const things = {
  thing: [
    { place: 'here', name: 'stuff' },
    { place: 'there', name: 'morestuff1' },
    { place: 'there', name: 'morestuff2' }, 
  ],
};

const removeDuplicates = (array, key) => {
  return array.reduce((arr, item) => {
    const removed = arr.filter(i => i[key] !== item[key]);
    return [...removed, item];
  }, []);
};

console.log(removeDuplicates(things.thing, 'place'));
// > [{ place: 'here', name: 'stuff' }, { place: 'there', name: 'morestuff2' }]