Penelope Kent
1622-1732
Penelope Kent was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1622. She married a Mr. Van Princen in 1642 and they set off to make their fortune in the New World. The ship bringing them wrecked just off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, in 1643. Her husband had been very ill on the journey, and was seriously injured in their attempt to reach land. When they did reach land, those who had survived feared an Indian attack. They decided to hasten to New Amsterdam, but Mr. Van Prince was in no condition to travel, so the group left Penelope and her husband behind to fare for themselves. Soon afterward in the woods the dreaded attack materialized and both of them were hacked up and left for dead. Penelope survived, having had her skull fractured, and left shoulder so badly cut that she never regained full use of her arm. Her abdomen was also slit open so that her intestines appeared, so she held them in with hand. She took shelter in a hollow tree, trying to recover. After seven days, she saw a deer with arrows sticking in it, and soon two Indians appeared. The younger was going to kill her, but the other more elderly man prevented him. He carried her to his wigwam and cured her of her wounds. Then he took her to New Amsterdam, and returned her, collecting a reward for her.
The young widow met Richard Stout in New Amsterdam and they were married in 1644. Later she prevailed on him to move to Middleton, New Jersey in 1648. They had ten children, and she lived to be 110 years old and lived to see 502 total offspring before she died in 1732.