Our Earliest Proven Ancestor – Clovis I
From the 3rd century C.E. until the later 5th century C.E., the area comprising modern-day France was inhabited by multiple Frankish tribes, each with its own king. Clovis I was the first king to unite the Franks under one kingship. He is considered to have founded the Merovingian dynasty, and is considered the first king of France. At the behest of his wife, Clotilde, a Burgundian princess, Clovis converted to and embraced Catholicism. The couple is credited with the early spread of Catholicism throughout Europe.
St. Arnulf of Metz
St. Arnulf of Metz was born to a wealthy noble family in 582. Arnulf was a great-great grandson of King Clovis I [i]. He became involved at a young age with the Merovingian court where he served for a number of years, eventually becoming the Bishop of Metz. He was deeply embroiled in various court power struggles and was said to be involved in the murder of Chrodoald, an important leader of the Agilolfings family. In 628, he repented for his past deeds and retired to a hermitage in the Vosges Mountains, near Metz in Eastern France, where he lived the rest of his life as a religious penitent.
Arnulf was canonized long after his death based on several miracles and legends that survive him. Read more in Clovis and the Spread of Catholicism in Europe.
Through his second son, Ansegisel, Arnulf was the great-great-great grandfather of Charlemagne [ii]. Clovis I, St. Arnulf, and Charlemagne are common ancestors of the Mullins and Bonner families. The Mullins family has proven our descent from Charlemagne through Elizabeth Johnston, a Scottish Quaker missionary and wife of Rev. George Keith. The Bonner family has proven our descent from Charlemagne through Nancy Bates, from the aristocratic Bates family of Northumberland, England.
The first in the Johnston/Keith line to immigrate to the American colonies was Anne Keith Walker, who arrived in the company of her parents in 1685 at the age of 11. There is a second Mullins family lineage to Charlemagne through the Wyatt family. The first Wyatt in our line to arrive in the Colonies was Major William Wyatt.
The first in the Bonner Bates line to arrive in Canada was Nancy Bates’s son, Robert Turnbull Jr. (1808 – 1883), who arrived in 1832 with his wife Ellen “Helen” Little (1813 – 1888). Read about the young Robert Jr.’s effort to reconnect with his grandmother, Anne Ellison, Lady of Melbourne Hall, in “A Proud Scot Declines a Sovereign and a Meal.”