In last week's newsletter/blog I wrote about a personal project of mine in which I trace my roots back to William Brewster's time, the days of epic voyages and settling in the New World. I decided to begin by seeing what I could find locally. I discovered a man called William Mullins, a Dorking resident who was one of the passengers onboard the historic Mayflower voyage in 1620, some 400 years ago today.
William Mullins as depicted by the Dorking Museum
My journey therefore begins with a visit to the house in which William Mullins lived between 1568 and 1610, close to Dorking Museum. It is known that he William travelled with his wife Alice, servant Robert Carter, daughter Priscilla and son Joseph onboard the Mayflower. However it is not known why they all chose to go.
William was the owner of a very successful shoe business in the Surrey town. However it is possible he may have been looking to expand his business in the colonies. In the photo above, he is depicted as arriving on American soil with a large number of shoes to trade. He had mortgaged the house in 1612 and sold it the year before the Mayflower set sail for America.
Childrens drawings at the Dorking Museum
The Mullins were not known to have been separatists themselves, in fact it is instead believed that William Mullins was one of the "Strangers", a group of people who financed the Atlantic crossing.
After the Mayflower landed off the coast of Cape Cod in North East America, November 1620, the settlement of New Plymouth was quickly established. Sadly disease was rife and all but one of the Mullins family had perished by 1621, leaving just Priscilla as the last remaining survivor of the Dorking party.
Priscilla Aiden
Priscilla later married John Aiden in 1623, one of the other settlers who had originated from Harwich, Essex. John was a cooper and whom had been responsible for the Mayflower's barrels onboard. They settled in the new town of Duxbury where they later raised their ten children. John Aiden rose through the ranks becoming a leading figure in the administration of the colony.
Priscilla is today remembered in the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish" and is revered as a founder of the United States of America. John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams claim descent from the Aidens.
Today both the Mullins' house, Dorking and the Aidens' house at Duxbury in Massachusetts survive as places of pilgrimage for Mayflower descendants.
The Mullins’ House is now a fantastic coffee shop, that Tina and I enjoyed recently!
Mullins’ House Today
I can only share my photos of Dorking and the house that the Mullins lived in for the moment but I am excited to say that we are, as I may have already written, going to Boston in September (Coronavirus permitting that is!)
We will travel from Boston down to Plymouth and around the Cape Cod area as much as we can with the limited time we have available whilst there. So some things may have to be left until a second visit, another year.
My wife Tina and I went to visit the Mullins’ house and Dorking Museum recently. The house is now a lovely coffee shop that is also packed with historical details of the Mullins’ and other Mayflower passengers, as shown on the wall in the photo below and also on the table tops for you to read whilst enjoying a nice cuppa.
We had an interesting conversation with the Cafe owner who knew a lot about the history and most of what I’ve written here is thanks to him. He told us that in order to learn more about my roots, we need to look at William Brewster’s broader family who did not travel to the USA. That is where my connection may be with them rather than the Pilgrim Father himself. Well, makes sense of course! William took his entire family with him and then he and his wife Mary had more children once they had settled there.
He also went onto tell us about the Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts where you get to meet William Brewster, William Bradford and other famous names from history. No, not the real ones, they would be doing very well to be 400+ years old but actors playing the role. Now that sounds like fun! He reminisced about how they reacted to cameras and mobile phones which they would never have seen in their day.
The delightful coffee shop is also a museum!
I love Dorking, it's a pretty place, in a gorgeous setting and we do spend a lot of time in the Surrey Hills and thankful that it is not far from home, 30 minutes in most cases, depending on which bit we are going to. Great for hikes!
I will return to Dorking again in the not too distant future to join a historical walk to celebrate Mayflower400 and look forward to learning some more.
More Dorking history
Whilst seeking out the Mayflower links, I found further connections with other significant Britons of the past. People such as Charles Grant Allen a prolific writer and anthropolgist who followed in the footsteps of Charles Darwin and whom wrote a string of novels, many bestsellers of their time.