Marie/Maria Billiou was the 1st wife of Arent Jansen Prall. They married in Kingston/Wiltwyck, NY in 1670. She was the daughter of Pierre Billiou, one of the 1660 proprietors of Staten Island. Her uncle was Louis DuBois, one of the leading settlers in the Kingston-New Paltz area. There are two mysteries, of sorts, surrounding Marie.
(1) Speculation is that Marie accompanied her aunt and uncle to New Netherland to help care for her younger relatives. There is no record, to date, as to which ship the DuBois family arrived on, so we don't know if Marie was with them. Accounts of the capture of Francoise DuBois and her children do not include mention of her niece. The first mention of Marie is her marriage record, with Uncle Louis granting permission. Had she come to America with her uncle's family? Most likely. The passenger list for the Billious does not include a daughter of Marie's age. [Arent was a wheelwright in Kingston. The Pralls moved to Staten Island as their family began to grow in the mid-1670s.
(2) Pierre Billiou's will [1699] mentioned the 8 children of his deceased daughter Maria Prall. There were nine children named in Arent's 1721 will. No one seemed to pick up on that little discrepency. Arent named one of his sons-in-law and a brother of son Peter's wife to look after son Johannes, who suffered from some physical or mental disability. Some early Prall researchers believed that Arhave to do.ent's 2nd wife was Tryntje Christopher [mother of Peter Prall's wife Maria.] I believe that Johannes was the son of Arent and Tryntje, not Arent and Marie.
It would be nice to uncover documentation to clear up both mysteries. Until then, circumstantial evidence will
No comments:
Post a Comment