John Alden
John Alden was an English magistrate, settler, and cooper, best known for being a crew member on the 1620 voyage of the Mayflower which brought the English settlers, commonly known as Pilgrims, to Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He was hired in Southampton, England, as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a member of the ship's crew and not initially a settler, yet he decided to remain in Plymouth Colony when the Mayflower returned to England. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact.
He married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins, whose entire family perished in the first winter in Plymouth Colony. The marriage of the young couple became prominent in Victorian popular culture after the 1858 publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's fictitious narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish. The book inspired widespread depictions of John and Priscilla Alden in art and literature during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Alden was one of Plymouth Colony's most active public servants and played a prominent role in colonial affairs. He was annually elected to the Governor's Council nearly every year from 1640 to 1686. He served as Treasurer of Plymouth Colony, Deputy to the General Court of Plymouth, a member of the colony's Council of War, and a member of the colony's Committee on Kennebec Trade, among other posts.
He was the last surviving signer of the Mayflower Compact upon his death in 1687. The approximate location of his grave in the Myles Standish Burial Ground was marked with a memorial stone in 1930. The site of his first house in Duxbury, Massachusetts is preserved and marked with interpretative signs. The Alden Kindred of America began as a society of John and Priscilla's descendants, and it maintains the Alden House Historic Site in Duxbury, Massachusetts—likely built by Alden's son, Capt. Jonathan Alden.
English origins
Historians and genealogists have advanced many theories to the English origin of John Alden. According to the "American Ancestors" project of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Alden genealogical expert Alicia Crane Williams has called two of the hypothesized origins "tempting"; however, she asserts that none are definitively proven.The only definite primary source evidence regarding Alden's background comes from Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford's history Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford wrote that Alden "was hired for a cooper, at South-Hampton, wher the ship victuled; and being a hopefull yong man, was much desired, but left to his owne liking to go or stay when he came here; but he stayed, and maryed here". Charles Edward Banks states that the employment of Alden "at Southampton" does not necessarily mean that he was a resident of the seaport and may have only been there to work temporarily when the Mayflower arrived.
Banks cited research by certain historians and genealogists who offered theories as to Alden's origin based on inconclusive but possibly relevant evidence. One such theory was proposed by historian and genealogist B. Carlyon-Hughes who found evidence of an Alden family living in Harwich in Essex, England during the 17th century. Harwich is an ancient North Sea port, northeast of London, which was the home port of the ship Mayflower and home of its captain Christopher Jones. Carlyon-Hughes asserted that the Aldens of Harwich were related to Jones and also that a young John Alden of the Harwich Aldens was about the same age as the Mayflower passenger. A prior association with the captain of the Mayflower could account, according to Banks, for Alden joining the crew. Historian George F. Willison subscribed to the Harwich origin theory and wrote that Alden's children "remembered him as tall, blond, and very powerful in physique". Willison, however, offers no specific source material for this description.
Another theory cited by Banks, which he called "a fair presumption", involves a John Alden of Southampton who "may have been the son of George Alden the fletcher, who disappeared—probably dying in that year—leaving John, an orphan, free to take employment overseas. Jane, the widow, may have been his mother and Richard and Avys his grandparents". The tax list of Holyrood Ward, Southampton in 1602 lists the names of George Alden and John's future father-in-law William Mullins. Banks even went so far as to postulate that, if the Alden and Mullins families both originated from Southampton, then perhaps their courtship began in Southampton.
Alicia Crane Williams analyzed these and several other theories in The Mayflower Descendant, a scholarly journal of Pilgrim history and genealogy. She pointed out that some genealogists have connected John Alden of the Mayflower with John Alden, "son and heir of John Alden of Swanscomb, Kent" who obtained a Patent of Arms in 1607. There is no evidence that John Alden of the Mayflower was connected to this family or inherited this coat of arms. Williams states, "This Alden coat of arms was published in the Encyclopædia Britannica and has led many unsuspecting astray."
