George Soule-a Mayflower Ancestor and His Many Relations

To paraphrase the Bard...Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice...Genealogy!!

I want to write next about George Soule,  one of our 8th great grandfathers who came to the New World on the Mayflower.  In doing a bit of reading/research on George, I am discovering that the main problem is that no one is one hundred percent certain of George's parentage or place of origin.
This is not for lack of trying...many researchers have been searching for the "real George Soule".
 I want to look at some of this work that has been done on George.  Then we can explore the theory of his history that to me makes the most sense.  If my favorite theory is the correct theory, George had ties  to several of the Mayflower families   Later, through his sons' wives, we can add other distinguished families.  It gets very complicated!  I want to see if I can sort through these relationships in a logical fashion.  We had several heretofore unknown Aunts, Uncles and cousins on the famed ship-if George was who I think he was!!

If you are interested in George, or descended from him I would highly recommend the Soule Kindred Website https://soulekindred.org/.  This is a great site!  According to this website, in 2002 a Project led by famed Genealogist, Historian and Mayflower expert Caleb Johnson, began to look at all the known Englishmen named George Soule (various spellings) who were born in the time frame set for George's birth date: 1595-1599.  This time period was chosen by the facts known-that George signed the "Mayflower Compact", thus having reached the age of majority, 21 years, by 1620 and by the fact that he was an Indentured Servant.  This period of Indentured servitude, usually ended at age 25, so when the  Mayflower sailed, George would have been younger than 25, but at least 21.   Because George's "Master" was Francis Winslow-Mayflower passenger, it has apparently long been assumed that George's family was from the same place that Winslow was-namely Eckington, County Worcester so Johnson began his search there.

There were 3 George Soules of the approximate age, including the most popular choice on ancestry.com Public Trees, George Soule, son of Robert of Eckington.  Johnson eliminated all of these English George Soules-because they were too old, too young, too well-to-do to have been an Indentured Servant or were found on the public and church records after 1620 when the Mayflower set sail.

Caleb Johnson's next step was to widen his net to the surrounding counties of Worcester: Gloucester and Hereford and look at Wills and Probate records.  At the end of the report on this investigation, Johnson states

https://soulekindred.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GSouleResearchPart2.pdf

Johnson then turned to Bedfordshire, specifically to a George Soule who was Baptized in Tingrith, Bedfordshire on 9 Feb 1594/95.  This man was born within the correct time frame to be our George...furthermore, his Father died while the children were still minors so they had a good chance of being apprenticed or indentured to provide their support.  Also, this George of Tingrith, seems to disappear from the Public record after his father's death in 1611.  And there is a possible tie with other Mayflower families.  There was a William Soule, possibly the older brother of George of Tengrith, who married in the nearby town of Henlow, Bedfordshire.  It was Henlow where our Tilley family and 2 other Mayflower families worshiped.  This possible proximity to other like-minded Separatists make this George of Tengrith a good candidate to be "Mayflower George Soule."

  

On the con side, our George Soule did not name  his children using any of the names (except George and Mary (the  name of our George's wife) used in the family of George of Tengrith-namely William-the name of George of Tengrith's Father, and older brother, nor Joan, his mother, nor his sister's names. Naming patterns are circumstantial evidence at best, but it can be helpful to look at them.   The age of George of Tengrith  (baptized in 1594/95 ) was not exactly correct either as he would have been rather old to be an indentured servant.  

The George I feel is the best choice to be our George was not English at all!  It seems odd to think of an iconic "Plymouth Pilgrim" to not be  English but the Calvinist ideology was widespread in Europe.   According to this, my favorite theory,  he was a Walloon from Wallonia, the southern province of Belgium.  This George was the son of Jan (John) Sols and Mayken ( Mary) Labus.  His parents married in London, but he was probably born in the Low Countries.  This Theory was 1st proposed by Louise Walsh Throop, M.B.A. who compiled the latest edition of the Mayflower Families in Progress book on George Soule, published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants 2015.  

