THE FIRST COMERS 127 



the ancestor of this family. There is mention also of a 

 "John Aldeu of the Middle Temple," to whom a coat of 

 arms was assigned in 1607. Now the John Alden of the ^iden Pedi- 

 Mayflower, it will be remembered, was a cooper, whom the 

 Pilgrims met at Southampton, just before their departure 

 for America, and whom they induced to join their com- 

 pany with the understanding that he should be free to 

 remain, or return to England as he pleased. I find in the 

 list of persons, mostly Huguenots naturalized by royal _ 

 letters patent and recorded at Westminster for the 5th of 

 March, 1691, the name of Anne Alden, with those of her 

 son-in-law Jean Biancard and Mary, his daughter. And 

 there is a still more significant record of the granting of 

 naturalization in 1575 — that is, three years after the 

 massacre of St. Bartholomew— to "Susan and Sarah 

 Alden, daughters of John Alden of London, grocer, and 

 Barbara, daughter of Jacques du Prier, his wife." In 

 these records we have sufficient evidence at least to surmise 

 that the John Alden of the Mayfloioer, as well as his wife 

 Priscilla, was of direct Huguenot origin. Everybody is 

 familiar with Millais' beautiful picture of the " Huguenot 

 Lovers" of the period of the St. Bartholomew massacre. 

 It would be a curious continuation of the story which that 

 picture suggests if it should have a New World companion 

 piece in the New England lovers of 1620, who on the 

 white sand and amid the tangled sea graces of Plymouth 

 beach, vowed fealty to each other. 



II 



The case of Priscilla Molines is more or less typical of changes in 



Names 



the record of other Huguenot emigrants. Her name was 

 distorted into the uneuphonious appellation of Mullins, 

 and her identity was swallowed up in all its superficial 

 aspects by the outward characteristics of her alien neigh- 

 bours. It is easy to account for the changes which took 

 place in the French names : even common English names 

 of that period were spelled in a great variety of ways, ac- 



