On July 4, 2026, The United States will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence across all 50 States. It has been said that “To go forward, we must learn from our past.” The truth is that to go forward, we must learn our past. Not only the survey courses taught in history class but also our local past, the past that defines us and where we live.
The further back in time our research takes us, the more we realize that it becomes difficult, at best, to distinguish between historical fact and local legend. The story of Penelope Stout falls into this category. In truth, nobody knows how much of her story is reality or fiction.
We first hear of Penelope Prince (Stout) in a record from Gravesend, Dutch Long Island in 1648. “Penelope Prince” was questioned after she accused one neighbor of milking anothers cow. She “acknowledged her fault” and apologized, satisfying “both sides.” The only other record dates to Middletown, NJ in 1679: “Richard and Penelope Stout” sold an orchard, acreage, house, and barn for £66-5-3.
The legend of Penelope Prince Stout appears in the 1765 Samuel Smith book “History of the Colony of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey”. Nearly twenty different accounts of Penelope Prince Stout’s early life and arrival in the American colonies have been published since 1765. All of them contain at least slight variations to the story. After taking out the common elements among all the stories we have a compelling tale of the perils of Penelope.
Shipwreck
It is 1637, a ship bound from Holland to New Netherlands (Dutch Colonial New York) came ashore at Sandy Hook. The passengers helped one another to shore as the ship broke apart on a sandy shoal. One of the passengers, a man named John Kent, with a young bride, was gravely ill (or injured, as accounts vary) and incapable of travel. Sandy Hook in 1637 was the fishing camp of the Leni Lenape Native American tribe. Signs were everywhere around the castaways.
The passengers after a respite panicked in fear of an Indian attack and began walking from Sandy Hook to New Holland (56.1 miles). This would take about 19 hours of nonstop walking. The injured man, Kent, was not in any shape to make the journey and the rest of the passengers were frightened and voted to leave him. His wife, Penelope Prince, defended him and pleaded with the other passengers to take him with the group. They refused. So, Penelope stayed behind as well.
Attack!
It must have seemed like the Lenape came from every direction at once. They swarmed the couple. Hacking and beating them without mercy. Penelope’s husband was killed, and she was destroyed. The stories all talk about severe injuries; however, one account gives grim details, “Attackers stripped the pair, fractured Penelope’s skull, permanently damaged her left shoulder, and slit open her belly, forcing her to push her bowels back into her body and hold them in place.” Left for dead, Penelope crawled to a hollow tree and managed to slip inside the trunk. She lived on the tree’s bark and berries for an extended period.
Rescued
She probably didn’t know how many days had passed. One evening, just before dusk, a deer came into her line of sight. The animal had arrows protruding from its body. It was dying. Then came the sound of men speaking in a foreign tongue. Penelope was terrified. Two Native Americans came into view. One was young and full of pep and vinegar. The other was older and more reserved. A hunting party. The young man saw her. He raised his bow and knocked an arrow. But before he could fire, the older man stopped him, speaking angrily and gesticulating.
The older man slowly extracted Penelope from the tree and carried her, as the younger man carried the deer they had caught. It was a long trek from Sandy Hook to the camp near what is now Middletown. The old man made a bed for her in his roundhouse (Wigwam). It was there that he nursed her back to health.
Going Home
Sometime after she healed, a party from New Amsterdam arrived. They had learned of her survival and came after her. It was then that she learned that the survivors of the shipwreck that had left her and John Kent to the mercy of the Lenape, had been massacred on their trek to New Amsterdam.
The old man, who had been so good to her, gave her the choice. Penelope could stay with him, or she could return to her own kind. She chose her own kind and left with them. Some time after she returned to New York, she met and married Englishman Richard Stout. By 1665, the couple moved to Middletown, NJ. Richard Stout and several others purchased what is now the township of Middletown from the Lenape. The old man who had saved Penelope’s life was a frequent guest at the Stout home in what is now Holmdel.
Rescued Again
One night, the old Lenape came to the house. It was dangerous for him to be there. In fact, it could cost him his life. But he had to come to warn his good friend about an impending attack. He had stashed canoes by the creek so that the family could get away. Richard Stout sent Penelope and the children with the old Lenape. He and the other man waited. When Lenape arrived, ready to fight, they were met by words, not guns. Richard and the other men convinced the Lenape to live in peace with their neighbors. The war was averted.
The Stouts went on to farm and grow the land and town with their neighbors. We do know that Penelope died sometime after 1705 after Richards will was probated. Her place of burial is unknown, but it is believed to be near her family’s property in Holmdel. The house was demolished in 2006.
While we know that Penelope and Richard Stout lived in 17 th Century Middletown, there are no corroborating records relating the shipwreck, the existence of John Kent, that Penelope was ever married to anyone other than Stout, or anything other than those early records from Gravesend, or Richard’s will. The Dutch did not have a settlement at what is now Middletown and, in the absence of birth or emigration records, there’s no evidence that she was Dutch. She had an English name, lived in the English village of Gravesend, married Englishman Richard Stout, and gave her children English first names.
However, it is a great story full of adventure, heroism, poignancy and compassion. While the retelling of this tale over the centuries has, like any other story with such longevity, grown a life of its own, it is almost certain that some kernels of historical facts remain. It is a morality tale of how, during times of man’s inhumanity to man, one person’s compassion for another can shine through and save the day. This is a concept exemplified by the old Lenape who rescued Penelope twice without regard for self-preservation.
To contact Jack, email grodeska.writer@gamil.com
Cover photo: Commemorative medal depicts a scene from the Penelope Stout legend that claims an Indian rescued her after she survived both a Lenape attack and a ship stranding.