Early Pippins in America
There are a number of myths and legends concerning early Pippins in America that people just beginning to trace their Pippin roots seem invariably to run into. Some of these can be traced to the work done by Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr. and those people who cooperated with him back in the 1940's, or tried to supplement his work later. This is my attempt to address a few of these questionable issues.
1.1 Rev. Pippen's Manuscript
Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr., was an early researcher into Pippin genealogy. Around 1941 he typed a manuscript of some hundred pages detailing his findings and incorporating genealogical information contributed by several other Pippins. I have a copy that was kept by Dru L. Pippin of Waynesville, Missouri, who collaborated with him in the project. Rev. Pippen had done preliminary research as early as the 1920's; he had correspondence with J. B. Pippin at that time. I don't know what happened to Rev. Pippen or his archives.
Late in his life, Dru Pippin corresponded with and sent materials from his archive, including Rev. Pippen's manuscript, to Martin Dunville of Detroit. Dunville already had a substantial body of data of his own, to which he added this new data. A cursory inspection of one database posted on the internet suggests that it incorporates large portions of Dunville. Dunville seems to have applied Rev. Pippen's theory that all Pippins in America are related (discussed below) by linking as many lines as possible on any possible basis whatsoever. Although Dunville's database contained a great deal of useful facts, its overall theory of "we are all related" is flawed. I don't know if Dunville actually believed this, or whether he was simply looking at the results that would follow if the theory were true, but his construction of the family tree survives to this day, and some people believe it.
Rev. Pippen had a cluster of notions regarding the origin of the Pippin family in America. Here are some illustrative statements of his beliefs:
All Pepins and Pippins and Pippens in Canada and America were descended from [the sons of Charlemagne]. Those in America using the French spelling of Pepin were late comers by way of Canada. The English spelling crowd are descendants of the 17th Century emigrants. It would be a costly task to authentically connect these lines with Charlemagne but family tradition and historical data make it too circumstantially strong to be reasonably denied. -- Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr., typescript, c. 1942.
We are all descendants of Charlemagne thru his son Pepin, King of Italy. -- Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr. Letter to Eva Luther Pippin. 1941.
For the past two years, I have been gathering data on the Pippen family in America. The first two brothers came from France and settled in Northumberland & Northampton counties, Va. in 1635 - 1639. All Pippens in Amer. are descendants of those two brothers. -- Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr. Letter to Evaa Luther Pippin. April 22, 1941.
There is a tradition in the family of W.W. Pippen, Jr. of Eutaw, Ala., that two brothers came to this country from France (descendants of Emperor Charlemagne) and settled in Va. and N.C. respectively. It is evident from the above that Wm. and Matthew were the brothers and that they settled first in Va., and their descendants later went to N.C. by way of Md. -- Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr.
Most of the French refugees to this country came via England & to that extent he is correct in saying they came from England & in the 17th Century. ... These two Pippin brothers, immigrants, came here poor as so many fine people did in those early days, when religious persecution was rampant in Europe. -- Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr. Letter to Dru L. Pippin. 1941.
My reading of these passages is that Rev. Pippen claims the tradition is from his family. It is unclear exactly what that tradition was. We are not told from whom he heard it, nor the basis his informants advanced in support of the authenticity and accuracy of this story.
Embedded in these statements are five themes that are part of the belief structure of numerous beginners in Pippin genealogy even today. They are: (1) the family descends from Charlemagne; (2) the family originated in france; (3) the family is descended from two brothers; (4) the Pippins -- and in particular the brothers -- came to America because of religious perrsecution -- they were Huguenots; and (5) all Pippins in America are related.
1.1.1 Descent from Charlemagne
Rev. Pippen claims that "family tradition" supports a claim of descent from Charlemagne. I am reluctant to dismiss claims of family tradition out of hand; many are the source of truth just awaiting research and documentation. But insofar as his claim is that there is a tradition in his family that claims descent from Charlemagne, I suspect that such a claim was based on wishful thinking creatively combined with the bare fact of a surname that figured in the Charlemagne story. Descent from Charlemagne has not been proven, probably cannot be, and to me seems doubtful.
Rev. Pippen doesn't expressly cite any documents, books, or records in support of his claim of descent from Charlemagne. What is the historical data he claims supports his theory? Fundamentally the only historical fact that he relies on is the fact that some members of Charlemagne's line had the name "Pippin" itself.
Elsewhere in his manuscript there are other examples of Rev. Pippen's application of the name method. Rev. Pippen speculates that one Denis Papin, an associate of Huygens, was related simply because the surname 'Papin' was a form of the Pippin name. In another place, he fleetingly speculates that von Papen (Franz von Papen, Chancellor of Germany 1932) was also also a relative, again because of the similarity of surnames.