A brief history of the Walloon Huguenots can be found here https://soulekindred.org/vol-46-no-4-fall-2012/  in the Newsletter of the Soule Kindred.  It is a fascinating theory and given George's connection later with the family of Phillip Delano (DeLannoy) it makes perfect sense to connect him with this Huguenot family!

If this is the correct George Soule who was a passenger on the Mayflower,  it provides family connections to another passenger, Francis Cooke-as Phillip Delano (whose daughter (H)Esther married George's son, John and they became our 7th great Grandparents)) was the son of Marie Mahieu.  Francis Cooke was the husband of Hester Mahieu, Marie's sister.  All of these folks worshiped at the Walloon Church in Leyden, where the Pilgrims had settled after leaving England.

This woman was originally thought to be Marie Mahieu DeLannoy (Delano), Mother of Phillipe DeLannoy, but has since been shown not to be.  Cool picture anyway. 

George Soule (whichever one he was!) married Marie Bucque (Mary Bucket/Becket) who arrived on the ship Anne in 1623; also on this ship was Hester Mahieu Cooke and her children who were joining their Father,  Francis Cooke, who had arrived 3 years earlier, with George on the Mayflower.   I believe that this Walloon Huguenot is the correct George Soule  because so many of the other families that he was connected to also had French/Walloon names.  His own wife Marie Bucque,    Pilgrims Hester Mahieu (Mayhew) and her husband Francois Coek (Francis Cooke), who was also the Aunt of Phillipe DeLannoy (Delano),  (his Mother was Marie Mahieu), his son's future Father-in-Law. (Got that??!)

And to check the naming pattern-Jan (John) Soule and Maecken (Mary) Labis Soule (Walloon George's parents) had several other children who were all baptized in the Walloon Church in Leyden.  Among them was a sister Susanna.  George and his wife Mary had a son John, a daughter Mary, a son George and a daughter Susanna.

It was George and Mary's son John who may have married into the Delano family.  This also gets pretty sticky-but according to the Society of Mayflower Descendants...Esther Delano is believed to have been the 2nd wife of John Soule and thus our 7th great Grandmother. His 1st wife was Rebecca Simmonds, by whom he had 9 children.

I have a copy of the Mayflower Society's George Soule of The Mayflower and his Descendants for Four Generations, published by General Society of Mayflower Descendants 2015.   It discusses the controversy of whether the wife of John Soule was Ester Delano or Esther Nash-for certain she was the 1st wife of Samuel Sampson. By Sampson, she had 2 sons and possibly a daughter.
The Mayflower Families in Progress book does state that more proof is needed to show that Esther, wife of John was a Delano, but that is is "quite unlikely" that she was Esther Nash.

     (Just to clarify, the 2nd Samuel Sampson mentioned in above clip-was the son of Samuel Sr and Esther Delano, therefore the stepson of John Soule)

John and Esther had 3 children together-Twins, Joseph (our 6th Great Grandfather) and Josiah, and a son, Joshua.
Joseph, born in Duxbury on 31 July 1679,  married Mary Peterson, his 1st cousin and the daughter of John Peterson and Mary Soule Peterson; she being a daughter of George and Mary Bucque.  One of the daughters of Joseph and Mary Peterson Soule,  another Mary Soule, married Joshua Cushman in 1732/33.  The Cushman Family Immigrant Ancestor was not on the Mayflower but they descended from the Allerton and the Howland Immigrants who were.  You can read more about the Cushmans and Isaac Allerton and John Howland in other blog entries.

I recently added George Soule as a supplemental ancestor in the Society of Mayflower Descendants.  I originally joined under Isaac Allerton,  my brother, under Isaac's daughter Mary Allerton Cushman,  and his two daughters joined under John Howland and his wife Elizabeth Tilley so the Soule Line was the last line to be proven.  It is fascinating to me to see the connection to other passengers, through blood or marriage.