfield, Mosgiel is listed in the 1924 issue of, The New Zealand Gazette, No. 18, p.786 [library.victoria.ac.nz (PDF)]. Midwives holding a Certificate of Training in Midwifery approved by the Registrar. Date of registration: Aug 1910; No. 307; Trained at: Medical School Maternity Hospital, Dunedin. Same record in the 1926 issue, No 26, on page 1337.

2. Mabel ("Mabbo" or "Mab") Reid Prentice, b. 1886, in Mosgiel, Otago, New Zealand; d. Sep 1982 at Kaikoura Hospital.

   Mabel died in Kaikoura and her ashes were scattered at Ryan's Creek camp on Stewart Island, NZ. She co-owned the camp with the Traill family. (Per Juliet Clarke, email 3/24/25.)

   Mabel was interesting; she never married, was a personality on Stewart Island (the southernmost and smallest of the 3 main NZ islands) and travelled widely for several decades, having many adventures, and sought out Prentice relatives in Scotland (no details).

   Beverley Osborn's email of 18 Oct 2012 reads as follows:

   I received an enquiry today about where Mab Prentice would have been buried. I know she died at Kaikoura Hospital and that must have been in the early 80-s The Stewart Island museum is collecting information about her, since she was such a great personality here. She was a close friend and neighbour of mine when I had a young family and I've got a vague memory that there must have been a memorial service for her here and that I taped it to send to Alison Dodds, with whom she shared ownership of "The Camp" at Ryan's Creek. She's definitely not in the cemetery records here.
   
   The enquiry I received this morning was relayed through a friend who thought I might know, but came originally from Joanna Massey who is doing museum research for the records here and of course it's possible that she might have found your website too and been in touch with you personally.
   
   Mabbo was very dear to our family. The children loved the special things they were allowed to do when they visited her -- making pretend tea in her Tibetan tea service, ringing all the little gongs and bells she had brought home form her travels, coming bumpity, bump on their bottoms down her steep staircase and creeping quietly up her back steps in case they disturbed the wurgy murkus who lived under the house!

   Beverley Osborn's email of 22 Oct 2012 adds more information as follows:

   Her parents had a superb garden in East Taeri -- she had a coloured photo on a wall in her sitting room. I think its name was Mansefield.
   
   When Mab moved here she had to choose between a garden and a view because a view would have meant wind that would have prohibited some of the special plants she wanted to have. She bought 5 sections of bush and carved out a sheltered site and established a superb garden. To make a living, she painted Stewart Island scenes, birds and flowers on wall plaques, wooden breadboards, brooches, condiment sets, dressing table sets, etc, etc and when her eyesight began to make the fine detail of such paintings too difficult, she moved to shell work. Tourists from all over the world came to visit her garden and she had a tiny shop built at one edge of the garden to display her work. She used the proceeds to accomplish the world travels she loved and she went to all sorts of far flung places. I heard that she was a Cook's nightmare because she'd want to disappear into places in which they had no facilities, but she always emerged safely and happily with dozens of new friends, even if language had been a problem.
   
   My favourite story of her travels was the journey to South America when she was 83. She included a trip on the Amazon in a dug-out canoe but the highlight was always to be her visit to Machu Picchu. When she arrived at the destination from which tourists went via donkeys up the final 1000 or so feet, they refused to take her -- said she was too big a health risk at her age in a reduced oxygen area. She was furious but they were adamant. They thought she might at least have come to see them set out round 8 the next morning but there was no sign of her until they arrived and found her happily wandering round. She'd set off about 6 and walked up!
   
   Her house was transported to its site, plank by plank, by boat from a Norwegian Whaling base which had been established up Paterson Inlet to service whaling boats, and when the base was disestablished Mab bought the manager's house. She added a second storey and a front porch. The planks were painted brown and she maintained that colour but knew that it should have been oiled rather than painted because that good Norwegian timber continued to release little sap bubbles for ever. She named the property Moemoea, which means I dreamed a dream.
   
   She was so well known and respected as a gardener that she was sent a seedling of a tree rediscovered in Tibet long after it had been thought to be extinct. It grew and flourished under her care and she was very proud of her fossil tree.
   
   She got herself a view too, eventually -- built a little bus shelter sort of place out of pungas and a wooden seat, down in her bush with a view out over Thule to the Inlet.
   
   I have little memory of her sister Beth -- I think I only met her a couple of times when she was visiting Mab and I was a child. She was a missionary but I can't remember where. Her brothers, Sandy and Jack and their wives I do remember well and we visited Sandy's son , Tony and his wife, Geraldine, at their farm near Claverly just south of Kaikoura when we were on a family holiday.
   
   Beth was the first to die but the other three all lived to great ages and they wrote to each other every week -- big, long newsy letters. I used to read Mab's mail for her when her eyesight got very poor.
   
   She was the morning organist at the Presbyterian Church here for decades and she was not into slow, dirge-like singing, so we belted along in fine style in the morning, with visiting Presbyterians sometimes struggling to keep up. The evening organist was a teenager who was just learning and was therefore much more tentative, so in the mornings the congregation raced to keep up and in the evenings they tended to outrun the organist.