Rev. Pippen acknowledges that his claim of descent from Charlemagne is not well supported: he notes that it would be a costly task to connect the line of Matthew or William Pippin to the line of Charlemagne. This deserves some further elaboration. To do this would require us to trace the descent of someone born in 1615 (Matthew, for example) back to roughly the year 700, through more than one country, at a time when paper, literacy, and record keeping were very limited, and when even tombstones would have weathered into illegibility. Indeed, we cannot even trace from the 1800's or 1700's back to Matthew.
The other side of this coin is the fact that there has been careful record keeping of the descendants of Charlemagne. After all, in the age of monarchies questions of descent were important matters of state. Thus, it is well known who was a descendant of William the Conqueror, as it is well known who was descended from other royal houses. I read once that Charlemagne was probably the name most frequently the object of attempts to connect family lines to famous royal personages of the past, but that because the line of Charlemagne is so thoroughly documented, such attempts are futile.
There is a phenomenon that suggests the probable relationship of the Pippin family name to Charlemagne. We know that people often adopt the name of famous leaders as their own, famous examples being the adoption of the surnames Washington and Jefferson by people with no relation to those two presidents. This is true with respect to the "Pippin" name as well. In the dictionary entry quoted below it is said that the name is popular in France "in memory of" the line of Charlemagne.
1.1.2 French Origins Generally
There seem to be three bases for the assertion that the American line of Pippins which was supposed to have been established by two immigrant brothers is of French ancestry: (1) the name, (2) descent from Charlemagne, and (3) that the family were Huguenots -- religious refugees from France.
Let's consider first the idea that since the name is French, the brothers must have been French.
The name Pippin has a very long history in England as well as in France. The following early examples of the name and possible origin are from A Dictionary of English Surnames, by P.H. Reany, 1st pub. 1958, 3rd ed. R.M. Wilson (London: Routledge):
Pepin Peppin Pepys Pippin Pipon
Ralph, Henry Pipin 1086, 1195
John Pepin c1160, 1202
William, Walter Pipun 1176, 1212
Reginald Peppin 1205
William Pippin 1279
from Old French: Pepin, Old German Pipin
"Pepin, from the root 'to tremble', popular in France in memory of the founders of the Carolingian monarchy, Pepin d'Heristal and Pepin le Bref, with the occasional variant Pipun. Pepis is a nominative form. Later examples of the surname may be from OFr pepin, pipin 'seed of a fleshy fruit', used for a gardener''
It can be seen here that the name had been established in England for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of the brothers; and therefore the name "Pippin" is insufficient to establish their French nationality.
A second basis for the claim of French ancestry could be the idea that since the brothers were descendants of Charlemagne, then their origin must be considered French. But the claim of French origin seems to be something more than that. The claim seems to be that they were French born, and merely passed through England on the way to North America. The mere assumption of a lineage tracing to Charlemagne is not support for that claim. These supposed descendants of Charlemagne could have been descendants of a family that had moved to England with William the Conqueror, and therefore they would not have been of French nationality. We know the name "Pippin" was well established in England by the 1600's; it would seem at least as likely that any Pippin immigrant would be English.
The third basis for the French ancestry claim is that the early Pippins were religious refugees, in particular Huguenots. One might first consider the documentary support. In addition to Rev. Pippen, there is the manuscript In Memory of Miriam which was written by one Edna Guilford Cook. This is obviously not completely independent of Rev. Pippen's assertions, since she was related to him. Jim Pippin described [ref: http://genforum.genealogy.com/pippin/messages/92.html] her unpublished manuscript. He reviewed it in the Edgecombe County Memorial Library in Tarboro, North Carolina. The book is dated 5 Nov 1957 and the foreword claims that the research had been done fifteen years prior to that date, meaning roughly 1942. Edna Cook's statements regarding the two brothers seem to be simply an elaboration of Rev. Pippen's beliefs to which she has added tantalizing new details. Cook writes (as quoted by Jim Pippin):
Matthew Pippen probably born in Blois, France, around 1615. Fled with his brother William Pippen to England due to religious persecution in France. They were French Hugenots. Upon arrival in England they, together with many others of the Pepin family, became communicants of the Church L'Anglaise in Threadneedle Street, London, later coming to America with letters of recommendation from the English clergyman of that church. Matthew arrived in 1635, his sponsor being Southy Littleberry of Northampton County, Virginia, so evidently he settled there and his descendants married into the Littleberry, Cullen and Banister families of Northampton County.
