Mrs. Alice Mullens, whose given name we know only from her husband's
will, filed in London, we know little about.
Her age was (if she
was his first wife) presumably about that of her husband, whom she
survived but a short time.
Joseph Mullens was perhaps older than his sister Priscilla, and the third
child of his parents; but the impression prevails that he was
slightly her junior, - on what evidence it is hard to say. That he
was sixteen is rendered certain by the fact that he is reckoned by
his father, in his will, as representing a share in the planter's
half-interest in the colony, and to do so must have been of that
age.
Priscilla Mullens, whom the glamour of unfounded romance and the pen of
the poet Longfellow have made one of the best known and best beloved
of the Pilgrim band, was either a little older, or younger, than her
brother Joseph, it is not certain which. But that she was over
sixteen is made certain by the same evidence as that named
concerning her brother.
Robert Carter is named by Bradford as a "man-servant," and Mrs. Austin,
in her imaginative "Standish of Standish," which is never to be
taken too literally, has made him (see p. 181 of that book) "a dear
old servant," whom Priscilla Mullens credits with carrying her in
his arms when a small child, etc. Both Bradford's mention and Mr.
Mullens's will indicate that he was yet a young man and "needed
looking after." He did not sign the Compact, which of itself
indicates nonage, unless illness was the cause, of which, in his
case, there is no evidence, until later.
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