John Alden

John Alden
A conjectural image of John and Priscilla Alden by George Henry Boughton, 1884
Governor's Assistant/Deputy Governor of Plymouth Colony
Personal details
Born	c. 1598 England
Died	September 12, 1687(1687-09-12) (aged 89) Plymouth Colony, America
Spouse	Priscilla Mullins
Children	10
Occupation	Assistant Governor, Deputy Governor, Fur Trader, Cooper
Signature

John Alden (c. 1598 - September 12, 1687)^[1] was a crew member on the historic 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 ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a member of the ship's crew and not a settler, yet he decided to remain in Plymouth Colony when the Mayflower returned to England. He was a 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.^[2]

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 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.