There is now new DNA evidence to prove the ancestry of George Soule. Which is amazing as there has been so much conjecture over the past 400 years. It has been determined that George Soule is of Dutch Ancestry and his parents are very likely to have been as shown in this article. The two major references are these:
1) Record of the Celebration of the Tercentenary of the Introduction of the Art of Printing into Aberdeen by Edward Raban in the Year 1622" (Aberdeen, Scotland: The Master Printers' Guild, 1922) p. 42
2) Louise Walsh Throop, "William Brewster's Subterfuge" Mayflower Descendant Volume 66, Number 1 (Winter 2018) pp. 14-22
3) A L E Verheyden, "Anabaptism in Flanders 1530-1650" (1946, reprinted 1961) p. 31
Louise Walsh Throop, "Further Searching for the Origins of Mayflower Passenger George Soule: Printer's Devil in Leiden?" Soule Kindred Newsletter Volume 43 No. 4 p. 10 (Autumn 2009)
If you have followed the DNA studies involving the Harrington families in America, Louis Walsh Throop was also involved in those that earlier debunked the connection between the Throope family here and the Col. Adrian Scrope in England that was hanged, drawn & quartered for treason.
Earlier researchers into Soule's origin believed in the London association of Winslow and Soule.[7] Thus, based on this belief, and for five years ending in 2009, noted Mayflower researcher and biographer Caleb Johnson managed a fairly intensive search for Soule's English origins; he examined a number of likely 'George Soules' in various parts of England and subsequently concluded that the most promising candidate of all the 'George Soules' he reviewed was that of Tingrith, Bedfordshire, baptized in February 1594/5.[8] No Y-DNA signatures have been paired yet with any of these families.
More recent work in 2017 has identified the parents of George Soule through a high-quality Y-DNA match of Soule with families in Scotland and Australia. Following up on research published by Louise Walsh Throop in 2009, the DNA study pointed to Soule's parents as Jan Sol and his wife Mayken Labis, who are identified by their marriage as Protestant refugees in London, England, in 1586 and by the baptisms of their children before 1600 in Haarlem, Holland.[9] Their eldest known son Johannes Sol is identified by his baptism in 1591, as well as by his permissions in both Haarlem and Leyden to marry in Leyden. Johannes Sol, a printer in Leyden with one known publication, died suddenly, probably while helping William Brewster in the presswork for the Perth Assembly.[10] His apprentice, Edward Raban, apparently fled to Scotland in 1619 in order to avoid being apprehended by agents of the King of England. It appears he was accompanied by the pregnant widow of his master and probably took with him the missing press of Brewster, as well as the telltale type and initials from Brewster; Raban also apparently took with him the Sol press and type. Edward Raban in 1622 published a very veiled version of his master's shocking death, well hidden in a discussion of drunkenness and resultant whoredom.[11] It would appear all helpers in the press work and distribution of "Perth Assembly" took an oath of silence that was never breached, even after King James I died in 1625.[12]
Some researchers have pointed to circumstantial evidence that George Soule's family may have had Sephardic (Converso) Jewish roots, due to "Sol/Soule" being a common Sephardic name[13] and "Soule" (the version George used in his will) being a Basque province. There is no y-DNA evidence to suggest that Soule has either Spanish or Jewish roots, as current research indicates [14]. Soule's daughter-in-law, Rebecca Simonson, daughter of colonist, Moses Simonson, may have had Jewish ancestry, [15][16] and Soule's printing colleague, Edward "Raban was from a Jewish-descended family in Germany."[17]
It is likely that George's presumed father Jan Sol, who married as a refugee in 1586 in London, was the grandson of Jan van Sol. This Jan van Sol was a zealous opponent of Anabaptism, which he saw in 1550 as divided into three movements: the Melchiorites (the peaceful Mennonite group), the Davidites, and the Batenburgers.[18] Jan van Sol was born at Dordrecht, in South Holland, but left the Netherlands in 1530 because of debts (he kept an inn there) and went east to Danzig. There he was known as Johann/Jan Solius (the Latin version of his name). In 1536 he bought the "Robitten" estate near Bardeyn in East Prussia. He returned in 1550 to Brussels but may have spent his last years, until about 1556, in the territory of Preussisch-Holland. A presumed son born about 1525, and by naming patterns was probably named Georg, would have married about 1555 perhaps in Brussels, and thus would have been the father of Jan Sol of the 1586 marriage record in London. This Jan Sol and wife Maecken had seven children baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of Haarlem in 1590-99.[19]
The new findings are, of course, still under investigation but it does appear that a definitive connection to any English family has been ruled out and no concrete documentation exists suggesting an English connection.
It is surmised that Johannes Sol of Holland was George's brother and that they, along with Winship, William Brewster and also his brother George Soule (Sol) were involved in the printing of the book called the "Perth Assembly" which was smuggled into Scotland in wine vats probably from Belgian. It vilified the Five Articles of Perth which basically forced all Scottish citizens to agree to Episcopaleon rule over the Church of England and Scotland. There were many that disagreed and it now appears as though Winship and George Soule fled from England to the colonies after the brutal death of his brother Johannes in London.
I am interested to see where the research goes!
Thanks, Katie Smith
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