In 1643 Penelope and her husband took a ship from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam. With their ship foundering, she and her husband, John Kent, and several others made land at Sandy Hook. Her husband was not able to travel due to illness and she remained with him. After the couple were abandoned on shore by the other passengers looking for safety and shelter, she and her husband were attacked by natives and her husband was killed. She was gravely injured and left for dead. She took shelter in a hollow tree until she made herself known to the Navesink tribe of Leni Lenapi. They bound up her wounds, and when she was well enough to travel she was released to the Dutch at New Amsterdam. There in 1644 at the age of 22, she married Richard Stout, son of John Stout and Elizabeth Bee of Nottinghamshire, England. They had a large family mostly born at Gravesend in the current area of Coney Island, Brooklyn. They moved to Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey around 1665. This was where the Leni Lenapi who had earlier helped her were from, and they were still living there when the Stouts arrived. It is said that Penelope had 502 direct descendants when she died at the age of 110. The surnames for Penelope are quite variable in several references; Van Princis, Princis, Prince, Princes, Princess, Van Prinzen, Prinzen, Kent. The Gravesend Town Records as written by Englishmen at the time of a trial in September 1648 name the defendant as 'Penelope Prince'. However, this does not necessarily mean that she had not yet married Richard Stout, as married Dutch women in that time period traditionally kept and used their maiden names. In honor of her being a pioneer in Middletown, NJ, 'Penelope Lane' off of Kings Highway is named after her.
Children
John Stout m. Elizabeth Crawford Richard Stout II m. Frances Heath James Stout m. Elizabeth Mary Penelope Stout Bowne NOTE: Mary's great-granddaughter, Hannah Salter, married Mordecai Lincoln. Hannah and Mordecai Lincoln are the great-great-grandparents of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. Alice Stout Throckmorton Sarah Elizabeth Stout Pike Peter Stout m. Mary Bolen Jonathan Stout m. Anna Bullen David Stout m. Rebecca Ashton Benjamin Stout m. Agnes Truax Elizabeth Stout
