Patience? Knowles

1st wife. Not the daughter of Thomas Prettyman, Jr.

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Marvel-8

There is much confusion about the wives of Richard Knowles 1718-1791. He married twice and there is much conjecture that he married sisters named Patience and Prudence. However, no document has been produced that proves these were the names of his wives or that they were sisters.

Will of RICHARD KNOWLES, Senior, planter

• Written: 19 Jan 1791; Proved: 5 Mar 1791
• Heirs: children: Richard Knowles, Thomas Knowles, Zechariah Knowles, James Knowles, Nancy Marvel, Edmund Knowles, Abigail Ellis wife of Joshua Elliss, Ephraim Knowles, Prudence Knowles, Patience Collings, Elizabeth Vinson, Sarah Hayward, Aseny Prittyman;
• daughter-in-law Betty Knowles, widow of my son Charles Knowles;
• grandchildren: Obediah Wills son of daughter Eve Wills; Agness Knowles, daughter of Zackreah Knowles
• Executor: sons Thomas Knowles and Ephraim Knowles
• Witnesses: Samuel Wilson, Peggy Wilson, Shiles Moore

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THE FOLLOWING IS FROM LEVIN WILSON'S ADDRESS TO THE KNOWLES FAMILY REUNION ON SEPTEMBER 24, 1896

After death of Richard's first wife he married a second wife, said to be a sister of his former one. She bore him Thomas and James. The last mentioned was born May 9, 1757. In him is first manifested the head of this grand and happy throng before me today.

Richard obtained one of those hardy, energetic Finnish ladies for a wife. She possessed a large portion of that religious culture for which the people of her country were noted at that time. She bore him several children, named Richard, Zechariah, Edmund, and Prudence. (The Noles of Posey County, Indiana, are descendants of Zechariah).

Comments

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Knowles-197

From both wives Finnish [names unknown]

1st wife died c1750 . supposedly sister of wife #2 owned 800 ac & sawmill along Beaverdam Branch & Cod Creek,on eastern side of Nanticuket River ,[now sw corner of Sussex co Del -7 sons/8 dau. Some Heirs stayed in md/del, other siblings went south pre-Rev War. Drew lottery for newly opened land in Ga. Others to new land in ohio valley.

So is Elizabeth Prettyman (Prettyman-234) attached to the wrong Richard Knowles here? The info about the Finnish sisters helps. But the Prettyman family is definitely NOT Finnish. English and all descended from Prettyman-83, an early gentleman-adventurer to Delaware, arriving in 1639. I have been through D. Mitchell Jones' research in some detail and worked on the Prettymans (I'm a descendant) and got here by trying to tie up loose ends in the Prettyman line.

The Elizabeth Prettyman I "thought" we had here is the daughter of Thomas Prettyman and Elizabeth Enloe, both born in Delaware, and according to Prettyman files/records born ELIZABETH "Betsy" PRETTYMAN b 29 Dec 1745 Worcester Co., MD. Parents and daughter all definitely born and died in Colonial Delaware. Delaware Elizabeth Prettyman married a Coulter and a Knowles. My best surmise, at this point is that THIS Prettyman-234, Elizabeth (Prettyman) Knowles married a different Knowles than the one that married the two Finnish sisters. (And I think that the two Finnish sisters consitituted all his wives?)