John MOLINEAUX Ann MULLINS Jonathan MULLINAX Elizabeth AMY Mini tree diagram

Thomas MOLINEAUX2,1

also known as Thomas MULLINIX3

Mar 16742 - 17th Jan 17282

Life History

1674

Born in Laymatt, Somerset, England.2

(less likely)

Mar 1674

Born in Seton, Lancashire, England.1

(most likely)

29th Mar 1674

Baptised in Seton, Lancashire, England.1

Oct 1698

Birth of son John MOLINEAUX in London, Middlesex, England.1

before Apr 1703

Death of Ann MULLINS.2

4th Apr 1703

Married Elizabeth AMY in St Martin's in the Fields Parish, Westminster, London.1

1705

Birth of son Jonathan MULLINAX in England, UK.4,5

17th Jan 1728

Died in Sussex County, Delaware.2

Other facts

 

Married Ann MULLINS

Notes

  • Sources I have found on this line are incomplete and confusing.  One source has Thomas' birthplace as Laymatt, Somerset, England.  In email correspondence in October 2007, Jim White has told me that there are indeed two lines of Molineaux conflated in many sources.  Jim reports that our Thomas Molineaux was baptized 29 March 1674 at Seton in Lancashire.

    Thomas is reported by various sources to have had three wives.  Some genealogies report that the first was named Ann Mullins, whose son John was born in 1698, and was also named Mullins.  This seemed questionable  when I encountered this information, but there was a paucity of information and I had been unable to find other sources to clarify this.

    Jim White says the Molineaux of Somerset is a different family.  And this Molineaux in our family line was not married to Ann Mullins.  This is a confirming voice that the earlier confusion was confusion of two families.  I am still uncertain likewise whether the information about Martha Hunt as a wife is correct.  I have added details from Jim that help fill out this picture.

    Previous sources had reported that Thomas' marriage to second wife Elizabeth Amy took place on 4 April 1703.  I have found no details on the third wife Martha Hunt, and no mention of children with her.  Jim provides the location and church of the marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth Amy, St Martin's in the Fields Parish, Westminster, on the date I have reported from other sources, 4 April 1703.  Jim also clarified that Amy was the surname of Elizabeth's family.  I have seen the name spelled Amey in some references, as well as Amye..

    The Molineaux family name is spelled in various ways in various sources.  This family name was spelled differently for the same person in various public and private documents, written by members of the family, the individuals themselves or third parties.  Over time different branches of this lineage settled on different spellings that have continued as separate lines today.  Spelling was not standardized as it came to be in the early 1900s.

    Mullinax and Mullinix were primarily English-language spellings, while Moulineaux and variations were the French preference.  Each of these has many creative variations.  The name appears to be related to the shorter name Mullins, which comes from an original Celtic name.  But Mullins, like Molineux, is also explained sometimes as a form of the Germanic word mollen, meaning mill.

    This Germanic word is found in two forms in the speech of the Germanic Franks as they adapted the Latin language (which we know now as French), moulin and molines.  A strong association of the Molineaux family with the town of Moulin (department of Allier, in the region of Auvergne) can be shown.  And Molineaux families still live in that area.  But the family name has spread all over.

    It has been suggested that the Molineaux line were Norman, but this town of Moulins, as well as the French town of Molines, is far from Normandy.  They could still have been associated with the Norman Conquest of William II of Normandy (who became William I of England) as many French nobles, as well as Normans, supported William's bid for the succession to the Anglo-Saxon throne.

    While the name Mullins seems to be related primarily to the British or Irish families, the form Mullineaux is found in both places, but seems associated with the continental (French) families.  I am familiar with this in Brittany, which appears to be the home area.  But there is some cultural or political connection to the Normans, so the name might be found in Normandy also.  There is one city in France named Moulin -- compare the cabaret Moulin Rouge in Paris, and several namesakes in New Orleans.  The name means the "Red Mill" (or Windmill).  There are other locations in France called Molines near Lyons (compare Moline, Illinois).

    Because of the meaning of the name and the multiple places named Moulin or Molines, various families may have taken or been given the name "Molineaux or similar that were of no kin.  Like the name Smith form the work of smithing.

    Two comments on the origin of the name are provided in a Names database:
    1. English and Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name from Moulineaux in Seine-Maritime, so named from the plural of Old French moulineau, a diminutive of moulin ‘mill’. In some cases this may have been an occupational name as in 2.
    2. French: occupational name for a miller, from molineux, a variant of Old French molineur ‘miller.’
    --  http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/surname-origin/molyneux?detoured=1

    I am not sure how far the name ranged in its original home area.  The French form is found in Britain from the Norman period when many French-surnamed people, both Norman and French, became established in the former English domains.  The French form continues to be used by some branches of the family in Britain.  The name Mullineaux developed from an original phonetic form like Mullinals.  Another common spelling of this, simplified in English pronunciation and spelling, is Mullinax.  The name in America is spelled by various families of the same lineage in various ways:  Mullinex, Mullenix, Mullennix, Mullineux and other variation.

    The -eaux ending is originally a phonetic deterioration from old French als in all French words.  The als ending (plural of nouns ending in -al) is still heard in some languages of southern France, such as Provençal.  The x originally represented the s sound (as it still does in modern French when the word is followed by a word starting with a vowel, as in beaux arts)., but the sound finally dropped out, as most plural indicators in French did.  But the spelling was kept to assist in distinguishing between singular and plural in the written forms.  The plural form of the name became the base form of the family name.  Examples of this are the common French word plurals like tableaux and physicaux.

    Thomas Molineaux's name appears in some genealogies as Mullineaux or Molineaux.  One genealogy has the alternate spelling of Mulleaneaux.

    The dates of birth are a problem.  According to a genealogy with some details about Thomas Mullineaux (Molineaux), he was born in 1674, but his wife was not born until 1703.  But this source does not give a date of birth for their son Jonathon.

Sources

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