BORN: About 1599
DIED: September 12, 1687/Duxbury

“John Alden was hired for a cooper, at South-hampton where the ship was victuled; and being a hopefull yong man was much desired, but left to his own liking to go, or stay when he came here, but he stayed, and maryed here.”
-William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

John Alden joined the Mayflower in England. At the time, he was about 21 years old. He was a cooper, or barrel-maker, by trade, and hired to provide useful skills on the voyage.

John Alden married Priscilla Mullins, also of the Mayflower. The date of their marriage is not known. They were probably married by 1623 since Priscilla is not listed separately in the 1623 Division of Land. By the 1627 Division of Cattle, they were married and had two children, Elizabeth and John.

The legend of the rivalry between Miles Standish and John Alden for the hand of Priscilla Mullins was first published in Rev. Timothy Alden’s 1814 Collection of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions. The story was popularized in the poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish, published by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1858. There is no documentation for the legend in the records of Plymouth Colony. 

John and Priscilla Mullins Alden had 10 children: Elizabeth, John, Joseph, Sarah, Jonathan, Ruth, Rebecca, Mary, Priscilla, and David.

Alden became one of the Purchasers and Undertakers. He was an Assistant in the Colony government for many years and presided occasionally as deputy governor. He also served as colony treasurer and was a member of committees in charge of revising laws.

John Alden was one of the founders of Duxbury. He owned several pieces of property but seems to have deeded all his real estate to his children during his lifetime. John Alden died intestate (without a will), but we do have an inventory of the property he owned at his death.

For an excellent and readable overview of what is known about John and Priscilla Alden, see Alicia Crane Williams, “John and Priscilla, We Hardly Know Ye,” America History Illustrated, Vol. 23 No. 8 (December 1988). Williams has also done extensive work on Alden’s English background; see “John Alden: Theories on English Ancestry” in The Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 39 No. 2, July 1989.

The Alden homesite in Duxbury contains the excavated foundations of the first Alden home (c1627) as well as the still-standing 1653 Alden House. The homesite was acquired in 1907 by the Alden Kindred of America, comprised of descendants of John and Priscilla Mullins Alden. You can visit the Alden House Museum website here:  www.alden.org

Other sources on the Alden homesite include:

James W. Baker, Harvest of the Years:  The Alden Heritage in Pictures (Aldred Kindred of America, 2008).  Visitors have been making pilgrimages to Duxbury to see where John and Priscilla lived since the 18th century; Baker highlights historical images of the site.

Roland Wells Robbins, Pilgrim John Alden’s Progress: Archaeological Excavations in Duxbury (Pilgrim Society, 1969), focuses on examining the remains of the no-longer-standing house of 1627.

Dorothy Wentworth, The Alden Family in the Alden House (Duxbury Rural & HIstorical Society, 1980), concentrates on the 1653 Alden House and its residents.