Jim Pippin detected a number of erroneous items in that manuscript and wrote, "There is much more erroneous data in the manuscript, too much to print here. The manuscript is not documented." Even with the tantalizing level of detail (e.g. Blois, Threadneedle Street), without documentation we really cannot place any reliance on it. Cook's manuscript was not published and is only now being subjected to scrutiny -- which it seems unlikely to withstand. Edna Cook's manuscript as described by Jim Pippin does not seem to be adequate support for a conclusion of French origins. Indeed one must wonder how much of it is mere speculation.
Setting aside for a moment any doubts about the documentation, let's consider the likelihood of the conclusion. Rev. Pippen alludes to religious persecution, and Cook identifies these presumptive forbears as Huguenots. Quick reference to the Encyclopedia Americana revealed the following. The origins of the Huguenots trace to 1560, with the intellectual leadership being Calvin in Geneva. They were sponsored and led by certain members of the House of Bourbon, in particular King Henry of Navarre. Later Henry became King Henry IV of France and converted to Catholicism 1593. In 1562 religious civil war began and ran until around 1598. Henry's accession and the Edict of Nantes resulted in some tolerance, but it was slowly whittled away and died with the accession of Louis XIII in 1629. (At this point the early Pippins left to the New World.) Louis XIV continued to reduce their rights and abolished them completely in 1685 with the abolition of the Edict of Nantes. It was this act that led to the mass emigration of some 400,000 Huguenots to America. Ultimately on the eve of the Revolution in 1787 a new edict of toleration was promulgated, and full equality was established by the Napoleonic Code of 1802. Given this chronology, although it is not impossible that the putative brothers Pippin were Huguenots, they were certainly not part of the real mass emigration of Huguenots, which occurred some fifty years later than their departure to the New World.
1.1.3 The Two Brothers Theory
Rev. Pippin did not invent Matthew and William Pippin, the individuals he identified as the first arriving brothers. Therefore, even if there had never been a Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr., the question of how the names "Matthew Pippen" and "William Pippen" relate to any Pippins of the present would have arisen. Rev. Pippen thought that these two early arrivals (they did not arrive simultaneously) were the two brothers he had heard of in his family tradition. Who were Matthew and William, where did they come from, were they related, and how are any of us related to them?
Matthew Pippin
In the wake of the family tradition that two brothers were the earliest members of the family to have migrated to North America, one can easily imagine Rev. Pippen taking his first steps by going to a library and looking for the earliest Pippins. It's clear he did a fair amount of library research. Rev. Pippen turned up the names of the two earliest Pippins known to have emigrated to the New World:
Early Virginia Immigrants by Hotten: 1623 -- 1666: William Peppin, Jas. City Co., Va. Sept. 11, 1639 (Later Northumberland); Matthew Peppin (g) Apr. 16, 1635. (Northampton Co. Va. in Dec. 26, 1660). Matthew Pippen came on the ship Expectation, whose captain was a Mr. Billinge. See Nugent's Cavaliers and Pioneers at page 532, etc.
There is documentation of the dates of the voyage of the Expectation that transported Matthew to the New World, a passenger manifest showing sex and age of the passengers, and the ship's destination, Providence Island.
When I first read that name, I assumed it had something to do with Providence, Rhode Island, but nothing could be further than the truth. Providence Island is a location in Central America. So the Expectation did not bring one of our ancestors to Virginia or North Carolina. It is worthwhile to note the following facts concerning the passengers, facts which are not atypical. There were 45 men (average age 23) and 27 women (average 25) with the modal age for both groups being between 16 and 20.
The preface to the book in which I found documentation of the Expectation voyage noted that the passengers were frequently orphans swept from the streets. The data concerning the passengers of the Expectation are consistent with this. English history of the time suggests that emigration was probably impelled on economic rather than religious grounds. Matthew Pippin is said to be 20 on his voyage aboard the Expectation. Therefore we roughly figure his date of birth to have been in the year 1615. Reference to the Brittanica for the historical context shows that Elizabeth I died in 1603. Oliver Cromwell was born in 1599. Therefore Matthew might well have served for (or against) Cromwell in the Civil War had he not emigrated. England at that time had a population of around 4 million. (The population of London was around 500,000.) The population had doubled over the past hundred years. There had been Elizabeth's war with Spain. Price inflation had taken hold with disastrous consequences for many. For the first 20 years of the century there was a "rural subsistence crisis" from which it took almost 50 years to recover. The Thirty Years War of 1618-48 magnified the economic problems. In 1627 England was at war with both France and Spain, although peace treaties were signed in 1628-29.
