HUSBAND NOTES:
John Alden, b. 1599?, d. Sept. 12, 1687, was one of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to America in the MAYFLOWER, signed the Mayflower Compact, and founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. Thereafter he held various public offices, including that of deputy governor of Massachusetts (1664-65, 1667). The unfounded details of his wooing of fellow Pilgrim Priscilla Mullens (or Molines)--whom he did marry--were the subject of the Henry Wadsworth LONGFELLOW POEM "The Courtship of Miles Standish." The English ship the Mayflower carried the Separatist Puritans, later known as PILGRIMS, to Plymouth, Massachusetts., in 1620. The 180-ton vessel was about 12 years old and had been in the wine trade. It was chartered by John CARVER, a leader of the Separatist congregation at Leiden, Holland, who had gone to London to make arrangements for the voyage to America. The ship was made ready at Southampton with a passenger list that included English Separatists, hired help (among them Myles STANDISH, a professional soldier, and John ALDEN, a cooper), and other colonists who were to be taken along at the insistence of the London businessmen who were helping to finance the expedition. In the meantime the Leiden Separatists, who had initiated the venture, sailed for Southampton on July 22, 1620, with 35 members of the congregation and their leaders William BRADFORD and William BREWSTER aboard the 60-ton Speedwell. Both the Speedwell and the Mayflower, carrying a total of about 120 passengers, sailed from Southampton on August 15, but they were twice forced back by dangerous leaks on the Speedwell. At the English port of Plymouth some of the Speedwell's passengers were regrouped on the Mayflower, and on September 16, the historic voyage began. This time the Mayflower carried 102 passengers, only 37 of whom were from the Leiden congregation, in addition to the crew. The voyage took 65 days, during which two persons died. A boy, Oceanus Hopkins, was born at sea, and another, Peregrine WHITE, was born as the ship lay at anchor off Cape Cod.
The ship came in sight of Cape Cod on November 19 and sailed south. The colonists had been granted territory in Virginia but probably headed for a planned destination near the mouth of the Hudson River. The Mayflower turned back, however, and dropped anchor at Provincetown on November 21. That day 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a "plantation covenant" modeled after a Separatist church covenant, by which they agreed to establish a "Civil Body Politic" (a temporary government) and to be bound by its laws. This agreement was thought necessary because there were rumors that some of the non-Separatists, called "Strangers," among the passengers would defy the Pilgrims if they landed in a place other than that specified in the land grant they had received from the LONDON COMPANY. The compact became the basis of government in the PLYMOUTH COLONY. After it was signed, the Pilgrims elected John Carver their first governor. After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth on Dec. 26, 1620. Although the Mayflower's captain and part-owner, Christopher Jones, had threatened to leave the Pilgrims unless they quickly found a place to land, the ship remained at Plymouth during the first terrible winter of 1620-21, when half of the colonists died. The Mayflower left Plymouth on Apr. 15, 1621, and arrived back in England on May 16. William Bradford's classic account of the Mayflower's voyage does not mention the ship by name, nor does it describe the vessel. In 1926, however, a model was constructed by R. C. Anderson from general information about late-16th-century merchant ships of its tonnage. This model, which is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, gives the ship's dimensions as 90 ft (27.4 m) long, with a 64-ft (19.5-m) keel, 26-ft (7.9-m) beam, and a hold 11 ft (3.4 m) deep. In 1957 a close replica of the Mayflower was sailed from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts., where it is on view (The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia for Macintosh, Release 6).
BIOGRAPHY: Alden, John 1599?-1687 Pilgrim colonist and political figure whose courtship of Priscilla Mullins (born c. 1602) is the subject of a popular legend. John Alden was a passenger on the first ship of 1620 that came to the new world. He was not a Pilgrim but was hired at Southampton as a cooper with the right of staying on this side or returning. He married Priscilla Mullins in 1623, she was the daughter of William Mullins. William Mullins and his wife died the first February after landing. There are 8 children known by name, they are: John b. 1623, Joseph, David, Jonathan, Elizabeth m. 18 Dec 1644 to William Peabody and died 3 May 1717 at age 94, Sarah m. Alexander Standish, Ruth m. 12 May 1657 to John Bass on Braintree, Mary m. Thomas Delano. In Bradford John and Priscilla are living in 1650 and have 11 children and their eldest daughter has 5 children. Of these in May 1627 at the division of cattle only John and Elizabeth are named, so the other 9 must have been born later. John Alden lived most of his days at Duxbury and was Representative in 1641. He was chosen an Assistant for the Colonies in 1633 to Governor Winslow and served 42 years in office to every Governor after Carver. Idly would tradition attempt to magnify his merit as the first to jump upon the rock at Plymouth landing. He was not of the party in the shallop that discovered the harbor but continued on board ship to Cape Cod. He was the last male survivor of the signers of the Mayflower Compact in that harbor on Nov 1620. He died 12 Sep 1687 at age 84 (Genealogical Directory of the First Settlers of New England, p. 27)
!BIOGRAPHY-SPOUSE: The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition copyright 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from InfoSoft International, Inc.
!BIOGRAPHY: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia for Macintosh, Release 6, 1993 Grolier Inc., Cites: Oscar Zeichner Bibliography: Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647, ed. by Samuel E. Morison (1952); Caffrey, Kate, The Mayflower (1974); Colloms, Brenda, The Mayflower Pilgrims (1977); Dexter, Morton, The Story of the Pilgrims (1990); Harris, John, SaGeorgia of the Pilgrims (1990).
!BIOGRAPHY-SPOUSE-CHILDREN: Genealogical Directory of the First Settlers of New England Showing Three Generations of those who came before May 1692 on the basis of farmers register, Volume I, by James Savage, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1990. (page 23), (Tifton Tift County Public Library, Tifton, Georgia.)
!SPOUSE-CHILDREN: Family tree chart prepared by Stanwood E Flitner, Englewood, New Jersey, 1934 for Orlando Nelson Dana and Clara H. Lequin. Copies in possession of Diane Blanton Bargeron and June Blanton.
!SPOUSE-CHILDREN: Broderbund World Family Tree on CD ROM, Volume 2.
!NOTE: Presidents John Adams, John Quincey Adams and Vice President Dan Quayle can be traced back to John Alden.
!MARRIAGE-SPOUSE-BIRTH-DEATH-PARENTS-CHILDREN: GEDCOM FILE "Mayflo2.ged" obtained from America Online genealogy collection.
!Information obtained from Internet site on the history of the Mayflower - http://members.aol.com/calebj/mullins.html. There is no definate proof of the parents of John Alden. Two theories have been presented, both with circumstantial proof.
|