te it
respectively "Mullens" and "Mullins."
Dr. Grifs speaks of "the Mullens family" as evidently [sic] of
Huguenot or Walloon birth or descent, but in doing so probably knew
no other authority than Mrs. Austin's little novel, or (possibly)
Dr. Baird's misstatements.
A writer in the "New England Historic-Genealogical Register," vol.
xlvii, p. 90, states, that "Mrs. Jane G. Austin found her authority
for saying that Priscilla Mullens was of a Huguenot family, in Dr.
Baird's 'History of Huguenot Emigration to America,' vol. i.
p. 158," etc., referring to Rev. Charles W. Baird, D. D., New York.
The reference given is a notable specimen of very bad historical
work. Of Dr. Baird, one has a right to expect better things, and
the positiveness of his reckless assertion might well mislead those
not wholly familiar with the facts involved, as it evidently has
more than one. He states, without qualification or reservation,
that "among the passengers in the SPEEDWELL were several of the
French who had decided to cast in their lot with these English
brethren. William Molines and his daughter Priscilla, afterwards
the wife of John Alden and Philip Delanoy, born in Leyden of French
parents, were of the number." One stands confounded by such a
combination of unwarranted errors. Not only is it not true that
there "were several of the French among the passengers in the
SPEEDWELL," but there is no evidence whatever that there was even
one. Those specifically named as there, certainly were not, and
there is not the remotest proof or reason to believe, that William
Mullens (or Molines) and his daughter Priscilla (to say nothing of
the wife and son who accompanied him to America, whom Baird forgets)
ever even saw Leyden or Delfshaven. Their home had been at Dorking
in Surrey, just across the river from London, whence the MAY-FLOWER
sailed for New England, and nothing could be more absurd than to
assume that they were passengers on the SPEEDWELL from Delfshaven to
Southampton.
So far from Philip Delanoy (De La Noye or Delano) being a passenger
on the SPEEDWELL, he was not even one of the Pilgrim company, did
not go to New England till the following year (in the FORTUNE), and
of course had no relation to the SPEEDWELL. Neither does Edward
Winslow--
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