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John Alden

Male 1599 - 1687  (88 years)


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  • Name John Alden  [1, 2, 3
    Birth 1599  Southampton, Hampshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Gender Male 
    Arrival 1620  Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Death 12 Sep 1687  Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I9448  Master
    Last Modified 26 Jul 2021 

    Father George Alden,   b. 1575, Southampton, Hampshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1620, Southampton, Hampshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 45 years) 
    Mother Jane Fowlk,   b. 1584, , Staffordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 10 Mar 1664, Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 80 years) 
    Family ID F2706  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Priscilla Mullins,   b. 1602, Dorking, Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 5 Feb 1688, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 86 years) 
    Marriage 12 May 1622  Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Elizabeth Alden,   b. 1624, Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 31 May 1717, Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 93 years)
    +2. Joseph Alden,   b. 22 May 1627, Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 8 Feb 1697, Bridgewater, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 69 years)
     3. Sarah Alden,   b. 1629, Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 12 Aug 1674, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 45 years)
    Family ID F2705  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 1599 - Southampton, Hampshire, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsArrival - 1620 - Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 12 May 1622 - Plympton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 12 Sep 1687 - Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Notes 
    • http://mayflowerhistory.com/alden/

      John Alden may be descended from an Alden family that was residing in the parish of Harwich, co. Essex, England: a family that was related, by marriage, to the Mayflower's master Christopher Jones. He was about twenty-one years old when he was hired from Southampton to be the cooper (barrel-maker) for the Mayflower's voyage to America. The Pilgrims' joint-stock company gave him the option to stay in America, or return to England. He chose to stay, and about 1622 or 1623 he married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins, an orphaned young woman originally from Dorking, co. Surrey, England, whose parents William and Alice, and brother Joseph, had all perished in the first winter at Plymouth. A fictional account of John and Priscilla Alden's courtship and its entanglement with Myles Standish, is the subject of the famous Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, "The Courtship of Myles Standish".

      Likely a combination of his practical skills as a cooper and carpenter, and his young wife Priscilla's substantial inheritance of company shares, John Alden quickly rose up to become a prominent member of the Plymouth Colony. He was elected an assistant to the governor as early as 1631 and was regularly reelected. He was one of the men who purchased the joint-stock company from its English shareholders in 1626, and was involved in the company's trading on the Kennebec River. In 1634, he was involved in a fur trading dispute that escalated into a double-killing (trespasser John Hocking and Plymouth colonist Moses Talbot). He was held by the Massachusetts Bay Colony for questioning, which caused a major jurisdictional controversy as Plymouth Colony leadership felt the Bay Colony had no authority to detain him.

      John Alden, along with Myles Standish and several other Plymouth Colonists, founded the town of Duxbury to the north of Plymouth. Dendrochronological evidence suggests the men had started building their houses there as early as 1629. Alden served the town of Duxbury as deputy to the Plymouth Court throughout the 1640s, and served on several committees and sat on several Councils of War. He also served for a time as colony treasurer. About 1653, he built the Alden House, which is still standing and is maintained by the Alden Kindred of America.

      By the 1660s, John and Priscilla Alden had a growing family of ten children. Combined with his numerous public service duties (which were mostly unpaid positions) he was left in fairly low means. He petitioned and received from the Plymouth Court various land grants, which he distributed to his children throughout the 1670s. He died in 1687 at the age of 89, one of the last surviving Mayflower passengers.

  • Sources 
    1. [S137] Gale Research, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.), Place: Massachusetts; Year: 1620; Page Number: 170.
      Birth date: abt 1599Birth place: Arrival date: 1620Arrival place: Massachusetts
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=pili354&h=1451499&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt

    2. [S173] Ancestry.com, Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.).
      Residence date: Residence place: USA
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=locphotos&h=423939&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt

    3. [S174] Signers of the Mayflower Compact.
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=flhg-mayflowercompact&h=409597&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt

    4. [S137] Gale Research, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.), Place: Plymouth, Massachusetts; Year: 1620; Page Number: 25.
      Birth date: abt 1599Birth place: Arrival date: 1620Arrival place: Plymouth, Massachusetts
      http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=pili354&h=3502381&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt