Jacob Ernst PENCE was born on 21 Mar 1778 in Lunenburg, Nova
Scotia. the fourth child of Conrad and Elizabeth Pence, nee Preper.
He died on 11 May 1835 in Hants Corner, Nova Scotia. His parents were
married in 1770 and had 12 children, of whom only five survived their
early childhood. His older siblings were a child who died aged 1,
George, who died aged 2 years, and John Ernst (1776-1818, m. Esther
Cleverly Etter), and his younger were a sister (b. 1780, died
infant), Sophia Catherine (1781-1783), Elizabeth Barwerra (b.1784),
William Tobias (1786-?1822), Hannah Dorothy (b. 1788, m. Lt. John
Adam Krein), Fredericka (Jan 8-16, 1791), Hugh Godfrey Michael
(1792-1795) and Henry Charles (1794-1799).In 1785, his father Conrad received a grant of 500 acres of land on the Windsor Road S.W. in Halifax County. He erected a dwelling house and an out house on it. He also owned the 500 acres on the east side of the road, these being the Two Lots No 42. At some unknown time, he acquired a 5-acre lot in Dutch Town, on which was a dwelling house, out houses and pumps.
On March 28, 1797 Jacob married Susannah Crosby at Boston, Massachusetts. They had seven children, although their first child Elizabeth died just as she neared the age of one. It is not known why Jacob was in Boston, or how long he remained there. The family bible states that their son Jacob Conrad was born in Boston in 1799 and so assumedly Elizabeth Mary (1798) was as well, but the births of the rest of the children, Sarah Sophia (1802), Adam William (1803), Henry John (1805), Susannah Dorothy (1807) and William (1808) were in Nova Scotia.
In 1806, Jacob Pentz is a constable for Windsor Road and Hammonds Plains.
His wife Susannah died in December, 1816, noted both in the family bible and in the newspaper of the day. Jacob wasted no time in finding another wife, possibly because of the need for his children to have a mother in the home, although they did range in age from 17 to 8. He married his second wife, Ann Corkum, on January 16, 1817 in Chester. The marriage bond at PANS is torn and I have no copy, but Jacob Pence Senr. (the groom, the Senr to distinguish him from his son Jacob) and John E. Pence, his brother, signed the bond. He and Ann had ten children.
Jacob's family bible, which lists the births of all of his children, is now in the care of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax. It was given to PANS by Mrs Winnifred Corkum, nee Winnie Pence, of Scot's Bay. She is the youngest child of Jacob's youngest child, Edward Krein The photocopy I have of it is very poor, but I will try to improve the quality on the computer and scan it on to this site in the near future..
Jacob died in May 1835, leaving his wife a widow at 40 with her youngest child aged only six months. We find Ann again in the 1838 census of the Township of Uniacke, Hants County, as an innkeeper. Although no names are given, it is obviously her: The "widow Pence" has in her family 1 male under 6, 1 female under 6, 3 males between ages 6-14, 1 female aged between 6 and 14, 3 males over 14 and 2 females over 14. This information fits in with the ages of Jacob and Ann's children exactly, with one extra male over 14 who could have been one of Ann's stepsons.
A clue as to why she appears here is the listing there also of Richard Corkum, her brother, as a farmer. Again, the census simply says, without names, that the family includes 1 male under 6, 2 females under 6 and 1 female over 14, but again this matches our Richard's family as it would have been on that date. Also, it is known that Ann's son Richard Edwin married Richard's daughter Agnes Sophia. They naturally could have known each other well as both relatives and living in the same township.
In the 1861 South Rawdon, Hants Co. census, Ann Pentz appears in a household of 1 male and 1 female. I am assuming that she is living with her youngest son, Edward Krein. The next name below is that of John Pentz, living by himself. This would be her eldest son.
In the 1871 South Rawdon census, we find that Ann has passed away the previous March of senile debility. It states that she was 77, born in Nova Scotia and a Baptist. To add credence to my theory, her son Edward Pentz now appears with a wife, Maria and three children, the eldest aged 5.
Ann's will, her son John's will and her son Edward's will, will be transcribed shortly for you to read.o00 Parents: Conrad PENCE and Barbra Elizabeth PREPER.