“I would not wish any companion in the world but you.”
– William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Sometime during the summer of 1620, while the Mayflower lay at anchor in Southampton harbor awaiting the repairs for its sister ship the Speedwell, the ship’s captain Christopher Jones hired an additional crewmember: John Alden. He was twenty-one years old.
Alden, who was said to have been a man of “most excellent form with a fair and ruddy complexion”, was hired on as the ship’s cooper. Whether the captain was replacing its previous cooper or adding a new position is not known but, in the age of sail, ships commonly employed coopers on long voyages to maintain the many storage containers aboard. Barrels of food, water and beer that sustained passengers and crew. Casks that held supplies and cargo of different shapes and sizes to accommodate the sloping hull (and maximize use of limited space). Buckets and other watertight vessels used for ship maintenance.
Alden’s origins are undocumented, but there are two prominent theories. The first, based on anecdotal evidence, suggests he and the ship captain were both from Harwich, the Mayflower’s home port, and knew each other and possibly were even distant relations. An alternative theory, however, contends John was from an Alden family residing in Southampton itself. If so, John could have been the son of George Alden, who is thought to have died that year but was previously listed on the tax rolls of Southampton’s Holyrood Ward along with the name of another Mayflower passenger, William Mullins.
William Mullins, a shoemaker, had hundreds of pairs of shoes and boots in the hold of the Mayflower, presumably to trade with the natives. He traveled with his wife Alice, their teenage son Joseph, and one of three children from William’s first marriage, an eighteen-year-old daughter named Priscilla. Whether the Aldens and Mullins actually knew each other prior to the voyage, much less whether is was William Mullins who introduced John Alden to the captain, is the subject of speculation.
The only thing known for certain on the subject is what was recorded years later by William Bradford, who wrote Alden “being a hopeful young man, was much desired, but left to his own liking to go or stay when he came here.” By default Alden was a member of the crew, though, and would return to England with the Mayflower after depositing the company of settlers.
Little is certain about John Alden’s activities during the voyage, nor how he contributed during those first weeks ashore in November, 1620. As part of the ship’s crew, Alden likely did not take part in the expeditions to identify a suitable location for the colony. Given his woodworking skills, however, it seems plausible he would have been called to assist the ship’s carpenter whenever he was not otherwise engaged, and in that capacity he would have likely helped with the large task of re-assembling the Mayflower’s shallop, the small sailing vessel used by the company to ferry men and supplies along the coast, which had to be broken down and stored between decks during the sea crossing.
By the time the company settled on the site that is now Plymouth, it was the end of December. The cold winter was upon them, with strong winds off the sea and frequent rain and snow. The Mayflower remained their only refuge from the elements, but almost any movement between ship and shore required wading through the freezing surf. Almost everyone had a horrific cough and many began to fall more seriously ill. At least six died before the month was out, with another seventeen during January.
One of the last fatalities in January was Rose, the wife of Myles Standish, the company’s military captain. Her death is recorded as 29 January, 1621. Thankfully they had no children. In a very short time after his wife’s death, legend has it the widower Captain Standish set his eyes on Miss Priscilla, the daughter of Mr. William Mullins.
Priscilla was much younger than Standish, but then again, Priscilla was the only single woman of marriageable age. The custom of those times was to ask the father’s permission prior to any overt act of courtship. According to some, Standish was not nearly as courageous brandishing his heart in front of women as he was brandishing arms in front of men, and he determined to send a messenger with his request to Mr. Mullins. And again for reasons unknown, Standish chose the ship’s cooper, John Alden, as the messenger.
Standish might have chosen Alden because of the cooper’s common roots with the Mullins in Southampton. Or it is possible they were simply friends. Alden signed the Mayflower Compact just after Standish, and by some reports Alden bunked with the Standishes in those first weeks ashore. By all reports they were quite different men, however. Standish was small and hot-tempered. Alden was larger and more circumspect.
However Standish came to the decision, it proved to be a mistake. He should have chosen someone else.
John Alden went and faithfully communicated the wishes of the captain to Mr. Mullins. The old gentleman did not object, as he might have done on account of the recency of Captain Standish’s bereavement. But he did say the young lady must also be consulted.
Priscilla was called into the room. John Alden arose and in a very courteous and prepossessing manner delivered his errand. Miss Mullins listened with respectful attention. At last, after a considerable pause, she fixed her eyes upon him and, with an open and pleasant countenance, she said “Prithee, John, why do you not speak for yourself?”
At which point John Alden is said to have blushed and bowed and took his leave with some haste, but “with a look which indicated more than his diffidence would permit him otherwise to express“. What he reported back to Standish is not known but soon after he is said to have renewed his visit and, later that spring, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins were married.
Or so the story goes according to Alden family oral tradition, which was written down by Timothy Alden in 1812 and later immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1858 poem The Courtship of Myles Standish.
Quite possibly none of it is factually correct, and even if it is these romanticized tales omit any mention of the desperate conditions the malnourished and sickly participants would have been acting in. William Mullins died within weeks of Rose Standish, and would have been very weak during any such visit. By early April Priscilla’s stepmother and brother were also dead, leaving her an orphan on the continent (but with two siblings still in England). There was certainly more sadness and fear than any romantic tale should have.
What is known for certain, however, is that when the Mayflower left for England on April 5th, 1621, John Alden wasn’t on it. And by all accounts he and Priscilla were married by early 1622.
They became a prominent couple in the colony. John held numerous government positions, where he often dedicated time at the expense of his own fortunes. Priscilla is said to have seen to the welfare of the women in the colony, most of whom came later. Thanks in no small part to her assertiveness, they enjoyed a level of (relative) equality with men not seen in Europe until many years later.
Little is known for certain, but many believe the couple’s early romance lasted a long lifetime. John was the last surviving signer of the Mayflower Compact. Priscilla lived just as long. When decades later a venerable John Alden attended the funeral of Josiah Winslow in 1680, Priscilla was on his arm.
In all they had eleven children, all of whom lived to adulthood. One of their many descendants was Mabel’s grandfather George Grinnell.
Final note: Some historians have wondered whether Standish ever held a grudge. If he did, it does not appear to have been a lasting one. Standish was remarried by 1624 and had seven children of his own, and together with Alden founded Duxbury, the first town established outside of Plymouth.
Wicked Moxie 
Wicked cool!
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