1952: The authenticity and genealogical relevance of The Mallard Papers
With Particular Reference to Their Provenance, Internal Coherence, and Transmission Across the Atlantic
Arthur Frederick Blandy, D.Phil. (Syd.) Sometime Fellow in Genealogical Studies
Former Student of Miss Octavia Mallard, OAM, Lecturer (Unattached), Sydney Institute for Heraldic and Lineal Research; Sydney: Whitcombe and Toombs, 1952
PREFACE
It is with mingled humility and scholarly duty that I offer this present monograph to the public. For nearly twenty years I have laboured—quietly, conscientiously, and, if I may permit myself the phrase, indefatigably—to set in proper order the extraordinary body of documents known collectively as The Mallard Papers.
These documents—letters, sermons, treatises, domestic accounts, and sundry memoranda—were preserved through the centuries by the Mallard family, a lineage of no small antiquity, whose branches span England, New England, and, in later eras, this very Commonwealth of Australia.
I make no claim to elevated Mallard blood myself; the Blandys, while respectable, have ever been a family of service rather than birth. Yet my professional association with my revered mentor, Miss Octavia Mallard, has furnished me with insights not readily accessible to the ordinary investigator. Her confidence in my abilities, her instruction in the finer points of genealogical discernment, and her unparalleled command of Mallard family tradition have laid upon me a debt which this small volume attempts partly to repay.
If any error has entered this work, the fault is mine alone; if any truth be found herein, it is due to Miss Mallard.
INTRODUCTION
(Wherein I establish that these Papers must be treated as historical artefacts)
The Mallard Papers, long neglected by scholars on both sides of the world, constitute a corpus of primary material of such richness that one stands astonished they have not yet been accorded a central place in our understanding of early modern Anglo-colonial life.
My purpose in this monograph is threefold:
– To confirm the authenticity of the Mallard Papers by genealogical method.
– To demonstrate the plausibility of their transatlantic provenance.
– To refute those critics (few, though vocal) who have dismissed the Papers as imaginative fiction.
The latter view, I must say, reveals an ignorance of genealogical technique and a regrettable lack of acquaintance with the habits of noble families, who—unlike the common sort—have always maintained elaborate written records, sometimes in styles eccentric to their time.
I have shown elsewhere (cf. my Preliminary Notes upon the Heraldry of Unrecorded English Lineages, Sydney, 1938) that the Mallards, though absent from Burke’s Peerage in several years, preserved their own system of internal registration, which in some respects surpasses that of the College of Arms. The Papers fit precisely within this tradition.
CHAPTER I:
On the Internal Consistency of the Mallard Correspondence (1600–1700)
I begin by observing a remarkable stylistic uniformity across generations. The cadence of the letters, the peculiarities of orthography, the Mallard habit of veiling criticism in elaborate politeness—these traits appear consistently in documents separated by a century.
One might almost say (and I do not hesitate to do so) that the family voice persists as an inherited intellectual signature.
Particularly compelling is the recurrence of:
– the Mallard preoccupation with philosophical inquiry
– the oscillation between earnest piety and gentle scepticism
– the familial tendency toward mild eccentricity (a trait honourably preserved to this day)
Such consistency is incompatible with forgery, unless we were to imagine the existence of a forger of almost supernatural genius—a suggestion I dismiss out of hand.
CHAPTER II:
The Lefame Settlement and Its Genealogical Implications
Critics have seized upon the supposed “mythical” nature of Lefame to argue that the Papers lack historical grounding. Yet a settlement’s absence from mainstream colonial records hardly proves its nonexistence; indeed, the early history of New England abounds with short-lived, privately financed enclaves whose documentation was retained entirely within family archives.
The Mallards were precisely the sort to establish such a place. Their known tendency toward intellectual experiment, combined with modest wealth and a disdain for ecclesiastical intrusion, makes Lefame not improbable but inevitable.
Furthermore:
– the genealogical drift from English titles to New World practicalities
– the emergence of hybrid Mallard–Blandy communities
– the recurrence of Wampanoag names rendered phonetically
—all point to a sustained, genuine settlement rather than invention.
CHAPTER III:
On the Veracity of Selected Episodes (Galatea, Alexandria, and Other Matters Often Questioned)
Some critics, lacking imagination, have singled out three episodes as implausible:
– The audience of a Mallard woman with a reigning monarch;
– The account of Alexandrian manuscripts in private hands;
– The appearance of Mozart in England at a date earlier than modern scholars permit.
But to the genealogical mind, nothing is so implausible as a noble family devoid of surprising incidents. The Mallards were unusually well-connected, and their private networks—particularly through women—render these encounters not only possible but entirely consonant with known patterns of aristocratic travel, patronage, and exchange.
Moreover, private libraries frequently contained manuscripts of astounding antiquity. I have personally catalogued one such collection in Parramatta (see Appendix B), containing a 13th-century Italian psalter unquestionably authentic. Why, then, balk at Alexandria?
Mozart, too, travelled widely in his youth. A brief, undocumented sojourn is hardly incredible.
Once again, genealogical method triumphs over doubt.
CHAPTER IV:
Transmission of the Papers to Australia (1798–1923)
Detractors claim that the arrival of the Papers in Australia is insufficiently documented. They overlook the fact that early colonial families seldom recorded the mundane details of what they transported. Trunks, letters, and heirlooms came as naturally as children.
The presence of Miss Octavia Mallard—my esteemed teacher—provides the crucial link. Her family’s emigration in the 1840s is well attested, and her personal custody of the Papers is beyond dispute. I have examined with my own hands the wax seals, the watermarks, the consistent use of Fitzartur family cipher.
To doubt their transmission to this country is to doubt Miss Mallard, a proposition I reject with the strongest scholarly indignation.
CHAPTER V:
Why the Mallard Papers Must Be Regarded as Historical Artefacts
In sum:
– Their provenance is plausible.
– Their genealogical internal coherence is impeccable.
– Their stylistic variety reflects genuine multigenerational authorship.
– Their philosophical and theological concerns align exactly with their eras.
– Their idiosyncrasies (so-called “eccentricities”) are typical of noble private correspondence.
– Their occasional strangeness confirms, rather than undermines, authenticity.
A fiction writer may imitate a style; only history produces a family.
CONCLUSION
Having weighed all evidence, I conclude that the Mallard Papers are not merely authentic—they are central to our understanding of English, colonial American, and early Australian intellectual history.
They reveal a hidden lineage of thought, a continuity of mind and character stretching across oceans and centuries. To dismiss them is not prudence but negligence.
I commend them to all students of genealogy, philosophy, and the noble history of the Mallard family.
APPENDIX A:
On My Qualifications
I include the briefest sketch of my scholarly standing only at the insistence of my publishers.
– D.Phil., University of Sydney, 1936 (Thesis: Patterns of Descent in the Minor Gentry of Dorset, 1580–1720).
– Sometime Fellow in Genealogical Studies, Sydney Institute for Heraldic and Lineal Research.
– Former Student and Protégé of Miss Octavia Mallard, OAM (1872–1939).
– Author of three pamphlets circulated privately among genealogical clubs.
– Regular contributor to The Australasian Linealist.
These modest achievements equip me, I trust, to speak with some authority.
You are here: States of Grace > Evidence