THE PRENTICE FAMILY

The Prentice family were prominent in the business, social and religious life of the town in the last century. The family has been traced back to a Thomas Prentice of Bungay who was born about 1699. This Thomas married Elizabeth Manning of Woodbridge in 1714.
It was Thomas's grandson Manning who first came to this town. This Manning who we should call Manning the first, because the name occurred in every generation from then on, married Catherine Oliver of Wrentham the daughter of the Rev. James Oliver. On his Memorial in the Congregational Church in Stowmarket dated 1836 it was stated that Manning had been "upwards of 50 years in this place" so he probably arrived in the mid 1780`s, He was certainly here in 1790 when he witnessed the will of John Ball a miller of this town, and Manning is described then as a Grocer. He had premises in the Market place where Superdrug and Dewhursts the butchers is now.
Manning had been a member of Bungay Independent Church and in Stowmarket he set about building up the church Here which was at that time at a low ebb with a series of pastors who did not remain long. He was one of the first two deacons and for the rest of his life was a pillar of the church. In about 1800 he founded the Sunday school which by 1805 had 130 children, this would have been the only school that many of the children would have known.
Manning must have made himself useful in other areas of the towns life as well, he is mentioned in the Ipswich Journal in 1816 as being Clerk to the trustees of the Gipping Navigation & in 1818 as a treasurer to the Stow Association for Prosecuting Felons. The church he would have known was still the original building founded early in the 18th century. This was to be replaced by a new building in the middle of the 19th century, this building was unfortunately completely demolished by a bomb in the last war along with the memorials to Manning and his family, and was replaced by the present building on the same site.
Manning's children married into the families of fellow church members including the Fisons, Harwoods and Tailers, forming a tight social unit based on the church and on trade. He had 3 daughters and 3 sons, 1 son another Manning died in his twenties. Leaving Thomas and William to carry on and expand the families trading activities in the town.
William formed a partnership with a Mr. Hewitt & they were described in directories as Ironmongers, Braziers and timber, slate and bar iron merchants, coal and corn merchants & maltsters in Stowupland street.
Thomas formed the firm of Prentice and Co. at navigation Wharf, as well as running the towns gasworks they were corn and coal merchants, maltsters and dealt in chemical manure. From this last aspect of the business developed Messrs Prentice Brothers run by Thomas's sons Manning III and Eustace. This company employed about 40 people in 1874 and were described as "manufacturers of dissolved bones, super phosphates & special manures". This was an industry that had been developed in the county by amongst others the Fisons and in fact the Prentice company was eventually taken over by Fisons who as we have seen the Prentices were related to by marriage.
The Family remained active members of the Independent now known as Congregational church three Grandsons of the first Manning, Thomas, Manning III and their cousin Joseph Fison attended the college of the Rev. Richard Cecil in Ongar Essex. At the time that they were there the London Missionary Society sent a young man who had been accepted for missionary work in Africa to the academy, he was David Livingstone, and the 4 young men became friends. They were all regular visitors to the home of Mr. & Mrs. Ridley who had 3 daughters, Thomas Manning and Joseph Fison married two of the daughters. After he went to Africa Livingstone wrote to Thomas and Manning and it seems they had discussed the possibility of the 2 brothers also going to Africa, but nothing came of this. Manning was for some time Pastor at the church in High Easter, Essex and afterwards at Stonham Suffolk and for the last 8 years of his life was a deacon at Stowmarket. In the 1840`s Thomas left the church & joined the Plymouth Brethren.
A second company formed by the sons of the Thomas Prentice was The Patent Gun Cotton Co. established about 1863 on the site that is now part of the I.C.I. factory. 

It was here on 11th August 1871 that an explosion occurred at 2.00pm that shook the town, blowing out windows in the town and Haughley station some three miles away and being heard as far away as Diss many people were killed and injured including Edward Prentice (son of Thomas) and his nephew William who were helping to haul boxes of cartridges away from the resulting fire when a second explosion occurred killing them both. No trace of the remains of Edward were found other than a battered gold watch found later, it's hands stopped at 5 minutes past three the time of the second explosion. Miss Susan Prentice Edward's sister wrote in her diary "this is the most terrible day of our lives ... Papa saw William blown to pieces & Edward too. William had only just arrived from Heidelburg University & had called to see Papa before coming home. All laughter has left our house. Will Papa ever smile again I wonder. His sadness enfolds us all." In fact her father Manning III died a few years later in 1875, of a broken heart it is said.
Another son of Manning III was Napier Prentice he became chairman of the now rebuilt Gun Cotton factory, but made his name in the development of electric power. He founded Bull Motors in 1898 in Milton Road they later moved to Ipswich. He was largely responsible for the formation the Suffolk Electricity Supply Co. which provided Stowmarket with electricity in 1896. Napier's son Courtney founded Sun Petroleum & Prentice Aircraft and Cars Ltd. which at one time leased Ipswich airport. He was murdered in Menton in the south of France in 1975. At the present time the name is probably known best in the town from the firm of Gudgeon & Prentice. An earlier partner in the firm John Manning Prentice (son of Manning IV) was an amateur astronomer and discovered a Nova in the constellation of Hercules. The name Manning is still used as a forename in the family 7 generations after the first Manning and 280 years after Thomas Prentice married Elizabeth Manning in 1714.

STOWMARKET HISTORY AND HERITAGE
2007
email neil@stowman.plus.com