   Mention of Mabel in the Jan 2007, Stewart Island News, regarding a boat named ULVA.

   In approximately 1945, ULVA was bought by George Dodds, whose wife Alison was a partner with Miss Mabel Prentice in "The Camp" at Ryan's Creek.

3. Alexander "Sandy" Prentice, was born on 10 Nov 1888, likely in Mosgiel, Otago, New Zealand. He married, in 1921, to Elsie Dorothy Oulton, dau. of Henry William Oulton (1850-1934) and Susannah C. Stephens (1853-1949), at the Mosgiel Presbyterian Church. She was born on 17 Mar 1895 in Dublin, Ireland, and died 1988 in Kaikoura, New Zealand. Alexander died in 1981. Children:
   1. Audrey Alexandra Oulton Prentice, b. 21 Jul 1922, Auckland, NZ. . . . . [3]
   2. Anthony Oulton Sutherland Prentice, b. 1924, probably Auckland, NZ. . . . . [4]
4. John "Jack" Sutherland Prentice, was born on 11 Apr 1891 in Mosgiel, Otago, New Zealand. He married, on 19 Dec 1919, to Doris Antoinette Bagley, at the Presbyterian Church, in St Clair, Dunedin. He died on 4 Jan 1979 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Daughter:
   1. Marie Evelyn (Evlyn?) Sutherland Prentice, was born 24 Aug 1921, in New Zealand (BDM #1921/22114). She married, in 1948, to Ronald Findlay (BDM #1948/4097). She died in 2001, in New Zealand (BDM #2001/15824). Children:
      1. Adrienne Findlay.
      2. Claire Findlay.

3.  Audrey Alexandra Oulton Prentice, born 21 Jul 1922, in Auckland, New Zealand.

She married, on 19 Dec 1944, to Henry Holloway North, in Christchurch, NZ. He was born 5 Jun 1911 in Geraldine and died 29 Jan 1995 in Richmond, New Zealand. He was the son of William Bernard North and Annetta Charlotte Dumville Holloway. An Ancestor Chart for him can be found at Ancestry.com.

Audrey died 31 Oct 1984, in Auckland, NZ.

Children of Audrey and Henry (per Philippa Wells, email, 2 Dec 2007):

1. Alexandra North. She m. 1st Mr. Carson and had 3 children:
   1. Toni Alexandra Carson.
   2. Joanna Mary Carson.
   3. Derisly Andrew Carson.

   She m. 2nd to Graham Mead.

2. Nicola Henri North. She m. Barry Birchall.
3. Juliet Rosemary North. She m. 1st Mr. Edwards and had 2 children.
   1. Sara Edwards.
   2. Keren Edwards.

   She m. 2nd Mr. Clarke.

4. Phillipa North. She m. Mr. Wells and had 2 children:
   1. Nicola Rachel Wells.
   2. Simon Russell Wells.
5. Christopher John Holloway North. He m. Ruth Johnston and had a daughter:
   1. Meghan North.

4.  Anthony "Tony" Oulton Sutherland Prentice, b. 1924, probably Auckland, NZ. (Assumed full name from Footnote 2.)

He married Geraldine Margaret Ames, dau. of Robert and Helen Ames. She was b. 30 Aug 1931 and d. 30 Jan 1994 in Claverley.

Children of Anthony and Geraldine:

1. Vicki Prentice. She m. Bob. Todhunter. Children (per Philippa Wells, email, 2 Dec 2007):
   1. Penny Todhunter.
   2. Simon Todhunter.
   3. Rosie Todhunter.
2. Richard Prentice.
3. Jimmy Prentice. Drowned, young, at Claverley many years ago.
4. Andrew "Snip" James Prentice. He m. Miss Murray. At least 2 children.
5. Lucinda "Cindy" Prentice. She m. Mr. Hampton.

Who are Alexander Prentice's Parents?

Based on Alexander's marriage to Marion Reid on 20 Nov 1848 at St. Cuthberts, Edinburgh, Scotland, it seems likely that his roots lie within that general geographic area.

We note that an Alexander Prentice m. Agnes Gray on 2 Jun 1821 st St. Cuthberts but we have not yet located children for them. That 1821 date almost matches the 1820 date for a Marion Reid discussed in Fn. 1.

If you have any information about the folks mentioned in this article, please send your information to us. Be sure to give the full title and date of this article.

Footnote 1  We have not yet identified Marion Reid's parents, but the the IGI shows a Marion Reid who was chr. 19 Mar 1820 at Coylton, Ayr, Scotland, dau. of Andrew Reid and Susan Hannah. Coylton is the birthplace of her son, James Reid Prentice in 1857. Perhaps she returned to her childhood home to have her son.

Footnote 2  The New Zealand Gazette. No. 149. Wellington: Thursday, 3 September 1987. Page 4164 (page 2 of PDF) library.victoria.ac.nz