John Alden

John Alden ( – September 12, 1687) was an English cooper and later colonial magistrate, best known for being one of the passengers on the 1620 voyage of the Mayflower which brought the English settlers, commonly known as Pilgrims, to Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He was hired in Southampton, England, as the settlers' cooper, responsible for making and maintaining the barrels that the colony would need. He was on Governor Bradford's list of settlers and was one of the original signers of the Mayflower Compact. He had the choice to return to England but decided to remain in Plymouth Colony and married there. He was the seventh and last surviving signatory to the Mayflower Compact.

He married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins, whose entire family perished in the first winter in Plymouth Colony. The marriage of the young couple became prominent in Victorian popular culture after the 1858 publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's fictitious narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish. The book inspired widespread depictions of John and Priscilla Alden in art and literature during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Alden was one of Plymouth Colony's most active public servants and played a prominent role in colonial affairs. He was annually elected to the Governor's Council nearly every year from 1640 to 1686. He served as Treasurer of Plymouth Colony, Deputy to the General Court of Plymouth, a member of the colony's Council of War, and a member of the colony's Committee on Kennebec Trade, among other posts.

He was the last surviving signer of the Mayflower Compact upon his death in 1687. The approximate location of his grave in the Myles Standish Burial Ground was marked with a memorial stone in 1930. The site of his first house in Duxbury, Massachusetts is preserved and marked with interpretative signs. The Alden Kindred of America began as a society of John and Priscilla's descendants, and it maintains the Alden House Historic Site in Duxbury, Massachusetts—likely built by Alden's son, Capt. Jonathan Alden.

English origins alt=Line drawing of a man in antiquated clothing holding a hammer in one hand and with many large hoops held over his shoulder. He has several tools of his trade at his feet and on his belt Historians and genealogists have advanced many theories to the English origin of John Alden. According to the "American Ancestors" project of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Alden genealogical expert Alicia Crane Williams has called two of the hypothesized origins "tempting"; however, she asserts that none are definitively proven.

The only definite primary source evidence regarding Alden's background comes from Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford's history Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford wrote that Alden "was hired for a cooper, at South-Hampton, wher the ship victuled; and being a hopefull yong man, was much desired, but left to his owne liking to go or stay when he came here; but he stayed, and maryed here". Charles Edward Banks states that the employment of Alden "at Southampton" does not necessarily mean that he was a resident of the seaport and may have been there to work only temporarily when the Mayflower arrived.

Banks cited research by certain historians and genealogists who offered theories as to Alden's origin based on inconclusive but possibly relevant evidence. One such theory was proposed by historian and genealogist B. Carlyon-Hughes who found evidence of an Alden family living in Harwich in Essex, England during the 17th century. Harwich is an ancient North Sea port, northeast of London, which was the home port of the ship Mayflower and home of its captain Christopher Jones. Carlyon-Hughes asserted that the Aldens of Harwich were related to Jones and also that a young John Alden of the Harwich Aldens was about the same age as the Mayflower passenger. A prior association with the captain of the Mayflower (although not definitively proven) could account, according to Banks, for Alden joining the crew. Historian George F. Willison subscribed to the Harwich origin theory and wrote that Alden's children "remembered him as tall, blond, and very powerful in physique". Willison, however, offers no specific source material for this description.

Another theory cited by Banks, which he called "a fair presumption", involves a John Alden of Southampton who "may have been the son of George Alden the fletcher, who disappeared—probably dying in that year—leaving John, an orphan, free to take employment overseas. Jane, the widow, may have been his mother and Richard and Avys his grandparents". The tax list of Holyrood Ward, Southampton in 1602 lists the names of George Alden and John's future father-in-law William Mullins. Banks even went so far as to postulate that, if the Alden and Mullins families both originated from Southampton, then perhaps their courtship began in Southampton.

Alicia Crane Williams analyzed these and several other theories in The Mayflower Descendant, a scholarly journal of Pilgrim history and genealogy. She pointed out that some genealogists have connected John Alden of the Mayflower with John Alden, "son and heir of John Alden of Swanscomb, Kent" who obtained a Patent of Arms in 1607. There is no evidence that John Alden of the Mayflower was connected to this family or inherited this coat of arms. Williams states, "This Alden coat of arms was published in the Encyclopædia Britannica and has led many unsuspecting [genealogists] astray."

Voyage of the Mayflower

The Mayflower Compact 1620: an 1899 painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris depicts John Alden signing the document. alt=A group of men in antiquated clothing gathered around a desk in a ship's cabin with one woman looking on. A large piece of paper is on the desk and one man is signing. Alden was hired by Capt. Christopher Jones in Southampton when he was about 21 years old to work as the ship's cooper during the Mayflower's voyage to America.

Notable Descendants

Notable descendants include:

John Adams, 2nd President of the United States John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States and son of John Adams, the 2nd President of the United States Benedict Cumberbatch, British Actor Jodie Foster, American actress and filmmaker Edward Snowden, North American whistleblower and privacy spokesperson