Latest Info on Edouad Bompasse
I was notified today that someone had responded to a 10 year old posting of mine on Genforum, and wrote the following; but then I decided I had better post it as a new message so everyone might see it and comment if they have anything to say.
The most recent speculation on Edouad appears in Jeremy Bangs' latest book "Strangers & Pilgrims. . .", saying there that Edouad was "probably a Walloon." This is new. While speculation has been that Edouad was likely a Huguenot, I had never heard the idea of his being a Walloon. Those of you familiar with Mayflower genealogy may recognize that term as having for some time been attributed to Francis Cooke's wife Hester Mahieu. A Walloon would be a French Huguenot who emigrated, in particular, to Belgium, as opposed to the Netherlands, or England et al. Jeremy also speculates that Edouad was "probably" of the Leiden Refugee Family of Bon Pas.
I have for some time been closely in contact with the Delano Family genealogist about the idea that Edouad and Phillippe De La Noye may have had some prior relationship before travelling together on the Fortune.Robert Charles Anderson in his "The Great Migration" also speculates on this possible connection. Delano's mother was Hester Mahieu's sister, Marie Mahieu, so the Delano's, Cooke's and Bompasse' were evidently all likely Walloons. Was Edouad perhaps related to the Mahieu/Delano's?
When I met Jeremy recently I asked him about what else he knows about the Bon Pas family in Leiden, and am awaiting his return home and his promise to check his records for what he has on this "Leiden Refugee family" that were evidently members of the Separatist church there at the time the Pilgrims were there.
I am not optimistic that we will ever discover Edouad's origins in Frnce, but who knows??? Actually, there are two towns of BonPas in France (use Google maps) and I am planning to visit these in my next three years as Historian General for the Mayflower Society.Maybe someday we will know more about Edouad before he came here,
we certainly still know little of him after he arrived at Plymouth Colony, other than a fairly decent record of his descendants.
Relatively Yours,
Paul