William MullinsThe family of William Mullins, known descendants of which survive today only through the children of his daughter Priscilla, came with high expectations and met tragedy in the New World. "Mr. William Mullins" and his wife; and 2 children Joseph, & Priscila and a servant Robert Carter" sailed on the Mayflower. "Mr. Molines, and his wife, his sone, and his servant dyed the first winter. Only his daughter Priscila survived, and maried with John Alden, who are both living [in 1650], and have 11 children."Nathaniel Morton, in his "New Englands Memorial", said of Mullins, "[He was] a man pious and
well deserving, endowed also with a considerable outward estate, and had it been the will of God
that he had survived, might have proved an useful member of this place." The nuncupative (oral)
will of William Mullins, written by Governor Carver on February 21, 1620/1 and witnessed by
Carver, Giles Heale, and Christopher Jones (the latter were surgeon and captain of the
Mayflower) was the first made in New England. A copy was carried by the Mayflower on her
return voyage to England in 1621 and was administered there by his other daughter, Sarah
(Mullins) Blunden. The will names his wife, Alice, sons Joseph and William, and daughter
Priscilla; and the administration states he was "late of Dorking, co. Surrey, deceased in parts
beyond the seas." Mullins had been residing in Stoke, near Guildford, county Surrey, before
leaving England and was involved in the religious troubles of the times there. He owned nine
shares in the Adventurer's Company that financed the Pilgrim's colony.
Mullins's eldest son, William Jr., was .the father of three children baptized in Dorking: Elizabeth, bp. 26 March 1618; Ruth,, bp. 31 Oct. 1619; and Sara, bp. 5 May 1622. Sara accompanied her father to New England when he later came to claim his inheritance (he died in Braintree in early 1674). She married three times but apparently had no children.
Last update: July 18, 1997. |