William Mullins ( – 21 February 1621) and his family traveled as passengers on the historic 1620 voyage to America on the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. Mullins perished in the pilgrims' first winter in the New World, with his wife and son dying soon after.Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 331Pilgrim Hall Museum William Museum
Early life in England William Mullins was born about 1572 in Dorking, co. Surrey, England (about 21 miles south of London), most likely the son of John and Joan/Joane (Bridger) Mullins of that parish. John Mullins died in February 1584 and William's mother Joane married secondly Vincent Benham on 1 November 1585. Most unfortunately, the parish registers of Dorking were not maintained by the vicar between 1572 and 1578, so his baptism went unrecorded.Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and Her Passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), p. 193
William Mullins is first named in a Dorking record on 4 October 1595, when he was fined two pence, apparently for not attending the manorial court session of that year. He was recorded in that record as living in the Chippingborough neighborhood of Dorking. William Mullins then disappears from Dorking records until 1604. Mullins may have moved from Dorking to Stoke near Guildford, co. Surrey (a parish about ten miles to the west), where a man of that name appears on the militia list of 1596. He married sometime around this date, but (most unfortunately again) the parish registers of Stoke near Guildford have been lost for the period prior to 1662, so his marriage record, and the baptisms of his children, are not to be found.
William reappears in Dorking on 5 October 1604, when he was elected tithingman for the Eastborough neighbourhood. The tithingman was the head of a "frankpledge" – a group of about ten families that were collectively bonded to the king for their good behaviour. When a member of the frankpledge was fined or punished, the entire frankpledge was held responsible, which is apparently what happened on 19 September 1605 when William Mullins was summoned and his frankpledge fined for an unspecified transgression.
Dorking records exist for several dates in 1612 for William Mullins:
On 30 March 1612 – William Mullins witnessed the will of John Wood. He signed the will with a mark, an "X", indicating that he had not learned to write.
On 20 December 1612 – William Mullins, shoemaker, was named in Jane Hammon's will, where she appointed him one of the overseers of her estate.
On 28 December 1612 – William Mullins bought a holding from John Jettor in Dorking with a house and an acre and a half of land and outbuildings between West Street and Back Lane (now Church Street) for 122 pounds and assumed a mortgage of 200 pounds. This house still exists and is often a stopping place for tourists. Banks refers to this house as the "Manor of Dorking."Charles Edward Banks, The English ancestry and homes of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and the Little James in 1623, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2006), p. 73Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and Her Passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), p. 194
In August (Banks says 29 April) 1616, a warrant was issued to bring "one William Mollins before their Lordships." On 1 May he appeared before the Lordships of the Privy Council and was continued technically in their custody " by their Honours' order hee be dismissed." While the reason for his arrest is not given, it was most probably associated with the religious controversies of that time.
In May 1619, William Mullins sold his Dorking Manor holdings to Ephraim Bothell/Bothall for 280 pounds, apparently in preparation for his voyage on the Mayflower. It appears he made a good living as a shoemaker as his was one of the larger investments in the Merchant Adventurers group which was investing in the Pilgrim venture. His will shows he had nine shares of stock in the Merchant Adventurers and that his estate consisted primarily of boots and shoes.Charles Edward Banks, The English ancestry and homes of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and the Little James in 1623, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2006), pp. 73-74
The London businessmen known as the Merchant Adventurers, under the direction of Thomas Weston, invested in the Mayflower voyage from the very beginning. The documents drawn up, and approved by members of the Leiden church, imposed certain restrictions on the Pilgrims work week, to which they agreed. But as the time to depart England drew near, the Adventurers wanted the restrictions tightened which would have caused the Pilgrims to work almost 7 days a week, in effect to increase profits, without such as due time for religious activities. In a letter written by many of the Pilgrims to the Adventurers, they mentioned that many of the passengers had already invested in the company based on the previous terms, and therefore it was unfair to change them. They pointed out that Robert Cushman had delivered William Mullins a copy of the terms, upon which Mullins paid in. Although Robert Cushman, who had been the Leiden agent for Mayflower voyage preparations, came to Plymouth in November 1621 to try to settle the differences between the Pilgrims and the Adventurers, they parted ways without coming to an agreement on the terms by which they would work—the beginning of a rift that would pull apart the company in later years when the Pilgrims bought out the Adventurers and formed their own investment company.Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A story of Courage, Community and War (New York: Viking, 2006), p. 40