Voyage of the ''Mayflower''
Alden was hired by Capt. Christopher Jones in Southampton when he was about 21 years old to work as the ship's cooper during the Mayflower's voyage to America. According to historian Nathaniel Philbrick, the colonists encouraged him during the voyage to remain with them in America due to his useful skills as a barrel-maker and carpenter.The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. The 100-foot ship had aboard 102 passengers and a crew of about 20 to 30 in extremely cramped conditions. A lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for months caused illnesses that eventually proved fatal for many, particularly to women and children. There were two deaths during the ocean crossing, a crew member and a passenger.
The ship spotted Cape Cod on November 9, 1620, after about two months at sea. Their original destination had been the mouth of the Hudson River, which was then part of the Colony of Virginia. Capt. Jones made an attempt to round the southern end of Cape Cod, but he lacked an adequate chart of the area known as Pollock's Rip, and the strong currents and dangerous shoals there forced him to turn back. Jones determined that the colonists would have to disembark and settle in New England rather than the Hudson River due to widespread illness aboard ship and dwindling supplies. The Mayflower eventually came to anchor on November 11 in Provincetown Harbor at the northern tip of Cape Cod.
The decision to settle outside of Virginia Colony raised some problems. The group carried a patent which granted authority to their elected leaders and entitled them to establish their own plantation within the bounds of Virginia Colony. They were settling in New England, however, so the patent became irrelevant and some members began to question the authority of their leaders. To settle these questions, the colony's leadership drew up the Mayflower Compact, an agreement that they would work together, acting as "a civil body politic" in obedience to such laws as the colony might enact. The Mayflower Compact was signed by all free male settlers on November 11, the same day that they set anchor at Provincetown. John Alden signed the document, which is an indication that he had already made the decision to remain with the settlers. He was the youngest of the signers and the last survivor.
Establishing Plymouth Colony
After exploring the inner shoreline of Cape Cod, the colonists chose to settle in Plymouth. The site offered a good harbor, several fresh water springs, and a large hill overlooking the harbor suitable for a fort. A tribe known as the Patuxet had settled the site and cleared a large area of land for planting corn. By the time the Mayflower arrived, the Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by plagues, likely as a result of contact with English fishermen.During their first winter in Plymouth, most of the settlers fell ill and half died of disease. Priscilla Mullins lost her entire family—her father William, her mother Alice, and her brother Joseph. The fifty colonists who survived began building a fort atop Burial Hill and small wooden houses on either side of a "street" now known as Leyden Street, named in 1823 after the town in Holland where the Pilgrims lived for several years. A small plot of land at the foot of Burial Hill near the top of the street was designated for John Alden. He built a primitive house in this location and lived there for about seven years with his wife Priscilla and his growing family. The site of Alden's first house in Plymouth was marked in 1930 with a boulder and bronze plaque placed by the Alden Kindred of America. A recreation of this house stands today at Plimoth Patuxet, a living history museum which replicates the original Pilgrim settlement.
Marriage to Priscilla Mullins
The exact date of John Alden's marriage to Priscilla Mullins was not noted in colonial records. According to the Pilgrim Society, it was likely in 1622 as Priscilla Mullins is not listed separately in the 1623 Division of Land. It was either the second or third marriage to take place in the colony.The marriage of the two young colonists has been widely depicted in art and literature primarily due to the extraordinary popularity of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish, published in 1858. The fictionalized story tells of a love triangle involving John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, and Myles Standish. In the story, Standish is too timid to express his feelings to Priscilla Mullins and therefore asks Alden to speak for him. Alden's words of courtship on Standish's behalf prompt Mullins to offer an often-quoted quip, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" The book sold 10,000 copies in London in a single day. In the United States, the story brought the Pilgrims to the forefront of American culture, contributing to the establishment of a national Thanksgiving holiday in 1863. The book made John and Priscilla Alden celebrated figures in American popular culture.
While some historians state that the courtship story is "loosely based" on Alden family oral history, others dismiss it as complete fiction. A brief account of a rivalry between John Alden and Myles Standish for Priscilla's hand was first published in A Collection of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions by Timothy Alden in 1814. Longfellow, therefore, was not the originator of the story but he greatly embellished it. No part of the tale is supported by 17th century documentation. Historian John Goodwin pointed out several anachronisms and inconsistencies, asserting, there was no "reason for believing any part of it."