The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Volume 4 by Azel Ames
page 10 of 50 (20%)
page 10 of 50 (20%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
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--the only authority for the parentage of "Delanoy"--state that "he was born in Leyden," as Baird alleges, but only that "he was born of French parents . . . and came to us from Leyden to New Plymouth,"--an essential variance in several important particulars. Scores and perhaps hundreds of people have been led to believe Priscilla Mullens a French Protestant of the Leyden congregation, and themselves--as her descendants--"of Huguenot stock," because of these absolutely groundless assertions of Dr. Baird. They lent themselves readily to Mrs. Austin's fertile imagination and facile pen, and as "welcome lies" acquired a hold on the public mind, from which even the demonstrated truth will never wholly dislodge them. The comment of the intelligent writer in the "Historic-Genealogical Register" referred to is proof of this. So |
|