Re: Pre 1768 Otis Lineage w/ Prentice/Prentiss?
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In reply to:
Pre 1768 Otis Lineage w/ Prentice/Prentiss?
Norma Armstrong 7/09/02
Hello Norma,
I hope you are doing well!
My father asked me the other day if I knew anything about the Otis family or the Prentiss/Otis connection, so I started looking around to see what I could find.Here is what I have found and I wanted to see what you thought...
As I'm sure you know, Otis is found in two places in the Prentice/Prentiss family tree.There is Charlotte "Lottie" Otis (my gr-gr-grandmother) who married Charles Brewster Prentiss Sr in Charleston, South Carolina.Her father was Arthur (or Alfred?)P. Otis who also lived in Charleston and was born in SC (according to 1880 Census).His wife was Nina Augustus Hayden.Both of their parents were also born in SC.Nina's tree is very well documented, but I haven't found anything on Arthur's family, or had a chance to search myself.
Also following C.B. Prentiss' line further back you get to the three consecutive generations who have Otis as a middle name (that you mentioned in your post).
Going up the paternal line...
C.B. Prentiss Sr (1873-1905)
Christopher Jenkins Prentiss (1835-1884)
William Otis Prentiss (1814 - 1897)
Jeffrey Otis Prentiss/Prentice (1794 - 1818)
James Otis Prentiss/Prentice (1768 - 1813)
I believe that is the farthest back that anyone has been able to find Otis up that side of the Prentice family.James Otis Prentice was born in Massachusetts and was the one who made his way to South Carolina.
From what I've found, my theory is that up that particular line it is likely that there is no link to the Otis family at all.I think James Otis Prentice was named after an American hero of the time.There was a great political activist in the 1760s named James Otis who stood up against Britain's rule.He had held office under the British government in Boston, but resigned when a law was passed allowing officials to search for smuggled goods in any suspected place.He went on to fight against that law in the courts and I believe John Adams attended his closing remarks which were something like 5 hours long.Of course, you can search for James Otis on the internet and come up with alot of information about him that will tell his history much better & more accurately than I just tried to.
J.O. Prentice was the 17th of 18 children by Stanton Prentice, so I think most of the family namesakes would have been used by that point.His birth in 1768 coincides with the pre-revolutionary events and popularity that surround James Otis.And J.O. Prentice named his first child Washington Sarah (born in 1801), which would speak to the fact that it would not have been unusual for the Prentice family to name a child after an American hero.Furthermore, James Otis Prentice is the only one of the 18 siblings for whom the middle name is well known.
So, this doesn't say anything about our relations to the Otis family or to James Otis himself, but it is interesting from a historical perspective of what the politics and loyalties of the Massachusetts Prentice family were before the revolution.
I know you have done a ton of work on the Prentiss side, so I wanted to see what you thought of this.I will send you an email also, but I wanted to post this in case anyone is searching for Otis/Prentiss in the future.
Lars