PRINCE
PRINGLE
his company from Coombs. England, with lier
brother ami friends, and their son. Thomas (1722-
48), was graduated from Harvard in 1740. and
founded and id i ted Christian History (1744-46).
He commenced the collection of manuscript
documents of the early history of New England
in 170:}. and later the writings of early New
England clergymen, which he left to the Old
South church at his death. These were partly
destroyed by the British in 177.5-76; but those
saved, togi'lher with his library which he began
to accumulate as early as 1697. of both of which
a catalogue was published by William H. Whit-
more in \S6S, and a second one with portrait in
1870. are now a part of the Boston public library.
He became eminent as a preacher, linguist and
scliolar. according to the opinion of Dr. Charles
Chauncey being second only to Cotton Mather
in New England. He published twenty-nine
single sermons between 1717 and 1756, several
of which were republisiied by the Massachusetts
Historical society, and six of his manuscript dis-
courses were published by Dr. John Erskine, 1785,
He is the author of : An Account of a Strange
Appearance in the Heavens (1719); Earthquakes
the Works of God (1727); A Sermon on the- Death
of Cotton Mather (1728J ; Memoirs of Eager Clap
of Dorchester (1731); A Vade Mecnm for America:
a Companion for Traders and Travelers (17^2);
an edition of John Mason's History of the Pequot
War, with introduction and notes (1736) ; A
Thanksgiving Sermon occasioned by the Capture
of Lnuishurg (1745); The New England Psalm-
Book Revised and Improved (1758). He left a
diary, and a work entitled : ^1 Chronological His-
tory of New England in the Form of Annals (vol.
I., 1736; two numbers of Vol. H. 1755), followed
by limited editions with memoir (1826), reprinted
in London and Edinburgh. His complete bibli-
ography, giving 121 titles, is given in " History of
the Old South Church, Boston," Vol. H. (1890).
He (iu<\ in B<jston, Mass., Oct. 22, 1758.
PRINCE, William, horticulturist, was born in Flashing. L.I., N.Y., Nov. 10, 1706; son of Wil- liam and Ann (Thome) Prince ; grandson of Rob«>rt and Mary (Burgess) Prince, and a de- scendant of John Prince, who emigrated from England to America about 1670, and settled in Boston, Mass. William Prince attended schools at Jamaica and Flushing, and assisted his father, who was a horticulturist and proprietor of the first nursery established in America, known as the " Old American Nursery," started in 1725. In 1793 he bought eighty acres of adjacent land and established the Linnaean nurseries, which continued till 1870. He was married, Dec. 24, 1794, to Mary, daughter of Eli- phalet and Mary (Vaienton) Stratton. He intro- duced many varieties of fruits into the United
States, sent many trees and plants from America
to Europe and systematized tiie nomenclature of
American fruits, including the Bartlett pear and
Isabella grape. He was a corresponding member
of the Linnaean society of Paris, the horticul-
tural societies of London and Paris, and the
Imperial Society of Georgofili at Florence. The
London horticultural society named the " Wil-
liam Prince "apple in his honor. A meeting of
the most prominent foreign and American socie-
ties met at his home in Flushing in 1823, when
Gov. DeWitt Clinton crowned the bust of Lin-
naeus. He is the author of : A Treatise on Horti-
culture (1828), the first work of its kind published
in the United States, and Treatise on the Vine
(with his son, William R., 1830). He died in
Flushing. L.I.. N.Y.. April 9, 1842.
PRINCE, William Robert, horticulturist, was born at Flushing, L.I., N.Y., Nov. 6. 1795 ; son of William (q.v.) and Mary (Stratton) Prince. He was educated at Jamaica academy, L.I., and at Boucherville, Canada, and engaged in con- ducting the Linnaean nurseries with his father, until 1842, and subsequently alone. He was married, Oct. 2, 1826, to Charlotte Goodwin, daughter of Charles and Lydia (Bradford) Col- lins. He imported the first merino sheep into the United States in 1816, and introduced silk culture and the morus multicaulis for feeding silk worms in 1837, wherein lie lost a large for- tune owing to a change in the tariff, which des- troyed the industry. He was a delegate to the Whig national convention at Harrisburg, Pa., in 1848 ; went to California in 1849 ; was a founder of Sacramento, and traveled in Mexico in 1851. He introduced the cultivation of osiers about 1835, of sorghum and the Chinese yam in 1854-55. He received the degrees M.D. and LL.D. about 1866. He was a member of the American Insti- tute, the National Poniological society and many other scientific societies, and is the author of : Treatise on the Vine (with his father, 1830) ; Pomological Manual (2 vols., 1832); Manual of Roses (1846) ; also numerous pamphlets on the mulberry, strawberry, dioscorea, and on medical botany, and about 200 descriptive catalogues of trees, shrubs, vines, plants and bulbs. He died at Flushing, L.I., March 28, 1869.
PRINQLE, John Julius, statesman, was born in Charleston, 8.C., July 22, 1753; son of Judge Robert and Judith (Mayrant) Bull Pringle. Robert Pringle (1702-1776), born in Scotland, was a merchant in Charleston, S.C.. 1730-76, and as- sistant justice of the court of common pleas for South Carolina, 1760-69. John Julius Pringle studied law in the office of Chief-Justice John Rvitledge in Charleston, and at the Temple in London, England, and while in England pub- lished articles in defence of colonial rights which
