June 5, 2026
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry concludes her story about the scandal surrounding the sale of one of the most famous and beautiful pieces of colonial-era furniture: the Prence-Howes Court Cupboard. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History
Today I continue with the scandal surrounding the sale of one of the most famous and beautiful pieces of colonial-era furniture: the Prence-Howes Court Cupboard. In this second part I explore the genealogy of the chest and its historical background.
Below is a photograph of this relic courtesy of John Miner, author of the “Miner Descent” blog.
To Recap: Part One explains that in 1925 Abby Willis Howes, a high school teacher, sold a rare cupboard from her family collection that had once belonged to her ancestor Mary (Howes) Prence, wife of Plymouth governor Thomas Prence. Abby sold the piece to Wallace Nutting, a known artist and antiquarian, for $3,000. Nutting turned around and sold it to J. P. Morgan for $20,000. Miss Howes filed a lawsuit charging Nutting for fraudulently obtaining this antique from her by undervaluing its worth and sought to recover it or monies he made from its sale.
After a long court battle Abby lost the case. However, J. P. Morgan donated his extensive early colonial furniture collection, which included the Prence-Howes Court Cupboard, to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.
The exhibit case card reads:
The Court Cupboard, 1665-1675. American, Yarmouth, Massachusetts. Red cedar, red oak, white cedar and white pine. The Wallace Nutting Collection, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan. Accession 1926.289
This cupboard, which belonged to Thomas Prence (c. 1600-1673), a governor of Plymouth Colony, is among the masterpieces of 17th-century furniture. Nutting bought the cupboard from a descendant of Governor Prence in 1925 and felt it was the most important object in his collection. Court cupboards were the most expensive type of furniture produced in the 17th century and were used in households to store imported textiles and valuables. This monumental case is decorated with mannerist style carving, molding, turning and paint.
GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives provided some articles on the scandalous court battle, including one entitled “Pilgrims’ Relic Revealed in Suit: Teacher Seeks Recovery of Rare Cupboard Once Owned by Governor Prence.” (Note: this article spells the surname “Prince,” but most sources use “Prence.”)
What the article reports on the cupboard and its historical background, along with my additional research, is that Thomas Prence (Prince) came to America aboard the Fortune in 1621.
Thomas married four times and fathered about 10 children. He married 1st Patience Brewster, the daughter of Mayflower passenger “Elder” William Brewster, on 5 August 1624. Patience died of fever in 1634, the same year Thomas became governor of Plymouth Colony (the first of the many terms he served as governor).
On 1 April 1635 he married 2nd Mary Collier of Duxbury and relocated there, living next door to John Alden.
By 1644 they had moved to Eastham (“Nauset”) where he stayed until 1665. Sometime in 1644 Mary died. He next married 3rd Apphia (Quicke) Freeman, and then after her death he married 4th Mary, widow of Thomas Howes, sometime in the 1660s.
Thomas served as Plymouth’s governor in 1634-35, 1638-39, and then was continuously re-elected from 1657 to 1673.
In 1665, during one of Thomas’s terms as governor, he was granted “a seat” one mile north of Plymouth at “Plain Dealing.” He continued as governor until his death on 29 March 1673.
Along with the biographical details of Thomas Prence, the Virginian-Pilot article provides information about the providence of the Prence-Howes Court Cupboard. The article reports:
The Governor’s fourth and last wife was Mary, wife [widow] of Thomas Howes, who was an original settler of Dennis, then part of Yarmouth. It is in his will that we find the now litigated antique mentioned [Prence-Howes Court Cupboard]. His will, of March 18, 1673, has the following items:
“My will is that Mary, my beloved wife, shall have such household goods of any kind as were hers before we married, returned to her again.
“Item. I give unto my said loveing wife my best bed and the furniture there unto appertaining, and the Court Cubberd that stands in the new parlour with the cloth and cushen that is on it.”
Below is an image from the will listing the relic.
The reference in the will to the “new parlor” is, evidently, to an extension to and embellishment of the Governor’s “seat.” It is likely that this addition was built about the time of his fourth venture into matrimony, which event occurred not long before August 1, 1668. The cupboard which adorned the parlor may, therefore, be attributed to the period of 1665-1670.
The Governor’s widow, Mary Howes Prence, returned to Dennis with the cupboard. Following her death, the inventory of her personal estate, dated December 23, 1695, mentions “an old chest and a cupboard [to] Prence Howes.”
This Prence Howes was Mary Prence’s grandson, by virtue of curious intermarriage, for Sarah Prence, daughter of Governor Prence by his second wife [Mary Collier], had married Jeremiah Howes, son of Thomas Howes and his wife Mary, who, following her widowhood, had become fourth wife of Governor Prence. [“Curious intermarriage” because Mary (Burr) (Howes) Prence was the mother of the groom – Jeremiah Howes – and stepmother of the bride – Sarah Prence.] Sarah Prence united the names as well as the blood of the two families, for he [her son] was christened Prence Howes. It was only natural that he should become the guardian of the ancestral cupboard.
Below is a marker of the Howes Burial Ground in Dennis, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, where Mary is buried.
This historical marker reads:
1665 – Howes Burial Ground – 1986
Here lie buried among their progeny Thomas Howes and wife, Mary (Burr) [Howes] [Prence]. First of the name in this country, English immigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony circa 1637. Original settlers of this town in 1639. Their homestead farm adjoined this burying ground.
Their descendants have supported this community and this country for twelve generations.
Dennis Historical Commission, 2001 A.D., gift of the Howes Family Association.
Here is another article, published in the magazine Antiques by Wallace Nutting, further showing his deep interest in the cupboard.
The article has this footnote:
*Her [Mary (Howes) Prence] son Thomas’ will is dated 15 Nov. 1675, just before he entered service in King Philip’s War. A clause of his will is: “Be it alsoe knowne that my will is that my Mother Prence injoy without molestation during her Naturell life the house shee Now lives in with the orchyard belonging thereunto.” This instrument is less than two years later than Governor Prence’s will. Thus we have a remarkable series of records by which to trace the cupboard, these clauses proving that the widow Prence returned to Dennis [with the cupboard] very shortly after the Governor’s death.
Stay tuned for an exploration into another Howe’s family chest traced back to Mary (Burr) (Howes) Prence!
Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.
Note on the header image: Prence-Howes Court Cupboard. Credit: John Miner.
Related Article:
Additional Source:
- Cape Cod library of local history and genealogy: a facsimile edition of 108 pamphlets published in the early 20th century compiled and indexed by Leonard H. Smith Jr. Vol. 1, “The Prince-Howes Court Cupboard,” published 1927.
