John Alden (1599?-September 22, 1687) was one of the Pilgrims
who emigrated to America in 1620 on the Mayflower and founded the Plymouth
Colony. He was originally hired by William Bradford and others to be their
cooper. Though he could have returned to England the following year, he chose to
stay in the new colony. About 1623 he married Priscilla Mullins, with whom he
had many children. He was one of the first settlers of Duxburrough or
Duxborough, known today as Duxbury, Massachusetts, where he lived for most of
his life. From 1633 until 1675 he was assistant to the governor of the colony,
frequently serving as acting governor and also sat on many juries, including one
of the two witch trials in the Plymouth Colony.
John Alden may have came from Harwich, England where there are records of an
Alden family who were related by marriage to Christopher Jones, the Mayflower's
captain. In this case, he may have been the son of John Alden and Elizabeth
Daye.
At the time of his death, at Duxbury on September 12, 1687, he was the last male
survivor of the signers of the Mayflower Compact of 1620, and with the exception
of Mary Allerton, he was the last survivor of the Mayflower's company.
He is remembered chiefly because of a popular legend, put into verse in 1858 as
The Courtship of Miles Standish by his descendant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
concerning his courtship of Priscilla Mullens, whom he married in 1623 after
having wooed her first on behalf of his friend, Miles Standish. There is no
known historic basis to the legend.
John Alden's house in Duxbury, built in 1653, is open to the public as a museum.
It is run by the Alden Kindred of America, an organization which provides
historical information about him and his home, including genealogical records of
his descendants.
John Alden and his wife Priscilla lie buried in the Miles Standish Burial Ground
in Duxbury MA.
John and Priscilla had the following children who survived to adulthood:
Elizabeth, John, Joseph, Priscilla, Jonathan, Sarah, Ruth, Mary, Rebecca, and
David. They have many thousands of descendants.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a descendant of John Alden, as were John Adams,
John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Roxanna Silva, Marilyn Monroe,
Orson Welles and Evelyn Granger Scharinger.
From Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia 23 Feb 2007
The pictures of John & Priscilla
are constructed and bear no resemblance
to the actual persons.
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