The following facts were also abstracted from the Brittanica. Barbados had been depopulated by Spain for slaves in the 16th Century, and then colonized by England in 1627. Attempts were made to grow tobacco and cotton, but they were not successful. In 1640, with Dutch help, the economy was successfully converted to sugar, but this necessitated the use of slaves, who then began to be imported in great numbers.
The Providence Island Company was established in 1630 in an attempt to open trade with Spanish America. Providence Island is located about 140 statute miles east of Nicaragua and about 1,500 miles west of Barbados (which is off Venezuela). Pym had been treasurer and Warwick, who had to resign the presidency of the New England Company in 1632, continued to manage the Bermuda Company and the Providence Island Company, which, according to the Brittanica, "provided a convenient meeting place for critics of royal policy."
Even though Matthew did not come to North America aboard the Expectation, could he have somehow come here nevertheless? Jim Pippin posted the following snippets. [footnote: http://genforum.genealogy.com/pippin ]:
Mathew Pypinge was imported into Norhampton Co., VA by Southy Littleton during 1656 from Barbados, British West Indies.
...extracts from Northampton Co, VA court records. --
30 Jan 1656/7 Mathew Pipen entered into bond with Jno Marshall. 30 Aug 1657 Mathew Pepin became livestock agent for Gyler Budd. 1660 Mathew Pepin convicted of drunkenness, fined fifty pounds of tobacco. 1662-1664 & 1665-1671 Mathew Pippin was a titheable in Northampton Co, VA. 21 Jun 1667, 7 Feb 1669, 9 Nov 1670, 29 Dec 1671 Jury duty 1658 Mathew Pepin received land patent for 100 acres in Accomack Co, VA. 1660 Mathew Pepin assigns land patent to Francis and Mary Vincent.
-- Virginia's Eastern Shore, Vol. I by Ralph T. Whitelaw.
These facts suggest that there was an early Matthew Pippin who could have been the founder of a Pippin line in North America. There would seem to be no way to conclusively establish that the Matthew or Matthews mentioned are the same person as the Expectation Matthew. But in any event, it would appear that a William Pippin was in fact the first Pippin on record in North America.
Since Rev. Pippen's research, which was conducted from the 1920's to the 1940's, more data has become available; here is what I have been able to compile. From Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, by P. William Filby, ed, et al. (Detroit: Gale Research Inc.).
Original volumes:
PIPPIN, Mathew 20; Providence, Isl. of, 1635 [refs] PIPPIN, Wm. (no age); Virginia, 1638 [refs]
1982-85 Supplement:
PIPPIN, Mathew 20; Barbados, 1635 [refs] PIPPIN, Mathew 20; Providence, Isl. of, 1635 [refs] PIPPIN, William (no age); Virginia, 1649 [refs, including Nugent] PIPPIN, Wm (no age); Virginia, 1638 [refs, including Nugent]
1991-95 Supplement:
PIPPIN, Mathew 20; Island of Providence [refs] PIPPING, Matt; Virginia, 1682 [refs]
William Pippin
Rev. Pippen seems to have concluded that the William who arrived in 1638 was Matthew's brother because their arrivals were (presumptively) fairly close together in time. However, now that we see the earliest Matthew in North America arrived in 1656, would he be the brother of the 1638 William? The fact that Matthew even had a brother -- much less that his name was William -- has not been documented.
My notes show two references to William Pippin. The dates are somewhat confusing and I haven't figured out how these two records relate. However, the list of names suggests we are talking about the same group of people. Were there two different events?
Patent Book No. 1 -- Part II at p. 97:
Richard Wilcox: 700 acs in Chichahominy Riv. James Citty, 11 Sept. 1638, p. 597. N.E. adj. land of Robert Freeman. Due for trans. of 14 pers: John February, We. Lowder, Jon. Warren, Wm. Pippin, Rich. Stephens, William Hix, Jon. Butler, Humphry Blackman, Roger Crabbe, Humphry Dale, Jon. Chappell, John Richford, Tho. Fowler, Peter Willett.
Patent Book No. 2 at p. 185:
Mr. William Presly, 150 acs. Northumberland Co., 14 Oct. 1649, p. 186. Lyeing on Potomeck Riv. between Chingehan Cr. & Presly's Cr. mouth over to the Codd point, Mattrams Cr. parting this from land of Mr. John Motrums, & Chingehan Cr. parting this from land of Mr. Robert Newman. Trans. of 23 pers.: John February, Richd. Steevens, Robert Crabbe, John Ridford, William Louder, William Hicks, Hump. Dale, Tho. Fowler, John Warren, John Buttler, John Chappell, Peter Willet, William Pippin, Tho. Spalding, Humph. Blackman, Peter Callay, Jno. Wildblood, Henry Plumpton, We. Presly, Jane his wife, Wm. Presly, Payle (or Paule) Presly, Peter Presly.
