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John Alden
Back to the Mayflower Passenger List
| Birth: About 1599, probably Harwich, Essex,
England. |
 Mayflower
Families: John Alden for Four Generations, contains the best,
most thorough and completely researched genealogy on John Alden.
It covers every descendant of John Alden for the first four generations,
to the birth of the fifth generation. More than 750 pages packed
full of genealogical research. Published by the General Society of
Mayflower Descendants.
ORDER NOW! |
| Marriage:
Priscilla Mullins, about 1623,
Plymouth, daughter of William and
Alice Mullins. |
| Death: 12 September 1687, Duxbury. |
| Children: Elizabeth, John, Joseph, Priscilla,
Jonathan, Sarah, Ruth, Mary, Rebecca, and David. |
John Alden appears to have originated from an Alden family residing in
Harwich, Essex, England, that was related by marriage to the
Mayflower's master Christopher Jones. He was about 21 years
old when he was hired to be the cooper, or barrel-maker, for the
Mayflower's voyage to America. He was given the option to stay
in America, or return to England; he decided to stay.
At Plymouth, he quickly rose up from his common seaman status to a
prominent member of the Colony. About 1622 or 1623, he married
Priscilla, the orphaned daughter of William and Alice Mullins.
They had their first child, Elizabeth, around 1624, and would have nine
more children over the next twenty years. John Alden was one of
the earliest freemen in the Colony, and was elected an assistant to the
governor and Plymouth Court as early as 1631, and was regularly
re-elected throughout the 1630s. He also became involved in
administering the trading activities of the Colony on the Kennebec
River, and in 1634 witnessed a trading dispute escalate into a
double-killing, as Moses Talbot of Plymouth Colony was shot at
point-blank range by trespasser John Hocking, who was then shot and
killed when other Plymouth men returned fire. John Alden was held
in custody by the neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony for a few days
while the two colonies debated who had jurisdiction to investigate the
murders. Myles Standish eventually came to the Bay Colony to
provide Plymouth's answer in the matter.
 Alden, and several other
families, including the Standish family, founded the town of Duxbury in
the 1630s and took up residence there. Alden served as Duxbury's
deputy to the Plymouth Court throughout the 1640s, and served on several
committees, including the Committee on Kennebec Trade, and sat on
several Councils of War. He also served as colony treasurer.
In the 1650s, he build the house at left, in Duxbury, which still stands
today. By the 1660s, Alden's frequent public service, combined with his large
family of wife and ten children, began to cause his estate to languish,
so the Plymouth Court provided him a number of land grants and cash
grants to better provide for his family. Throughout the 1670s,
Alden began distributing his land holdings to his surviving sons.
He died in 1687 at the age of 89, one of the last surviving Mayflower
passengers. |
Additional Resources
- Alden Kindred of
America. The Alden Kindred maintains the house (pictured
above) that was built by John
Alden in Duxbury about 1650; the Alden Kindred is also a lineage
society for descendants of John Alden.
-
Mayflower Families: John Alden for Four Generations. The
best, most complete genealogy of John Alden available, covering the
first four generations to the birth of the fifth generation.
Well over 750 pages of pure genealogy, with full source citations.
Published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.
|
Published Research
- Alicia Crane Williams, "John Alden: Theories on English Ancestry,"
Mayflower Descendant 39:111-122; 40:133-136.
- Harry Hollingsworth, "John Alden--Beer Brewer of Windsor?," The
American Genealogist 53(1977):235-240.
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