inheritance and came to the Colonies. This tradition sounds very reasonable to me and one I hope to be able to research and prove at a later date. All descendants who have these three Spencer sisters as ancestors should do what they can to prove this tradition. At the bottom of Dr. Socrates' 1837 family chart he has his mother's Spencer line showing "Richard Spencer, from England Jan. 2, 1634 (prob)" which would mean he was doubtful about either the date or the first name of his Spencer ancestor. This needs to be verified. This shows how the incorrect information from Mr. Bishop's article in the Virginia Magazine and then passing it to Mr. Miller for his book in 1907 was taken as Gospel and passed down. Also In Eugene's files are about thirty letters from Dr. Socrates' granddaughter, Margaret Lewis Maupin. She is the one who put her grandfather's papers in the Virginia library with some additions from other persons. Eugene Maupin's writings reflect the traditions of both the Virginia Magazine and Mr. Miller's work. Another very important piece of information in the files was in one letter from William Miller. He writes that in 1920 he received from Miss Nannie Maupin of Portsmouth, VA, a copy of the genealogy of a French family of Navarre, de Poussemothe, en Bern, a Paris et an Bretagne. In this genealogy is recorded that Jean de Poussemothe married in Paris the 30th September 1549, Genevieve le Maupin, daughter of Firmin le Maupin, Sieur of Bouvaque, Avocat au Parlement et Jeanne d'Aibisse. It is believed that this information is the source of the tradition that Gabriel came from Navarre but that subject will be covered in the information about Gabriel's birth and parents. Eugene's files have been a great source of interest and knowledge for me. I appreciate greatly his neat, painstaking work with file folders for each correspondent and subject. We have to remember that the researcher of those early days did not have all the aids and conveniences we have today - no indexed census books to hurry the process along - no computer printouts to make the job quick and easy - a lot of person to person visitations and going to whatever courthouses were available to them. I feel Dr. Socrates, Dr. Washington Maupin, Mr. Miller and Eugene would be much interested in some of the information on documents which have been recently found on the Maupin family and how they were acquired. Eugene expressed some doubts in his writings- one was that the Mary Maupin who married a Pressnel was not Gabriel's daughter and he was right! All the Maupin family owe Eugene and William Miller much because of their early research that could be added to the beginnings given to us by Dr. Socrates and Dr. George WAshington Opie Maupin. Our history would not be so complete without their work. I will close this section with a quote from one of Eugene's letters to William Harris Miller. "If I do not get a book published I will copy my notes in a connected form and send them to you to put with your other manuscripts and maybe 12
some day some future historian of the family will find our work and bless us as I do those whose notes unravel so many hard knots for me". And I say, "Eugene, I do bless you and your two daughters, Madeline and Jean Margaret, for sharing you and your work with the whole Maupin family, descendants of Gabriel and Marie Maupin.
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