John Alden

For other people named John Alden, see John Alden (disambiguation).
Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882)

John Alden (c.1599–1687)[1] was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Rather than return to England with the ship, he stayed at what became Plymouth Colony. He was hired in Southampton, England, as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. He married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins, whose entire family perished in the first winter.[2] He served in a number of important government positions such as Assistant Governor, Duxbury Deputy to the General Court of Plymouth, Captain Myles Standish's Duxbury militia company, a member of the Council of War, Treasurer of Plymouth Colony, and Commissioner to Yarmouth.[3]

English origins

Coat of Arms of John Alden

His origins are largely subject to speculation, but it is currently believed that he was from the Alden family of Harwich in Essex, England. Harwich is an ancient North Sea port, northeast of London, which was the homeport of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower and home of its captain, Christopher Jones. The Alden family of Harwich had distant connections to Jones, residing there in the 17th century and possibly related to him by marriage. The only certainty about his English background were Bradford's words that Alden “was hired for a cooper, (barrel maker) at Southampton, where the ship victuled; and being a hopeful young man, was much desired, but left to his liking to go or stay when he came here; but he stayed, and maryed here.” Author Charles 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 notes a young John Alden about the same age as the Mayflower passenger was a seafarer in Harwich in the early 17th century,

Banks also reports that John Alden, said to have been born in 1599, residing in Southampton in 1620, may have been the son of George Alden the fletcher (arrow maker), who disappeared – probably dying in that year – leaving John, an orphan, free to take overseas employment. Jane, the widow, may have been his mother and Richard and Avys his grandparents. Records providing information from the tax list of Holyrood Ward in 1602 list the names of George Alden and John's future father-in-law William Mullins.[4][5]

Voyage of the Mayflower

Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899

The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, on September 6/16, 1620. The 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30-40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by westerly gales, causing the ship‘s timbers to be badly shaken with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, lying wet and ill. This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, attributed to what would be fatal for many, especially the majority of women and children. On the way there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger, but the worst was yet to come. After arriving at their destination, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in the cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter.[6]

On November 9/19, 1620, after a month of delays in England and about two months at sea, they spotted the Cape Cod Hook. After several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod Hook, now called Provincetown Harbor, where they anchored on November 11/21. The Mayflower Compact was signed that day.[6][7]

In Plymouth Colony

Rogers Group, depicting the courtship of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins: "Why Don't You Speak for Yourself, John?" (1885)

John Alden was among the original settlers of the Plymouth Colony. Although not himself a Separatist he had been hired to be a cooper (barrel maker) and decided to join the journey when she set sail, perhaps with the hope of becoming prosperous in the New World. Alden's rivalry with Miles Standish for the affection of Priscilla Mullins is told elaborately in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish" (1858).

From 1633 until 1675, he was assistant to the governor of the Plymouth Colony, frequently serving as acting governor and also on many juries.

Dispute of 1634

In 1634, Alden was jailed, in Boston, for a fight at Kenebeck in Maine between members of the Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The fight involved a fur trading dispute that escalated into a killing of Plymouth colonist Moses Talbot by John Hocking by a shot to the head. Hocking was then immediately killed by Plymouth colonists by a shot to the head.[8][9]

While Alden did not participate in the fight, he was the highest-ranking member from Plymouth that the Massachusetts Bay colonists found to arrest. It was only through the intervention of Bradford that he was eventually released.[2]

Family

John Alden married Priscilla Mullins on May 12, 1622. She was the only survivor of the Mayflower Mullins family. They had ten children. Priscilla died in Duxbury between 1651 and her husband's death in 1687. Both were buried in the Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts.[1][2][10] A direct descendant of John was Scott Alden (1907–1977), who served as an assistant to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.[11]

Children of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins

One of the children, Hannah, was the grandmother of John Adams, second President of the United States.

Final days and legacy

Myles Standish Burial Ground, the final resting place of John and Priscilla Alden
John Alden's House, built ca. 1653, in Duxbury, Massachusetts

John Alden was the last survivor of the signers of the Mayflower Compact. He died at Duxbury[12] on September 12, 1687. He left no will, having disposed most of his real estate during his lifetime. Both he and his wife Priscilla lie buried in the Myles Standish Burial Ground.

The Alden residence is also in Duxbury, on the north side of the village, on a farm which is still in possession of their descendants of the seventh generation. He made no will, having distributed the greater part of his estate among his children during his lifetime.[13]

John Alden's House, now a National Historic Landmark, was built in 1653 and 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 and Priscilla had the following children who survived to adulthood: Elizabeth, John (accused during the Salem witch trials), Joseph, Priscilla, Robert, Jonathan, Sarah, Ruth, Mary, Rebecca, and David. They have the most descendants today of all the pilgrim families.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A genealogical profile of John Alden, (A collaboration between Plymouth Plantation and New England Historic Genealogical Society)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Robert Charles Anderson, Pilgrim Village Family Sketch of John Alden (A collaboration between American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society)
  3. ↑ Society of Colonial Dames, 1897; Section 75.
  4. ↑ Eugene Aubrey Stratton. Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 232–233.
  5. ↑ Charles Edward Banks, The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers: who came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne and the Little James in 1623 (Baltimore, MD.:Genealogical Publishing Co., 2006) pp. 27–28.
  6. 1 2 Eugene Aubrey Stratton. Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), p. 413.
  7. ↑ George Ernest Bowman, The Mayflower Compact and its signers, (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1920). Photocopies of the 1622, 1646 and 1669 versions of the document pp. 7–19.
  8. ↑ http://mayflowerhistory.com/alden/
  9. ↑ Johnson, Caleb. Of Plymouth Plantation: Along with the full text of the Pilgrims' journals for their first year at Plymouth. p. 577. ISBN 9781462822386.
  10. ↑ Memorial for John Alden
  11. ↑ "Former Aide to Hoover Burial Slated Today". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. December 14, 1977. p. 24. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  12. ↑ Duxbury, in other records, a.k.a. Duxburrough, Duxborough, Duxboro.
  13. ↑ Alden 1867, p. 2.
  14. ↑ Alden, Ebenezer. "Memorial of the Descendants of the Hon. John Alden". S.P. Brown, 1867 p. 1.

Sources

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Alden, John.
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