On the Mayflower
When the Mullins family boarded the Mayflower, it consisted of William, then nearing 50 years of age, his wife Alice, daughter Priscilla (probably about 17 years old) and son Joseph (probably about 15 years old), as well as a servant, Robert Carter. They boarded the ship with the London contingent, and not as a part of the Leiden religionists. Mullins was a shoemaker and businessman, and carried with him a large stock of boots and shoes. The family had left behind in Dorking the two eldest children: Sarah, about age 22 and probably married; and William, possibly in his late 20s and married. His daughter Sarah, married to a man named Blunden, was his estate administrator, as requested in Mullins' will.Charles Edward Banks, The English ancestry and homes of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and the Little James in 1623, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2006), p. 74Nick Bunker, Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and their New World a History (New York: Knopf 2010), p. 262
Recording those on board the Mayflower, William Bradford wrote of Mullins as "Mr. William Mullins", possibly as he was somewhat more prosperous than many of the original settlers: "Mr. William Mullines, and his wife, and *2* children, Joseph and Priscila; and a servant, Robart Carter."Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 332, 406
The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on 16 September 1620. The small, 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30–40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales, causing the ship's timbers to be badly shaken with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, lying wet and ill. This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, attributed to what would be fatal for many, especially the majority of women and children. On the way, there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger, but the worst was yet to come after arriving at their destination when, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in a cold, harsh, and unfamiliar New England winter.Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 413
On 19 November 1620, after about three months at sea, including a month of delays in England, they spotted the Cape Cod hook, now called Provincetown Harbor. After several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on 21 November 1620, and William Mullins, with 40 other male passengers, signed The Mayflower Compact.Allison Lassieur Peter McDonnall, The voyage of the Mayflower (Minnesota: Capstone Press, ©2006)George Ernest Bowman, The Mayflower Compact and its signers, (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1920), Photocopies of the 1622, 1646 and 1669 versions of the document, pp. 7-19.
In the New World William Mullins, his wife Alice and son Joseph all died within months of arriving in the New World, along with their servant Robert Carter. Only their daughter Priscilla survived. William himself was apparently the first to die, on 21 February 1621. He made out a nuncupative will on his deathbed, in which he mentioned "my man Robert" indicating Carter was still alive then. Per Stratton, Alice, her son Joseph and servant Robert Carter were all alive on 5 April 1621 when the Mayflower set sail on its return voyage to England, but all had died before the arrival of the ship Fortune in mid-November of that year.Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and Her Passengers (Indiana: Xlibris Corp., 2006), p. 195Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 259, 331
Family In the March 2012 Mayflower Quarterly, noted Mayflower researcher and biographer, Caleb Johnson, presented a hypothesis that William Mullins first married Elizabeth Wood who gave birth to his first four children, and died sometime prior to 1604; whereupon, he married Alice_____ who gave birth to his youngest child, Joseph. In that article, he stated, “I here put together this very speculative hypothesis, and leave it up to future research to determine if there is any further evidence to support, or disprove, this possibility. It should be emphasized that this is a speculative hypothesis based on limited concrete data....” Unfortunately, some have interpreted his hypothesis as factual rather than speculative. It has been nearly ten years since Mr. Johnson wrote that article in the Mayflower Quarterly and in his own words “no additional evidence, supporting or disproving that hypothesis, has been published since that time.”
In October 2021, Mr. Johnson added a second paragraph to the profile of Alice Mullins in his website, Mayflowerhistory.com. The profile of Alice Mullins, as it is currently written follows in its entirety:
“Little is known about Alice, the wife of William Mullins. She is named only once: in the 1621 will of her husband William Mullins. It is not known if she is the mother of all his children, some of his children, or none of them. There is no evidence she had the Atwood or Poretiers surnames claimed by some 19th and early 20th century authors.
“Recent research into her origins, undertaken by Caleb Johnson and Simon Neal, has focused on the Browne, Dendy, Gardinar, Hammon, and Wood families of Dorking and Holy Trinity, Guildford. In 2012 (Mayflower Quarterly, 78:44-57),