1.1.3.1 Conclusions About Mathew and William
Matthew and William assume a position of importance when it is believed that one or both founded the Pippin lines in North America. We know for an absolute certainty that they were not the founders of at least one of the lines (John and Rebecca). But could they have at least been the founders of some of the lines? Any efforts to link to them have so far failed. I consider the notion at best not proven.
Were Matthew and William brothers? The Matthew who for years was assumed to have been the first Pippin to set foot on North American soil was certainly not the first. We don't know if the Expectation Matthew was the Matthew who ultimately arrived in North America, although it is possible. But we have less of a basis to try to relate the William dated 1638 with Matthew as brothers. Indeed there may have been Pippin brothers. But at this point we have only an ill-defined family legend, no clear connection of that legend to the documented William and Matthew, and a lot of guesswork.
It seems doubtful that Matthew and William were French. It seems more likely that they fell into the class of orphans or economic refugees from England.
1.1.4 All Pippins in America Are Not Related
Thanks to the work of Jim Pippin, Emily Pippin, et al. in Pippin Pathways [footnote: Pippin Pathways, The Life and Descendants of Joseph Pippin from Edgecombe Co., NC to Jackson Co., TN, by Wilda Allen Luttrell, Emily L. Person Pippin, and James Roberts "Jim" Pippin (1998). ] and their subsequent work, we now know that all Pippins in America are not related. But without this marvelous work of scholarship to consult, how did Rev. Pippen attempt to prove the claim?
Rev. Pippen had a problem with his claim that all Pippins in America were descended from Matthew or William Pippin. The problem was and is that there is no information regarding the descendants of any early Matthew or William. The next step on Rev. Pippen's family tree was Matthias Pippin, and the problem was to link the early Pippin brothers'' to Matthias. Rev. Pippen never succeeded, but he thought he was on the right track when he discovered a reference to one Edward Addison Pippin. Per Rev. Pippen's typescript:
Edward A. Pippen sold land in Warwick Co. Va. prior to 1727. He was probably an ancestor of Wm. Pepin of 1790 Fed. Census. Edw. A. is a family name.
In a Genforum post Jim Pippin quotes statements made in Mrs. Cook's book on the issue:
Edward Addison Pippen, of Warwick County Virginia, 1727. Little is known of him except with him the name Addison'' came into the Pippin family. He was probably a grandson of Matthew Pippin of Northampton.
Jim felt that this was a mistake. Jim said:
Edward never existed. The reference probably came from Genealogies of Virginia Families which printed the will of Matth' Jones of Isle of Wright Co, VA. Jones' will as published shows he left property to his son that he purchased of "Edward Pippin or Kippen"". A review of the hand written copy of the will shows the name to be Edward Rippin.
At another place in his manuscript, Rev. Pippen states:
The last known Addison Pippen was Edgar Addison of Greene Co., Ala., who died in 1915 and was buried in Clinton, Ala. Uncle of Rev. W.W. Pippen, Jr.
Here the "E" is for Edgar, not Edward, so query to what extent we can really believe he was a namesake.
The problem is that to link Matthew with an established 18th century line, anywhere from 2 to 7 generations may be needed. According to Jim Pippin's posting, Mrs. Cook proposes a line from Matthew to Edward Addison, to Matthias to John. Nevertheless, the theory cannot be validated by documentation at this time.
1.1.5 Pippin Family and Pippin ApplesThe name "Pippin" is frequently associated with a variety of apple. I haven't really looked into this much, but I found two items relating to the apple issue in my uncle's box of Pippin odds and ends.
Rev. Pippen wrote:
Pippin Apple named for Pippins in Normandy France because they were a round, florid apple like the typical Pippin Face. See Encyclopedia. [He gives no cite.] Introduced to Albemarle Co. Va. from N.Y. in 1741 by Dr. Thos. Walker of King and Queen Co. Va.
Dru L. Pippin wrote to Rush Pippin of Henryetta, Oklahoma, about Pippin matters and received a reply from Rush's father, J.W. Pippin, on June 14, 1941. In his letter, J.W. said:
My father had two cousins who moved to Missouri. One of them came to visit in our home when I was ten years old. These brothers were associated in the fruit business. This family is known to have originated the Missouri Pippin Apple.
Coat of Arms
When various parties were working with Rev. Pippin in the 1940's on the Pippin/Pippen genealogy, someone ordered a Coat of Arms of the Pippin family. I posted a copy at the linked page.